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Avishkar Shinde

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UI/UX Design (Mobile, Tablet, Web)

Interaction Design

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SolarHive

Helping Users Join and Save with Community Solar

7 min read

Timeline

September 2023 - October 2023

Team

1 UX Researcher

1 UI Designer

1 Product Design Lead

My Role

Product Design

UX Research

Prototyping

Usability Testing

Tools

Figma

FigJam

Adobe CS

Notion

Overview

I led the design and direction of SolarHive, a product concept that makes it easier for renters and homeowners without suitable rooftops to harness solar energy through Community Solar.

I oversaw 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 interests, solar energy remains inaccessible for many people. Most U.S. households can't install rooftop solar due to cost, rental constraints, or unsuitable roofs. There are other options like Community Solar, but they are lack visibility and user-friendly access.

We saw an opportunity here to make solar energy accessible without any installations or huge upfront costs.

Our Solution

A simpler way to go solar

SolarHive makes community solar easy to access and understand.

Users can subscribe to local solar farms, receive bill credits from their share of energy, and track savings and impact, all through the app.

This is how it works:

Step 1

Discover Local
Solar Farms

Rent panels from nearby community solar farms.

Farm 1

Greenwood, IN

View Details

Farm 2

Brownsburg, IN

Farm 3

Carmel, IN

Proceed (Farm 1 Selected)

Step 2

subscribe
to a plan

Compare plans and choose the one that fits your usage.

Monthly

Yearly

$19.99/Mo

Essential Plan

$9.99/Mo

Saver Plan

$29.99/Mo

Premium Plan

Select Plan

$19.99/Mo

Essential Plan

Recommended

150-200Kwh

Estimated Monthly Energy Production

4 Panels

Solar Panels Included in the plan

15%

Estimated Savings on Electricity Bill

Recommended

Farm 1

Greenwood, IN

10000 KwH

Energy Production

10$/Panel

Monthly Cost

01

Find Solar Farms Near You

Browse local community solar farms, see details like cost per panel, energy output, and pick one that fits your energy needs and budget.

02

Link Your Utility Account

Connect your utility account so we can analyze your energy consumption, recommend plans and apply credits to your bill.

03

Compare Plans

Compare plans by energy output, included panels, and estimated savings. You can also see how much energy your plan generates over time.

04

Earn bill Credits

Once enrolled, earn solar credits based on your farm's energy generation. Redeem these credits to reduce your utility bill.

05

Track Your Impact

Monitor your environmental impact including emissions reduced, energy offset, and trees planted equivalent.

Initial Problem Discovery

Indiana’s Reliance on Fossil Fuels

For our final project of INFO-H 541 Interaction Design Practice, we decided to tackle the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 of Affordable and Clean Energy.

We chose to focus on renewable energy access, especially solar energy, after discovering that it only makes up about 3% of Indiana's electricity generation (EIA, 2024).

Sources of electricity generation in Indiana (GWh, 2024)

Desk Research

Why solar adoption remains low

Our desk research revealed that despite growing interest:

50%

of U.S. homes can’t install rooftop solar due to cost, roof issues, or rental status.

Source:

National Renewable Energy Lab

73%

of Americans agree solar is a smart investment, but lack of knowledge stops them from taking action.

Source:

FranklinWH Energy Surve

Alternative

What is Community Solar?

While researching, we also discovered this promising model called Community Solar.

This is how it works:

1

Solar Farms Generate Clean Energy

A local solar farm produces electricity and sends it to the power grid.

2

You Pay for a Share of the Panels

As a subscriber, you pay to receive energy from a specific number of panels at the farm.

3

Credits Show Up on Your Utility Bill

You earn credits on your utility bill based on the amount of energy your share produces each month.

User Research

Hearing directly from the people

On paper, Community Solar felt like a perfect solution to the problems we identified. But if it 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

What we wanted to learn

How do people feel about solar energy?

What barriers stop them from taking action?

Have they heard of community solar? Do they understand it?

Key Findings

Insights that emerged

After using Affinity Mapping to analyze the interview data, these are the major findings that came out:

82%

participants had no idea what community solar was.

64%

participants didn’t trust that solar would actually save them money.

73%

found solar marketing too technical and hard to understand.

100%

renters felt excluded because they didn’t own the property.

72%

of homeowners and managers gave up due to cost and complexity.

82%

users had no idea what community solar was.

64%

users didn’t trust that solar would actually save them money.

73%

found solar messaging too technical and hard to relate to.

100%

renters felt excluded because they didn’t own the property.

72%

of homeowners and managers gave up due to cost and complexity.

User Research

We asked the expert

We also spoke with an Energy Expert from AES Indiana.

