Soution to EV Range Anxiety UX Design

Solution to EV Range Anxiety UX Design

Yenyu Chen

Challenge An oft-cited reason people don’t buy electric cars is “range anxiety” — if batteries struggle to take you as far as gas and charging stations are limited in number, the thinking goes, who would want one?

Design a solution that helps people to find the best way to overcome the EV range problem.

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Despite the significant advances in expanding EV range, the survey finds that range anxiety exists for all drivers – from those who are in the car for more than three hours a day (87%), to drivers on the road for less than an hour a day (72%).

Altman Vilandrie & Co. – EV adoption analysis

Design Process

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I’ve followed the five-stage Design Thinking model and Lean UX methods to identify user needs and iterate user-centric solutions; using both quantitative and qualitative to validate design hypothesis and usability testing.

Empathize

Define

Ideate

Prototype

Validate

Personas Job Stories User Survey

Identify Needs Task Flow

Solution Lo-fi Sketches

Wireframes Interaction

User Test Iterate

Persona For the challenge, our user is referred to as a real sustainable and future-oriented person that drives an EV; so I created an initial persona of potential EV drivers based on online research (Electric Vehicle Adoption Analysis by Altman Vilandrie & Co.) and some borrowed understanding from owners of electric scooters firsthand in Taiwan.

Behavior • • •

Danna

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Age: 27 Location: Eindhoven Occupation: UX Designer

•

Spends 3 hours or more a day driving her EV Freelance with frequent intercity travels to meet clients and held workshops Environmentally conscious consumer that tracks own carbon footprint Avid eco-travel blogger that shares her cross country travels on social media Proud EV owner and hopes for higher adoption

Goals • •

Wants a more convenient way to plan her travels Not having worry about finding nearby charging stations on the road

Frustrations • •

To much decisions to make and things to keep track of while driving low on fuel Having to reschedule appoints due to low charge during trips

Job Stories Instead of the usual user stories, I’ve decided to gather more context and causality of the user experience by using a series of job stories. Job stories frame every design problem in a Job, focusing on the triggering event or situation, the motivation, and the intended outcome.

1.

When I’m driving and is running out of charge, I want to

Situation

know where and how to get to the nearest charging

Motivation

station, so that I can recharge and continue on my trip.

2.

Outcome

Before I drive to the charging station, I want to make a reservation and know how long the charge will take, so that I won’t have to wait as long, or worse, find out that all

the charge points are taken.

3.

Before I make my next trip, I want to know my current car charge and be alerted if recharge is needed on the road, so that I can plan beforehand and not miss my appointment.

User Survey With general user experience insights identified through job stories, I did some quick usability test with some friends who own electric scooters, and researched consumer surveys on Gogoro’s (Taiwan-based company that develops and sells electric scooters and battery swapping infrastructure) EV experience to validate the scenarios. Turns out whether it be car or scooter, the EV range anxiety and adoption obstacle has much in common.

Factors that increase adoption

Sex

Male

66%

Female

34%

Charge convenience App synchronization

Age

46%

42%

Personalization

Occupation

Factors that decrease adoption

76%

Pricing Lack charge stations Aesthetics 9.5%

6%

4%

3%

1%

0.5%

Identifying Needs To understand the cognitive efforts throughout the user experience, I’ve created a task flow to map out the decision points that the user will have to process to overcome range anxiety. Components or range anxiety can be dissected as threefold: 1. How much charge do I have left?

2. How far can I go with the current amount of charge?

3. Where is the nearest charging station?

Select destination Remaining charge

Can reach destination?

No

No

Call tow truck or recharge service

Yes

Yes

Charge enough on return?

Charge stations within range?

No

Route to charge station Yes

Yes

Optimize route to destination

Ideate At this point it has come to me that the solution will need to solve all three components as a synchronized whole, and that it addresses all decision points across the situational timeline starting before users gets into their EV to running dead of out fuel on the read.

Iterative lo-fi UI/UX for potential solutions are sketched out for review and evaluation.

Solution I’ve borrowed the framework of Prevention, Mitigation, and Recovery from Emergency Management for disaster response to tackle the EV range problem, and adopted a mobile-first design strategy that addresses real time feedback for users before they begin their trip to when they’re running low on fuel. Transitioning from off-the-shelve PNDs to mobile liberates users from the limitations of standalone hardware and opens up further personalization by syncing navigation to other apps.

1. Prevention

Million

before user experience range anxiety

2. Mitigation

overcome range anxiety when running low on fuel

3. Recovery

support when all else fails

Installed base of PNDs and active mobile turn-by-turn navigation users (World 2010 – 2016) by Berg Insight

Calendar Sync The best solution to overcome range anxiety is to not have to experience it in the first place. Calendar sync links the users’ calendar app from their mobile to the car’s operating system, so that users are informed of battery level, if refueling is needed on the way, alert that takes refuel time into account, and not be late for their next appointment. The synchronization with other mobile app services also provides the option of reservation and payment for charge point before leaving.

Client meeting at TomTom HQ

22 Fri

08:00

Morning run

Current location Destination

Discussion with Sasha on mobile navigations prototype

FILTERS

Nearest

09:00 10:00

…

June

12 min € 15.00

Client meeting at TomTom HQ Cheapest

11:00 12:00 13:00

UX workshop at Wonderland

23 min € 8.00

Quick Charge

14:00 15:00

15 min € 21.00

Range Awareness Calculation of remaining battery to available range is constantly updated and visualized with isochrone network buffering as opposed to circular buffers. Isochrone cache is then used to suggest nearby charging stations in case battery runs low.

Charge points in range 12 min € 15.00

Reservation

15 min € 21.00

23 min € 8.00

25 min € 10.00

Faster Recovery Worse comes worse, you’re low on battery and no charging station is within range.

Appoint tow truck or recharging service beforehand at specified location to reduce wait time. Expected meet location is shared with service provider, with provider’s estimated arrival time available.

Current location location Current

Current location

Destination Destination

Destination OPTIONS

Tow Truck 12 min € 15.00

DROP CHARGE LOCATION Charge Truck A

23 min € 8.00

Charge Truck B

CALL CHARGE TRUCK

23 min € 8.00

15 min € 21.00

Validation To validate my prototype and design approach towards EV range problem, I’ve asked 10 friends (4 that owns Gogoro’s electric scooter) to rank the proposed features by perceived contribution to easing range anxiety. It’s interesting to see how Range Awareness is perceived as having less contribution than Faster Recovery, and so the next step will be to use this new piece of information and continue on the iterative process. significant

insignificant

Calendar Sync Range Awareness Fast Recovery

Thank you for your time UX Design by: Yenyu Chen