Solar Avori - Renewable App
Company:RES (RES is the world's largest independent renewable energy company)
Role:Design Lead
Project duration:6 months
Design team size:
2 designers
Skills:
User research, prototyping and user testing
Output & impact: Fully working product
Summary/context
RES had Helio, a technical platform for engineers, but no solution for portfolio managers, which created a significant service gap in our offerings. Competitors already offered integrated solutions spanning technical operations to executive strategy. This project developed a strategic management platform translating asset performance data into executive-level intelligence, completing RES's end-to-end offering.
Project phases
Research questions
Research goals
Challenges
Approach
Deliverables & impact
Research questions
- What information enables portfolio managers to assess asset performance strategically?
- What communication patterns and terminology do managers use with stakeholders?
- How should strategic insights connect to technical data in AEMo?
Research goals
- Define portfolio manager personas and mental models
- Map information needs across decision-making scenarios
- Identify current workarounds and inefficiencies
- Understand integration requirements between management and technical systems
Challenges
- Constraint: No access to external customers during research phase.
- Response: Recruited internal RES portfolio managers with equivalent roles. Triangulated findings through competitive analysis and validated assumptions during usability testing to mitigate insider bias.
- Additional Complexity: Bridging strategic and technical mental models required careful information architecture serving managers whilst maintaining connection to engineering data.
Approach
User Interviews
(6 internal portfolio managers) Semi-structured interviews using task scenarios, mental model mapping, and critical incident technique. Thematic analysis with affinity mapping.
Benchmarking
Heuristic evaluation of 4 competitor platforms focused on information hierarchy, customisation, and alert management.
Standards Identified:
- Status-driven dashboards, customisable KPIs, comparative performance views (asset vs portfolio average vs targets).ternal portfolio managers)
- Semi-structured interviews using task scenarios, mental model mapping, and critical incident technique. Thematic analysis with affinity mapping.
Critical findings
- 100% expected customisable dashboards matching portfolio composition
- Visual scanning followed F-pattern—alerts required top-left priority
- 80% compared assets before individual deep-dive (unanticipated workflow)
- Terminology testing revealed preference for "asset health" over "performance status"
Deliverables
- Complete wireframe system covering 12 core user journeys
- Validated interaction patterns with documented usability test results
- Responsive design specifications including state changes and error handling
- Research repository with persona documentation and design rationale
- Integration requirements document for AEMo connectivity
Impact
- Market Position: Completed RES's end-to-end offering, addressing competitive disadvantage
- Operational Efficiency: Reduced portfolio assessment from hours (manual aggregation) to minutes (automated dashboards)
- Customer Value: Multi-level platform serves both technical and executive stakeholders, increasing retention potential
- Validation: Post-launch feedback confirmed research approach: "Finally a tool that speaks our language"