They said:

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

As a result, even though the model works in other states, it’s still not a mainstream option in Indiana.

research Summary

We found the issue wasn't lack of interest. It was lack of clarity, access and trust. Almost all of our interviewees said going Solar was complex and costly. And very few were aware of community solar.

Instead of designing to convince more people to go solar, we decided to focus on bridging the gap between people and community solar. If we could make it easy to understand, trust, and join a community solar program, it could also spark more public interest, which could eventually help bring community solar into focus in 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.

Maya Patel, 27

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

Find a solar option that doesn’t require owning a home

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

"I want to do my part for the environment, but I always thought solar wasn’t really an option for someone like me."

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.

Starting

Decides to look into solar energy after seeing rising bills and reading about climate change.

"It’s time to finally do something about this."

Starting

Decides to look into solar energy after seeing rising bills and reading about climate change.

"It’s time to finally do something about this."

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

Typography

SF Pro Display

Color Palette

#A9EA96

#50A434

#FFFFFF

#000000

+10,000 Hoosiers

exploring Solar

www.solarhive.app

Simple Solar Access for Everyone

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.

SolarHive

Get started

Already have an account? Log In

Restart Prototype

Close

Prototype

Test it yourself

Based on these findings, we refined our high-fidelity prototype. Here is our final prototype with the updated flows :

to navigate the prototype.

Restart Prototype

Close

to restart the prototype.

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.

Pssst, you've reached the end… but how about one more read?

Work

Toyota Mobility Foundation

Logistics Optimization

Work

Indiana University

Motion Design

Academic

Spotify

Social UX

Back to Top
1Problem
2Solution
3Research
4User Flows
5Design
6Testing
7Prototype
8Conclusion
1Problem

Change Theme

SolarHive

Helping Users Join and Save with Community Solar

7 min read

Timeline

September 2023 - October 2023

Team

1 UX Researcher

1 UI Designer

1 Product Design Lead

My Role

Product Design

UX Research

Prototyping

Usability Testing

Tools

Figma

FigJam

Adobe CS

Notion

Overview

I led the design and direction of SolarHive, a product concept that makes it easier for renters and homeowners without suitable rooftops to harness solar energy through Community Solar.

I oversaw 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 interests, solar energy remains inaccessible for many people. Most U.S. households can't install rooftop solar due to cost, rental constraints, or unsuitable roofs. There are other options like Community Solar, but they are lack visibility and user-friendly access.

We saw an opportunity here to make solar energy accessible without any installations or huge upfront costs.

Our Solution

A simpler way to go solar

SolarHive makes community solar easy to access and understand.

Users can subscribe to local solar farms, receive bill credits from their share of energy, and track savings and impact, all through the app.

This is how it works:

Step 1

Discover Local
Solar Farms

Rent panels from nearby community solar farms.

Farm 1

Greenwood, IN

View Details

Farm 2

Brownsburg, IN

Farm 3

Carmel, IN

Proceed (Farm 1 Selected)

Step 2

subscribe
to a plan

Compare plans and choose the one that fits your usage.

Monthly

Yearly

$19.99/Mo

Essential Plan

$9.99/Mo

Saver Plan

$29.99/Mo

Premium Plan

Select Plan

$19.99/Mo

Essential Plan

Recommended

150-200Kwh

Estimated Monthly Energy Production

4 Panels

Solar Panels Included in the plan

15%

Estimated Savings on Electricity Bill

Recommended

Farm 1

Greenwood, IN

10000 KwH

Energy Production

10$/Panel

Monthly Cost

01

Find Solar Farms Near You

Browse local community solar farms, see details like cost per panel, energy output, and pick one that fits your energy needs and budget.

02

Link Your Utility Account

Connect your utility account so we can analyze your energy consumption, recommend plans and apply credits to your bill.

03

Compare Plans

Compare plans by energy output, included panels, and estimated savings. You can also see how much energy your plan generates over time.

04

Earn bill Credits

Once enrolled, earn solar credits based on your farm's energy generation. Redeem these credits to reduce your utility bill.

05

Track Your Impact

Monitor your environmental impact including emissions reduced, energy offset, and trees planted equivalent.

Initial Problem Discovery

Indiana’s Reliance on Fossil Fuels

For our final project of INFO-H 541 Interaction Design Practice, we decided to tackle the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 of Affordable and Clean Energy.

We chose to focus on renewable energy access, especially solar energy, after discovering that it only makes up about 3% of Indiana's electricity generation (EIA, 2024).

Sources of electricity generation in Indiana (GWh, 2024)

Desk Research

Why solar adoption remains low

Our desk research revealed that despite growing interest:

50%

of U.S. homes can’t install rooftop solar due to cost, roof issues, or rental status.

