Solarhive
9 mins read
Helping Users Join and Save with Community Solar
Timeline
8 Weeks
( September 2023 - October 2023 )
My Role
Product Designer
Responsibilities
UX Research
0-1 Product Flows
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Tools
Figma
FigJam
Adobe Creative Suite
Notion
Overview
SolarHive, a product concept that makes it easier for renters and homeowners without suitable rooftops to access solar energy through Community Solar.
I led the market research, user interviews, and expert consultation to identify challenges and opportunities for solar adoption. Then I helped translate these insights into a clear design direction, which finally evolved into SolarHive.
We then prototyped key flows and the design in Figma, and then validated them through usability testing to refine our final product.
The Problem
Solar Energy is great, but it’s out of reach for many
Despite growing interest, solar energy is inaccessible to many households as they cannot install rooftop panels due to cost, rental constraints, or unsuitable roofs. There are alternatives like Community Solar, but they lack visibility and easy access.
These are the challenges we started with while designing a solution
01
How might we help users harness solar energy easily?
02
How might we help users discover and understand Community Solar?
03
How might we help users save money on bills and track their savings?
Our Solution
A simpler way to go Solar
SolarHive is an end-to-end community solar platform that lets anyone subscribe to local solar farms, earn credits on their utility bill, and track environmental impact.
No installation. No ownership required.
Below is a feature breakdown.
Initial Problem Discovery
Indiana’s reliance on fossil fuels
This project started in our Interaction Design Practice class, where my team chose to tackle UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy. We chose to work on renewable energy access, especially solar energy, after finding that it only makes up about ~3% of Indiana's electricity generation (EIA, 2024).
Desk Research
Solar adoption remains low
Our desk research revealed us why.
Alternative
What is Community Solar?
While researching, we also discovered a model called Community Solar, and this is how it works.
1
Solar Farms Generate Clean Energy
A local solar farm produces electricity and sends it to the power grid.
User Research
Hearing directly from the people
Community Solar could actually solve all of our problems, but if it already exists, why aren't more people using it?
To find out, we spoke directly with the people we were designing for.
We Spoke To
Individual Homeowners
Renters
Apartment Managers
Key Findings
Insights that emerged
After using Affinity Mapping to analyze the interview data, these are the major findings that came out:
User Research
We asked the experts
We also spoke with an Energy Expert from AES Indiana, one of the state's largest utility providers. What they shared made a lot of things click.
Qoute
"We don’t really push community solar because there’s no profit in it for us, and most of people don’t even know it exists."
Energy Expert, AES Indiana
design direction
How Might We Make Community Solar Seem Easy And Approachable So People Can Find Local Options, Learn About The Benefits, And Join With Confidence?
User Persona
Defining the user
We developed a persona based on our research with renters and homeowners in Indiana who want sustainable energy options but lack awareness of community solar. Maya represents this target group.
Middle School Teacher
Rents an Apartment
Indianapolis, IN
Bio
Maya cares about the environment and wants to lower her electricity bill. She recently started looking into solar, but found it expensive, confusing, and clearly not made for renters. She’s willing to take action, but only if it’s simple, affordable, and easy to trust.
Goals
Save money on her energy bill
Support clean energy in a way that works for her
Pain Points
Surprised by the high cost of rooftop solar
Gets confused by scattered info about community solar
Doesn’t know who to contact or how to get started
Qoute
User Journey
Walking in Their Shoes
We also mapped out Maya's user journey trying to switch to solar without SolarHive to identify where users get confused and give up. This showed us specific pain points that we needed to solve in our design.
Low-fidelity Wireframes
Early sketches
We then drew some sketches exploring how SolarHive could address these pain points, with core user flows and features beginning to take shape.
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
Structuring the Experience
We then developed mid-fidelity wireframes to map out the core experience. Here we defined the layout and navigation for tasks like exploring solar farms and redeeming credits. These wireframes ensured our UX addressed Maya's needs in terms of usability and functionality.
Moodboard
Moodboard
Next, we created a moodboard by analyzing apps that focused on energy saving and sustainability to understand how they used color, layout, icons and tone to build trust and convey impact. This helped our visual direction to feel clean, modern, and approachable.
Solarhive
10h
Helping You Join
Community Solar, Simply
Clear and guided access to local solar farms.
SolarHive
Check Eligibility
Takes less than
4 Minutes
SF Pro Display
#A9EA96
#50A434
#FFFFFF
#000000
+10,000 Hoosiers
exploring Solar
Usability Testing
Testing with real users
Once we had our mid-fidelity prototype, we tested it with 5 users and ran heuristic evaluations using Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics.
We asked users to complete two key tasks:
Getting on-boarded on the app, which includes finding and subscribing to a solar plan.
Redeem earned solar credits.
Usability Insights
What we found
Our testing highlighted various areas of improvements. Some of them were:
Users wanted to see plan and farm details before linking their utility account.
The concept of solar credits was confusing, and users wanted it explained more clearly.
Some users wanted to test the app without connecting their utility accounts.
There was no confirmation after redeeming credits, which made users nervous about their money.
Looking Back
What I'm Proud of
Many people told us they wanted clean energy but felt held back by few barriers. When we discovered Community Solar which overcame these barriers, hardly anyone had heard of it or knew how to get started. To understand why, we conducted thorough research, analysis, brainstorm sessions, and after multiple iterations, we finalized our design.
This project reminded me why I enjoy designing so much. Sometimes a design might not completely solve a problem, but it can give users the confidence to get started. And I am hopeful that our product will help users do this, leading to more future adoption of community solar throughout Indiana.
Lookng Ahead
What I’d Do Differently
If I could do this project again, I would:
Spend more time with low-income users to understand their unique concerns about switching to solar.
Test the concept earlier with real utility bills to see how people interpret credits and savings in context.
Talk to more utility providers to understand their perspective as well as cover larger area.
Conclusion
What's Next?
While I’m extremely proud of how this project turned out, there’s still a lot more I’d like to work on.
Particularly, I’d like to focus on:
Work more on the energy tracking features and reach out to more utlity providers for scalability.
Integrate live data feeds from farms so users can see credits and impact in real time.
Add features that show collective impact and let users set personal climate goals to keep them engaged long-term.
