ecoplanet

Ember AI:
AI-Agent for the energy management system

Ember AI is an AI-Agent that helps Ecoplanet platform users to take the most out of the data insights provided by the system.
#Strategic Design #UX design  #UI Design #Brand Design 
Duration: Nov 2023 - Jan 2024

Context

Ecoplanet empowers small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) to significantly reduce energy costs and carbon emissions. With Ecoplanet platform, businesses can make informed decisions to optimize energy consumption and enhance cost efficiency, driving both sustainability and savings.

Collaborative Goal

As we began this project, we have defined our ultimate goal: to make Ember AI an integral part of the Ecoplanet platform experience. Ember AI is designed to autonomously execute tasks by leveraging algorithms that analyze platform data. Our vision was to create a seamless user experience where, with the help of Ember AI, users can achieve their goals more effectively and efficiently.
Problem Statement
How might we design a UX for an intuitive AI agent, that  streamlines work with energy data, makes it more efficient and effortless?

My Role

We started this project from scratch. My role was to define Ember AI UX strategy, (in a close collaboration with the CPO and Product Manager), to lay down the brand identity,  the whole Ember AI User experience, to integrate it nicely into the existing Ecoplanet online platform, to develop the UI and UI components library for the Ember AI.

Main Challenge

When we kicked off this project at the end of 2023, AI Agent integration into a complex B2B online service was something really new. One of the main challenges we had to face:
1. Majority of Ecoplanet users are not digital natives, how could we help them to build trust with their new AI Agen?
2. How could we  cover all the conversational scenarios and provide the best possible UX?
3. How could we better predict the way our users will use Ember AI?

Our Process

01

RESEARCH & EXPLORATION

We started designing Ember AI UX with understanding the landscape of conversational AI Agents and copilots and how they can be integrated into the complex B2B online services. Together with the Product Manager we’ve done a comprehensive market research documenting the best practices related to our use case.

02

STRATEGIC DESIGN

Once we’ve identified the best practices and potential needs of our users , I’ve run a Jobs-to be-done workshop to structure all the information about main usage scenarios. After the workshop, we had all the necessary information to formulate a clear value proposition and to start mapping the user journeys.

03

UX DESIGN

At this stage, my goal was to create user journey maps based on the defined JTBD and transform these user journeys into mid-fidelity wireframes afterwards.  After several design iterations, I’ve finalized the mid-fidelity Figma mockups that are supposed to cover all the relevant user flows

04

Ember AI BRAND IDENTITY

After the strategic and UX design phases, my task was to come up with Ember AI brand Identity.
From the very beginning, we considered Ember AI as a ''product inside the product'' rather than a separate feature of the Ecoplanet platform. Therefore, my main goal was to establish a unique brand identity that is also well-integrated into the existing Ecoplanet brand guidelines.


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05

UI DESIGN

In the UI design stage, I’ve come up with Ember AI UI Components & UI elements that could be integrated well into the existing Ecoplanet platform.  I've applied this final UI on the mid-fi wireframes.  As a final step, I’ve prepared the Dev Handover documentation & necessary for the successful implementation of the suggested prototype.

06

UX/UI DEV AUDIT

I see the dev implementation audit as an important stage of the design process. During the Ember AI implementation, I went through multiple interactions with front-end developers to ensure that whatever we envisioned and designed was implemented properly and according to the documentation.

07

TESTING & OPTIMIZATION

Before releasing our first Ember AI version to the public we had a set of  internal testing sessions where we have collected and categorized feedback on the UX/UI and technical issues.
After the public release, we continued collecting feedback from our users and implementing incremental optimizations on the UX/UI and technical side.

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MAIN LEARNINGS

When we released Ember AI, Ecoplanet users were really excited with their new AI agent streamlining their work and assisting with complex processes like advanced data analysis.
While LLMs are a relatively new technology and are still evolving, their capabilities improve with every release and user interaction. I strongly believe AI agents are set to become an integral part of sophisticated B2B interfaces, bringing increasing value and efficiency over time.

Final MVP