Source:

National Renewable Energy Lab

73%

of Americans agree solar is a smart investment, but lack of knowledge stops them from taking action.

Source:

FranklinWH Energy Surve

Alternative

What is Community Solar?

While researching, we also discovered this promising model called Community Solar.

This is how it works:

1

Solar Farms Generate Clean Energy

A local solar farm produces electricity and sends it to the power grid.

2

You Pay for a Share of the Panels

As a subscriber, you pay to receive energy from a specific number of panels at the farm.

3

Credits Show Up on Your Utility Bill

You earn credits on your utility bill based on the amount of energy your share produces each month.

User Research

Hearing directly from the people

On paper, Community Solar felt like a perfect solution to the problems we identified. But if it 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

What we wanted to learn

How do people feel about solar energy?

What barriers stop them from taking action?

Have they heard of community solar? Do they understand it?

Key Findings

Insights that emerged

After using Affinity Mapping to analyze the interview data, these are the major findings that came out:

82%

participants had no idea what community solar was.

64%

participants didn’t trust that solar would actually save them money.

73%

found solar marketing too technical and hard to understand.

100%

renters felt excluded because they didn’t own the property.

72%

of homeowners and managers gave up due to cost and complexity.

82%

users had no idea what community solar was.

64%

users didn’t trust that solar would actually save them money.

73%

found solar messaging too technical and hard to relate to.

100%

renters felt excluded because they didn’t own the property.

72%

of homeowners and managers gave up due to cost and complexity.

User Research

We asked the expert

We also spoke with an Energy Expert from AES Indiana.

They said:

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

As a result, even though the model works in other states, it’s still not a mainstream option in Indiana.

research Summary

We found the issue wasn't lack of interest. It was lack of clarity, access and trust. Almost all of our interviewees said going Solar was complex and costly. And very few were aware of community solar.

Instead of designing to convince more people to go solar, we decided to focus on bridging the gap between people and community solar. If we could make it easy to understand, trust, and join a community solar program, it could also spark more public interest, which could eventually help bring community solar into focus in 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.

Maya Patel, 27

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

Find a solar option that doesn’t require owning a home

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

"I want to do my part for the environment, but I always thought solar wasn’t really an option for someone like me."

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.

Starting

Decides to look into solar energy after seeing rising bills and reading about climate change.

"It’s time to finally do something about this."

Starting

Decides to look into solar energy after seeing rising bills and reading about climate change.

"It’s time to finally do something about this."

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

Typography

SF Pro Display

Color Palette

#A9EA96

#50A434

#FFFFFF

#000000

+10,000 Hoosiers

exploring Solar

www.solarhive.app

Simple Solar Access for Everyone

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.

SolarHive

Get started

Already have an account? Log In

Restart Prototype

Close

Prototype

Test it yourself

Based on these findings, we refined our high-fidelity prototype. Here is our final prototype with the updated flows :

to navigate the prototype.

Restart Prototype

Close

to restart the prototype.

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.

Pssst, you've reached the end… but how about one more read?

Work

Toyota Mobility Foundation

Logistics Optimization

Work

Indiana University

Motion Design

Academic

Spotify

Social UX

Back to Top
1Problem
2Solution
3Research
4User Flows
5Design
6Testing
7Prototype
8Conclusion
1Problem

Change Theme

SolarHive

Helping Users Join and Save with Community Solar

7 min read

Timeline

September 2023 - October 2023

Team

1 UX Researcher

1 UI Designer

1 Product Design Lead

My Role

Product Design

UX Research

Prototyping

Usability Testing

Tools

Figma

FigJam

Adobe CS

Notion

Overview

I led the design and direction of SolarHive, a product concept that makes it easier for renters and homeowners without suitable rooftops to harness solar energy through Community Solar.

I oversaw 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 interests, solar energy remains inaccessible for many people. Most U.S. households can't install rooftop solar due to cost, rental constraints, or unsuitable roofs. There are other options like Community Solar, but they are lack visibility and user-friendly access.

We saw an opportunity here to make solar energy accessible without any installations or huge upfront costs.

Our Solution

A simpler way to go solar

SolarHive makes community solar easy to access and understand.

Users can subscribe to local solar farms, receive bill credits from their share of energy, and track savings and impact, all through the app.

This is how it works:

Step 1

Discover Local
Solar Farms

Rent panels from nearby community solar farms.

Farm 1

Greenwood, IN

View Details

Farm 2

Brownsburg, IN

Farm 3

Carmel, IN

Proceed (Farm 1 Selected)

Step 2

subscribe
to a plan

Compare plans and choose the one that fits your usage.

