Index:
Case study
/ JET Charge Connect app
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Pivot
JET Charge Connect started as a companion app for a single charger before pivoting into a scalable, multi-vendor platform. As a UX/UI designer I worked on the research, flows, prototyping and testing of the app, ensuring our early work adapted to the evolving vision. Over two years, the app grew into a much more flexible platform where EV owners can pair their chargers, monitor charging sessions, schedule their charging and access support.
The challenge
The core design challenge was designing an app that paired seamlessly with a product in flux.
Original designs for the app began as a companion for an internally built device, JET Charge's own smart EV charger. Midway through development, work on this physical device was halted. The business had to pivot: the app now needed to support multiple third-party chargers (Autel and others) evolving from a single-device setup tool into a comprehensive multi-vendor charging platform.
This shift meant reworking many of the early designs, user flows and revisiting initially collected research assumptions.
The challenge wasn't just solving the usual UI&UX problems anymore, we had to adapt our design approach to a moving business target while still delivering a product that users could rely on.
✦ Design Phases
ChargeMate Home App
Research & Testing:
Create a bespoke app coupled with JET Charge’s own hardware, focused on pairing & smart charger monitoring.
ChargeMate Home cancelled
Pivot & Re-design
The ChargeMate Home App was cancelled before the Deliver phase, our work carried forward into JET Charge Connect.
JET Charge Connect App
Final output
Deliver designs that fit a broader platform accepting third-party devices (e.g Autel), with session insights & session scheduling.
Discover
Research
Understanding the problem:
Initially for the ChargeMate Home discovery research focused on two primary user groups, home users and electrical installers:
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ChargeMate Home owners setting up and managing their charger from home
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Electrical installers who need a dedicated installer mode to simplify setup and testing
What we did:
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Stakeholder meetings & discussions to clarify business goals
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Competitor analysis of main industry competitors; Tesla, Wallbox, Chargefox,etc.
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User flows mapping end-to-end charger setup, onboarding & support
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Data collection & persona creation for EV owners & installers
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High-fidelity prototype testing with 8 participants
This dual-user approach recognised that the app needed to serve two distinct audiences with different goals, expertise levels and usage patterns.
Owner Onboarding Wireframes
As we started out initially as a team of 1 Designer (which was me) and as my UX chops were still growing, we decided to work with a contracted UX team from Trike (a product design firm based in Melbourne) to assist with the first evolution of the app's user experience. They really assisted me in understanding the app from a service design perspective - - that the app wasn't just a singular digital product but a part of a larger service ecosystem that involved physical installation, electricians and real-world coordination.
For example, in the above early Owner on-boarding flows they developed they didn't just copy standard patterns (like verifying immediately upon signup), but considered actual user timing. They placed email verification after the customer had ordered/received a quote for installation but before the physical charger arrived.
This was intentional because the owner would be more motivated after just purchasing their charger and there might be a waiting period between the purchase and the installation.
Installer Onboarding Wireframes
Develop
Re-design & testing
✦ UI Design upgrade
When it came to updating the UI, I spearheaded the design upgrade across the entire app, from component creation, to colour and typography. After working closely with Trike who helped to build the foundational wireframes, I started putting together some high fidelity screens.
Due to time constraints we needed to fast track this design process and create designs we could quickly make prototypes with to use in our user interviews.
We could then get feedback not only on these aesthetic changes, but on the user experience upgrades as well.
These original designs incorporated a planned brand logo change (later also scrapped) featuring a change to a bold geometric "JC" mark. The visual language was deliberately crafted to:
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Energize the brand: Yellow as the hero color helped convey energy, optimism and innovation
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Simplify complexity: Clean geometric shapes made technical processes feel approachable
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Build Trust: A professional yet friendly aesthetic balanced expertise with accessibility
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A quick note on process above: this isn't how I'd typically approach things. Normally at this stage, I'd create multiple mockup versions exploring different directions across key screens to test out various components and patterns. Then I'd iterate through those with stakeholders until we landed on a solid overall design direction. But that's not really what happened this time. We had maybe one or two meetings with leadership where they shared their aesthetic preferences and some visual references. I put together initial mockups based on that, they approved them and then we moved forward, so we ended up jumping straight to high-fidelity screens a little earlier than I would have liked to otherwise.
✦ Prototypes
Owner Onboarding Philosophy: Education through delight
In these original onboarding designs we took users on a narrative journey rather than showing them a procedural checklist. This educated Owner users on why smart charging matters rather than just diving straight into a technical setup. We figured for many users this would be their first smart EV charger, so I added some initial carousel screens that allowed them to understand the complete value of the app before committing to account creation.
Owner Onboarding Screens
The above testing prototypes had grown and changed from the original wireframes as we developed, we wanted to demonstrate thoughtful, research-informed designs that:
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Anticipated user pain points (like email typos, lost verification emails)
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Provided multiple pathways to success (email link or code entry)
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Maintained engagement during waiting periods (pre-installation dashboard)
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Some future plans for complex scenarios (multiple users, shared chargers)
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Educated users progressively (installation prep, scheduling value, etc)
Installer Device Setup Screens
We wanted the evolution from the original ChargeMate Home designs to this new ready to test version to be focused on being user journey optimised.
✦ User Interviews
We ran semi-structured interviews and usability testing sessions with both home EV owners and installers.
We wanted to validate our assumptions, uncover pain points and use these to guide design decisions. By testing high-fidelity prototypes with EV owners and installers, we were able to see where setup felt confusing or stressful and were able to identify what users valued most.
When ChargeMate Home was cancelled, the installer version of the app was dropped. However, this research still proved valuable. The Installer insights reinforced the importance of clear setup flows for all users, not just professionals. EV owner interviews shaped core flows (pairing, session scheduling, etc) that carried through into the multi-vendor version.
