Year
2019
Client
EON / Engine
Role
UX Research & Design
Energy Tariffs: Challenging a client proposition
EON wanted to introduce a new proposition for how their tariffs would be displayed on the website.
Our opinion was that their solution could create unnecessary friction and increase cognitive load for the users, so we proposed to conduct some user research & testing before delivering the designs.
Proposition #1: Displaying tariff prices
The clients wanted to group the tariffs by ‘family’ and introduce a ‘base rate’ for the cheapest tariff within that family, and then showcase the other tariffs in the ‘family’ by displaying the difference between the price of the base tariff & other tariffs. i.e. ‘Fix 24’ is +£5 more than the base ‘Fix’ tariff.
The hypothesis that I tested was that this would increase cognitive load for the user to work out the full price of a tariff, and therefore increase the barrier to conversion.
Proposition #2: Grouping tariffs
The clients wanted to display the tariffs in groups which they had organised and labelled themselves.
The hypothesis that I tested was that users wouldn’t understand the core difference and benefit between the tariff families based on their labels, and therefore wouldn’t be able to easily compare and decide between them.
Proposition #3: Introducing bolt-ons
The clients wanted to introduce the proposition of bolt-ons at the same part of the online journey where users would initially choose the tariff they wanted.
The hypothesis that I tested was that adding bolt-ons before/at the same time as initially choosing the tariff was too early in the process, and would therefore overload the user with choices and potentially make it unclear whether the bolt-ons were mandatory or optional.
Testing competitor products
From previous user sessions I was aware that the majority of the users used comparison websites to review energy tariffs & providers. Therefore I conducted research with various comparison websites and OVO energy to capture their opinions and understand how they made decisions.
The designs following user testing
Displaying the tariffs
Tariff pricing
We scrapped the client’s initial solution as users didn’t understand or like the pricing method, as I observed them struggling to do the maths themselves and scroll up and down the page to figure out the tariff prices.
Tariff overview
Based on insights from testing, I included the core characteristics and benefits of each tariff at first-glance to enable users to make comparisons between tariffs more easily, therefore facilitating decision making. We also included the type of tariff; fixed vs variable, exit fees & contract length as these were deemed the most important factors when choosing a tariff.
Enabling decision making
We included a ‘popular’ tag to the tariffs to enable users to make informed decisions quicker.
Comparing between tariff families
As some users struggled to tell the difference between the tariff groups, I introduced a core characteristic and benefit for each family to facilitate the users making comparisons between them, and ultimately figuring out which was the best type of tariff for their needs.
We introduced different colours for each tariff family to make it easier for users to quickly identify between them.
Adding bolt-ons
Because they were being encouraged to add the bolt-ons too early in the journey some participants thought that bolt-ons were a mandatory feature of the tariff as opposed to being optional, as well as distracting them from absorbing the essential information about the tariffs.
Therefore, we introduced the bolt-ons as ‘benefits’ or characteristics of the tariff to make users aware of them at the quote results stage, but only introduced the option to add them once the user had committed to a tariff.