Monthly

Yearly

$19.99/Mo

Essential Plan

$9.99/Mo

Saver Plan

$29.99/Mo

Premium Plan

Select Plan

$19.99/Mo

Essential Plan

Recommended

150-200Kwh

Estimated Monthly Energy Production

4 Panels

Solar Panels Included in the plan

15%

Estimated Savings on Electricity Bill

Recommended

Farm 1

Greenwood, IN

10000 KwH

Energy Production

10$/Panel

Monthly Cost

01

Find Solar Farms Near You

Browse local community solar farms, see details like cost per panel, energy output, and pick one that fits your energy needs and budget.

02

Link Your Utility Account

Connect your utility account so we can analyze your energy consumption, recommend plans and apply credits to your bill.

03

Compare Plans

Compare plans by energy output, included panels, and estimated savings. You can also see how much energy your plan generates over time.

04

Earn bill Credits

Once enrolled, earn solar credits based on your farm's energy generation. Redeem these credits to reduce your utility bill.

05

Track Your Impact

Monitor your environmental impact including emissions reduced, energy offset, and trees planted equivalent.

Initial Problem Discovery

Indiana’s Reliance on Fossil Fuels

For our final project of INFO-H 541 Interaction Design Practice, we decided to tackle the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 of Affordable and Clean Energy.

We chose to focus on renewable energy access, especially solar energy, after discovering that it only makes up about 3% of Indiana's electricity generation (EIA, 2024).

Sources of electricity generation in Indiana (GWh, 2024)

Desk Research

Why solar adoption remains low

Our desk research revealed that despite growing interest:

50%

of U.S. homes can’t install rooftop solar due to cost, roof issues, or rental status.

Source:

National Renewable Energy Lab

73%

of Americans agree solar is a smart investment, but lack of knowledge stops them from taking action.

Source:

FranklinWH Energy Surve

Alternative

What is Community Solar?

While researching, we also discovered this promising model called Community Solar.

This is how it works:

1

Solar Farms Generate Clean Energy

A local solar farm produces electricity and sends it to the power grid.

2

You Pay for a Share of the Panels

As a subscriber, you pay to receive energy from a specific number of panels at the farm.

3

Credits Show Up on Your Utility Bill

You earn credits on your utility bill based on the amount of energy your share produces each month.

User Research

Hearing directly from the people

On paper, Community Solar felt like a perfect solution to the problems we identified. But if it 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

What we wanted to learn

How do people feel about solar energy?

What barriers stop them from taking action?

Have they heard of community solar? Do they understand it?

Key Findings

Insights that emerged

After using Affinity Mapping to analyze the interview data, these are the major findings that came out:

82%

participants had no idea what community solar was.

64%

participants didn’t trust that solar would actually save them money.

73%

found solar marketing too technical and hard to understand.

100%

renters felt excluded because they didn’t own the property.

72%

of homeowners and managers gave up due to cost and complexity.

82%

users had no idea what community solar was.

64%

users didn’t trust that solar would actually save them money.

73%

found solar messaging too technical and hard to relate to.

100%

renters felt excluded because they didn’t own the property.

72%

of homeowners and managers gave up due to cost and complexity.

User Research

We asked the expert

We also spoke with an Energy Expert from AES Indiana.

They said:

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

As a result, even though the model works in other states, it’s still not a mainstream option in Indiana.

research Summary

We found the issue wasn't lack of interest. It was lack of clarity, access and trust. Almost all of our interviewees said going Solar was complex and costly. And very few were aware of community solar.

Instead of designing to convince more people to go solar, we decided to focus on bridging the gap between people and community solar. If we could make it easy to understand, trust, and join a community solar program, it could also spark more public interest, which could eventually help bring community solar into focus in 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.

Maya Patel, 27

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

Find a solar option that doesn’t require owning a home

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

"I want to do my part for the environment, but I always thought solar wasn’t really an option for someone like me."

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.

Starting

Decides to look into solar energy after seeing rising bills and reading about climate change.

"It’s time to finally do something about this."

Starting

Decides to look into solar energy after seeing rising bills and reading about climate change.

"It’s time to finally do something about this."

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

Typography

SF Pro Display

Color Palette

#A9EA96

#50A434

#FFFFFF

#000000

+10,000 Hoosiers

exploring Solar

www.solarhive.app

Simple Solar Access for Everyone

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.

SolarHive

Get started

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Restart Prototype

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Prototype

Test it yourself

Based on these findings, we refined our high-fidelity prototype. Here is our final prototype with the updated flows :

to navigate the prototype.

Restart Prototype

Close

to restart the prototype.

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.

Pssst, you've reached the end… but how about one more read?

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