Format: 1:1 remote sessions (30–45 minutes each)
Method: Participants were shown high-fidelity prototypes and asked to complete realistic tasks
Focus: We observed how easily they navigated onboarding, setup, and session management noting points of confusion or hesitation.
Data Collection: Findings were documented in Dovetail, clustered into themes and used to refine flows, language, and error handling
Designs: We also gathered feedback on the overall UI and tested some new branding and logo designs
✦ Key insights
Home Users (EV Owners)
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Setup anxiety was high → Users worried about pairing, Wi-Fi setup & whether they’d “break something” during installation. They wanted reassurance & clear, guided flows
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Scheduling needed automation → Most users wanted charging to align with off-peak electricity rates and didn’t want to calculate or manage times manually.
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Transparency built trust → Users valued real-time charging data (progress, speed, cost) & wanted dashboards that made energy use immediately clear
Installers (Electricians)
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Wi-Fi commissioning was the biggest pain point → Spotty connections while installing & unclear error states caused delays, making setup stressful
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Mobile-first commissioning → Installers preferred to do everything from their phone onsite, avoiding laptops or multiple tools
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Need for clear support & troubleshooting → Fast access to phone support, LED error code references & reset instructions were essential to save time on jobs.
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Even though the original user groups shifted and the installer persona was dropped for the JET Charge Connect App, these interviews helped ensure it was approachable, intuitive and technically reliable. This research assisted greatly in defining the UI, feel and overall user experience of the final app.
Pivot
Re-Develop & Re-design
Pivoting after the change:
When the pivot to a multi-vendor platform was confirmed, one of our first challenges as a design team was to help define the MVP feature set for the new app With limited resources and a shifting scope, we needed to make sure the first release of the new app was both valuable to users and feasible for engineering. To do this, we worked closely with product managers, engineers, and stakeholders to map out all potential features. We needed to re-think:
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User value → What solves the most immediate problems for EV owners?
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Business value → What supports JET Charge’s strategy to expand beyond proprietary hardware?
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Technical feasibility → What could realistically be built and tested in the time frame given?
What we did:
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Stakeholder alignment, reconfirming business priorities with leadership
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Ensuring product roadmap aligned with the new platform vision
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Auditing existing designs
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Revisiting user research
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Defining new user flows- mapped flows for multi-vendor on-boarding
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Revising information architecture
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Expanding settings for new features like cost tracking and billing
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User testing
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High-fidelity prototype and Design system update
Through this process we landed on a core, focused MVP feature list. We had a long, long list of highly requested features (like automated scheduling, solar integration, public charging maps, public charging features and much much more) but these were noted and scoped for future releases.
By framing features this way, we avoided the risk of trying to deliver too much too soon. Instead, we shipped a clear, usable foundation for the Connect app that delivered real value while leaving room for a lot of new growth.
Re-designed User Flow
On-boarding/ Handover & Setup
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The pivot impact
We were a small team and we didn’t have the resources to start over, so we had to salvage the useful work we had already done. It pushed us to design something more flexible and scalable. Instead of discarding months of research and design, we re-framed our work so it could carry forward into the new JET Charge Connect app.
As a designer, this meant carefully reviewing what could be reused and what had to evolve. Core insights from EV owners around setup simplicity, scheduling and real-time transparency remained just as relevant, so we adapted our on-boarding flows, charging dashboards
and scheduling concepts to work across multiple hardware brands.
✦ Re-design
What survived
Despite the hardware change, several core design principles proved resilient:
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Education-first onboarding: Users still needed to understand smart charging benefits
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Progressive setup flow: Breaking complex technical processes into digestible steps
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Visual hierarchy: Clear primary actions reduced decision paralysis
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Accessible design: High contrast and clear typography remained essential
What had to change
When the pivot happened, several assumptions became invalid:
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Device-specific branding: The JC logo and ChargeMate-specific language needed generalisation
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Single setup flow: Multiple charger types required branching paths
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Assumed capabilities: Not all third-party chargers supported the same features
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Visual identity: The yellow-dominant scheme needed reconsideration for broader hardware compatibility
Deliver
Final output
The pivot from ChargeMate Home to JET Charge Connect resulted in the delivery of a multi-vendor charging app MVP, focused on providing users with a streamlined way to set up, manage and monitor their home chargers. The final designs enabled customers to create accounts, pair and configure their chargers and manage core charging functions directly from their mobile device.
The new JET Charge Connect app established a unified customer platform, replacing fragmented experiences across OEM apps, charger-specific apps and public charging tools. The foundation was intentionally designed to be scalable, allowing for planned future enhancements including firmware updates, push notifications, solar integration, public charging maps and automated scheduling.
Analytics integration with Amplitude was also embedded to capture user behaviour and app performance, ensuring data-driven improvements for any post-launch updates or changes.
With the final release, users could:
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Create accounts & pair with chargers from multiple manufacturers (initially Autel & ChargeMate)
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View real-time charging status & control charging sessions remotely
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Set manual charging schedules to align with off-peak tariffs
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Track energy use & view charging history
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Access a built-in help center with guides, troubleshooting and JC support contact options
Reflections
Although the ChargeMate Home App was cancelled before launch, the research and design work completed in its early phases became a strong foundation for the work continued on JET Charge Connect. The insights we gathered from both EV owners and installers highlighted the importance of simple on-boarding, transparent dashboards and reliable scheduling. These principles became central to the new platform.
As a less experienced UI/UX designer, this project was a formative experience for me. I saw how quickly business priorities can shift and I learned that research & design work are never wasted, even when a product changes direction. This experience taught me the value of flexibility, empathy for users as well as the importance of building clear and scalable design systems in order to navigate evolving product landscapes.
