Enersee

Smart meters are everywhere, yet people stay disengaged from their energy use. The problem isn't missing data; it's that raw kilowatt-hours mean nothing. Enersee makes consumption visible again by answering three questions: how much you use, what you use it for, and where it comes from.

Exisiting systems drown users in kWh with no baselines (is 50 kWh good?), no link to specific devices, no notification on when action needed. The main design motivation then has become achieving the energy awareness that is comparative and actionable, not just accurate.

The primary persona is a cost-driven household decision-maker who wants clear ROI on behaviour changes. That shaped the needs: a simple glanceable interface, use-case tips (e.g., when to run the dishwasher, what consumes the most energy), clear cost timing, and consumption made efficient through visualization.

To keep every screen consistent, I built EnerSee as a system first. A near-black canvas carries precise signals; energy lime for primary action, electric blue for passive data, and dedicated success / warning / risk colours. On top of that: a spacing and radius scale, an expressive-metric type pairing (Lato display, Montserrat body), and a full kit of controls, status badges, card and data patterns, and outlined icons.

Early prototypes failed testing ambiguous icons, baselines without context, actions buried three taps deep. The lesson was blunt: more data isn't more understanding, and the most important thing has to be visible immediately.

Round 1 (N=4, think-aloud) exposed the icon and hierarchy problems. We made three fixes labelled categories instead of icons, a prominent comparison card (green down / red up), and recommendations reordered by impact with estimated savings. Round 2 (N=3) showed higher completion, lower time-on-task, and clearer subjective feedback.

A dark, corporate Material-Design aesthetic fits the persona; colour is used sparingly and meaningfully (green = good, red = alert). Four features carry it: a dashboard with cost and comparison, a device breakdown, prioritised insights, and annotated historical trends the key number always visible without a tap.

A concept project, measured in insight: comparative baselines beat isolated numbers, actionable recommendations beat passive displays, and behaviour change needs ongoing engagement not a one-time data dump.