Customer Bill Redesign

Digital & Paper Bill

Bills don't usually bring delight to most people, and can often be provocative.  We redesigned this bill to educate the customer, while providing incentive to move away from paper.

My Role
UX Lead, working with a visual designer and VP of Design.

Deliverables
Mockups, Prototype

Overview

The bill is by far the most frequent, and arguably, the most important contact that a customer has with her utility.  Understanding it is critical, especially when an anomaly in amount or usage occurs, or a new rate is introduced.

This project involved intense collaboration, communication and iteration with the visual designer, as well as frequent stakeholder review.  Research was critical to understanding our user, both in the beginning and throughout the project, as well as to devising new, simpler ways to display complex information.

The Process

I started by reviewing any research that had previously been done as well as any data (ForeSee mostly), to find pain points and opportunities with regard to billing.  And, because we didn't have the opportunity to talk to the customer base, I did short Q&A's with colleagues and friends about their bills. As always, I also like to review precedent, opting to look at 'best in class' examples across the digital realm, as opposed to just our niche (utilities).

Then, through a very iterative process, we started with an overall page design, focusing on where and how information is best presented. Next, a significant amount of time was spent researching and designing data visualizations.  After design was complete, an intensive round of qualitative user testing was performed. 

The bulk of the project involved data visualizations for several rate plans.

Challenges

Data visualization was probably the biggest challenge: how do we explain complex energy rate concepts with seemingly simple graphics? But also how do we educate customers on a brand new rate plan that differs remarkably from what they're used to?  Another challenge was to find ways of driving people to the digital version of the bill, where more information could be displayed, and where we could hopefully show a higher value of the online bill, so customers would eventually give up their (more expensive) paper bills.

At-a-Glance Bill Structure

The goal of the overall design of the bill was to create an experience where users could assess, at a glance, the state of their account:  Was it as expected?  Was it more than expected?  If so, why? And then give the customers actions to take: pay their bill, do more investigating. 

Data Visualization: The Evolution

Below illustrates incremental advances in the design of the bill's data visualization for the Time-of-Use rate plan, which was plan being introduced to (and initially forced on) customers.  Thus, it was critical for us to illustrate this complex concept as simply as possible.

Adding Value With the Digital Bill

The digital (online) version of the bill purposely had a similar look and feel as the paper bill, but offered more information, tools, and resources. Those added features were meant to provide an incentive to those customers who were reluctant to switch from their paper bills.

In the End

Overall, the new bill design resulted in overwhelmingly positive user feedback.  Per the research report from our research partner, Bella Via Research, users felt the bill was:

• Easier to scan and find key information.
• More useful, interesting content.
• More appealing and visually engaging.

Michael Blaser

User Experience

mike@mikeblaser.com