ERM Power embraced User Research to launch a fresh and vibrant website that delivers an exceptional customer experience.
THE CHALLENGE
Leading energy provider, ERM Power, wanted to showcase an exciting new brand direction and boldly project their future growth strategy with a fresh digital presence. The organic growth of the existing website over several years had become difficult to navigate resulting in a strong desire to harness the power of user experience to completely transform the website.
THE SOLUTION
The key to delivering a user centered approach for this project was to understand the behaviours, needs and pain points of ERM Power’s audience. Speedwell’s UX practice led a series of user research sessions with heavy involvement from the ERM Power marketing team that included discovery workshops and user interviews. The data generated from the user research was then analysed resulting in personas of ERM Power’s key user groups, user journey maps, user stories and information architecture.
This research formed the basis for a user experience design catering to the needs of key personas identified in the user research sessions. Working closely with ERM Power stakeholders in a series of sprints, Speedwell designed and developed the new ERM Power website staying true to the user journey maps and user stories. ERM Power also undertook a rebranding exercise, so Speedwell worked with key stakeholders to ensure the new bright and colourful brand elements from their rebranding efforts were used in an engaging and thoughtful manner, whilst maintaining focus on user experience.
USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
By listening to ERM Powers different users, the project team were able to design a restructured navigation and a number of features that were inspired by interviews with actual customers, investors and brokers. The homepage features a quick link feature for tasks users commonly need and call to actions that lead to key sections of the site.
The Investors & Media section has a filtering system that allows investors, brokers and journalists to find resources quickly and logically. The careers section showcases some employees from ERM Power, the culture and benefits that ERM Power provide along with job vacancies. The various aspects of business energy and energy management are also highlighted with an information architecture that makes sense to the user.
INTERACTION DESIGN
The project team placed a particular emphasis on interaction design for this website. The words used, particularly in Call-To-Actions and buttons are simple to understand and meaningful. User Research revealed that some customers or ‘personas’ use different devices for various activities and so responsive design was implemented to ensure that interactions on various devices are suitable for different situations. Subtle animations load on page scroll and other interactive elements within the site to enhance interactivity and encourage users to explore pages further.
THE RESULTS
The ERM Power website is a great example of collaboration between an agency and a client with a unified set of goals delivered in an agile approach.
The website introduces vibrant and colourful new branding to site visitors but has a major focus on ensuring the user experience is intuitive, highly useable and meets the needs of identified personas.
The new site has a consolidated site map that reduced the number of pages from the previous version of the website by around 50%.
The result is a highly engaging experience that caters to distinct user personas depending on identified user journeys.
- A user-centric design based on user research.
- An easy to use navigation catering to identified personas.
- A significant uplift in branding and content with a vibrant look and feel.
- Interaction design that encourages engagement.
- Functionality aimed at solving the needs of different users.