Here Comes the Sun

Year: 2015

Role: Sr. Product Designer

Plus: Andrew Seles, Claire Armstrong

Methods: User Flows, Site Flows, Low Fidelity Wireframes, Interface Design, Motion Design, Iconography, Print Design, Design QA

Year: 2016

Role: Design Lead

Plus: Ashley Romo - Product Design

Year: 2015

Role: Sr. Product Designer

Plus: Andrew Seles, Claire Armstrong

Methods: User Flows, Site Flows, Low Fidelity Wireframes, Interface Design, Motion Design, Iconography, Print Design, Design QA

Overview

SunMAX™ was Ubiquiti Networks' first foray into solar power. It was designed to be an end to end experience meaning it included the hardware and software to run residential solar. Ubiquiti's customers, however, needed a selling tool that could get customers in the door and grab any leads from the world wide web. That was my task.

Overview

SunMAX™ was Ubiquiti Networks' first foray into solar power. It was designed to be an end to end experience meaning it included the hardware and software to run residential solar. Ubiquiti's customers, however, needed a selling tool that could get customers in the door and grab any leads from the world wide web. That was my task.

My Starting Point

Working with our creative director and other product designers we designed and developed software to empower WISPs ( Wireless Internet Service Providers) in offering clean energy to their customers. While we already were working on the provisioning tool for the solar panels, we needed some direction on look and feel for the customer-facing stuff. The goal was to hold onto the things that make solar feel environmental while leveraging our already robust design system.

This meant for me a couple of things: adding colors, iconography and perhaps...adding a typeface to our system (the dreaded new typeface).

This second part of the project was creating a web portal where users could set up and envision how solar could work on their very homes. It was a design tool and a cost-saving predictor. The final step of this process would send the customer lead to the nearest Ubiquiti partner.

Lastly, a print out of the entire process was available for the partners and their potential customers. This sunMAX product was a unique case because it was essentially B2C2B.

Working with our creative director and other product designers we designed and developed software to empower WISPs ( Wireless Internet Service Providers) in offering clean energy to their customers. While we already were working on the provisioning tool for the solar panels, we needed some direction on look and feel for the customer-facing stuff. The goal was to hold onto the things that make solar feel environmental while leveraging our already robust design system.

This meant for me a couple of things: adding colors, iconography and perhaps...adding a typeface to our system (the dreaded new typeface).

This second part of the project was creating a web portal where users could set up and envision how solar could work on their very homes. It was a design tool and a cost-saving predictor. The final step of this process would send the customer lead to the nearest Ubiquiti partner.

Lastly, a print out of the entire process was available for the partners and their potential customers. This sunMAX product was a unique case because it was essentially B2C2B.

Working with our creative director and other product designers we designed and developed software to empower WISPs ( Wireless Internet Service Providers) in offering clean energy to their customers. While we already were working on the provisioning tool for the solar panels, we needed some direction on look and feel for the customer-facing stuff. The goal was to hold onto the things that make solar feel environmental while leveraging our already robust design system.

This meant for me a couple of things: adding colors, iconography and perhaps...adding a typeface to our system (the dreaded new typeface).

This second part of the project was creating a web portal where users could set up and envision how solar could work on their very homes. It was a design tool and a cost-saving predictor. The final step of this process would send the customer lead to the nearest Ubiquiti partner.

Lastly, a print out of the entire process was available for the partners and their potential customers. This sunMAX product was a unique case because it was essentially B2C2B.

Making a cohesive experience across multiple platforms and touchpoints requires smart flexibility, sacrifice, and a little magic.

Tools of the Trade

The sunMAX design tool allowed customers to input their address and obtain a satellite image of their roof. They would then be able to design a solar power system specific to their home.

The difficulties for me were fitting all of that into a simple three-step process. It was info-dense and but also feature-rich. We needed to display a satellite map, have room for a drawing tool and even visualizations...all of the things. The last step was a view of their savings with pricing generated on the defined layout.

The sunMAX design tool allowed customers to input their address and obtain a satellite image of their roof. They would then be able to design a solar power system specific to their home.

The difficulties for me were fitting all of that into a simple three-step process. It was info-dense and but also feature-rich. We needed to display a satellite map, have room for a drawing tool and even visualizations...all of the things. The last step was a view of their savings with pricing generated on the defined layout.

Gettin' Print-Ready

The last step was giving the customers the option to print a high-level overview of their solar roof design. This included the data and cost savings they generated in the previous steps. The hardest part about this step was figuring out how to get data from the previous steps into a print-ready document.

SunMAX CRM

This was a web product meant for solar installers to manage their customers and solar installations. SunMAX CRM was our first step MVP in the solar industry. We piggy backed off our AirCRM design for web products. Below are a few examples of our early work on the intiative. Ultimately, the SunMAX product ran for about a year before being sunset by Ubiquiti Networks.

Here's a link to the Datasheet: SunMAX Residential Solar