Discovery
Research & Context Building
We began with a focused discovery phase: interviewing stakeholders, reviewing customer feedback, and researching the energy audit space to understand both user and business needs. I then audited the current Conserve app using heuristic and accessibility reviews, task walkthroughs, and responsive checks to map key pain points.
From there, we mapped core personas and their end-to-end journeys. Clarifying who uses Conserve, what they need to do, and where they get stuck helped us pinpoint the needs, success criteria, and moments where design changes would have the most impact.
Discovery
Findings
From this discovery work, four core UX problems surfaced. These themes shaped where to simplify the experience, improve wayfinding, reduce effort, and add better feedback across the product.
Themes
One thing became especially clear over the course of this project:
Key Insight
A product can have a clear social or environmental benefit, but if it is hard to use people will not adopt it.
Solution
Final Designs, Deliverables, & Solutions
To address these UX themes and issues, we redesigned Conserve into a clearer, end-to-end audit experience with the focus of this work being across mobile. The updated flows focus on surfacing the right task at the right time with cleaner navigation, simpler data entry, and clearer progress so users can move through audits with more confidence and less effort.
Key Improvements
Solution
Improved Login
We simplified the login flow so sign-in is faster, clearer, and drops users straight into their work.
Solution
Mobile Site Architecture
We imagined the mobile information and site architecture so Conserve feels like one coherent system instead of scattered screens. The new structure centers on a clearer home view and predictable navigation, giving auditors quick access to the work that matters most.
Solution
Intuitive Audit Flow
We redesigned the mobile audit flow so auditors can move through audits faster, stay oriented, and capture data with more confidence.
Insights
Lessons Learned & Key Takeaways
This project was especially rewarding because of its potential impact. Giving small and mid-sized businesses access to reliable energy audit tools can directly reduce their environmental footprint and benefit the communities they serve.
One thing became especially clear over the course of this project:
Social Impact Does Not Guarantee Adoption
A product can have a clear social or environmental benefit, but if it is hard to use people will not adopt it.
Next Steps
This phase focused primarily on the mobile experience, since it is the main tool for auditors in the field. In parallel, we began exploring a dashboard concept to visualize outcomes for executive leaders and investors, helping them understand the value of the product and the services it delivers.
Future work would deepen this direction by refining the impact dashboard, validating it with stakeholders, and building a lightweight design system so the mobile experience, web app, and reporting all feel cohesive, scalable, and easier to extend as Gemini’s business grows.
