Google Project Sunroof
2016 - 2017
Background: Project Sunroof assists users by giving them the information they need to determine if home solar is right for them. Using Google's Earth satellite imagery, Sunroof is able to show users how much sunlight hits their roofs over the course of the year. We then combine that data with state incentive information, estimated electricity bill, and financing options to give the user a full picture of what installing solar would look like.
Goal: Bring together once distributed pieces of information about home solar into one, easy to understand experience
Users: Homeowners, renters, solar installers, solar advocates and policy makers
My role: As the sole designer, I was responsible for all UX design and user research for the Project Sunroof homeowner estimation tool, regional Data Explorer, and solar estimator Search result. I ramped up quickly in this new problem space, I created intuitive experiences that simplified complex solar potential information for a wide range of users. I examined end-to-end user journeys of homeowners, providers, advocates, and policymakers, making sure to give them answers and additional resources at pivotal moments in their research and decision processes. I actively disseminated CUJs to the cross-functional Sunroof team, empowering them with design and user research artifacts they could use to further advocate for our users. All of this to create a suite of experiences that disrupt the solar research ecosystem and put previously disparate pieces of info in the hands of the users who need it most.
Outcome: The Project Sunroof site and solar estimator Search experience are live today
IT STARTS WITH A SEARCH
We wanted to give users the information they need at every stage of the home solar research process. In most cases, that process starts with a Google Search query. We thought, why not elevate some key, previously disparate information right in Search? We knew from talking with users that they would typically have to go to many sites to get the simple answers they were looking for about their home solar potential. Enter our simple solution. Today, if you do a Google Search like “how much will i save with solar panels” you'll see a helpful result inline with the other search results—-what we call the Solar savings estimator. You can then enter the address you’re curious about and see your potential savings over 20 years, savings per month, and a recommended financing option.
This easy-to-use answer to the previously daunting beginning of the solar research process is simple in appearance, but took a lot of behind the scenes research and coordination with the Google Search team. At the time, this little estimator was the first and only Search OneBox powered by Geo Platform, with no precedents to look to. This meant inventing new design patterns and stress-testing them extensively with users. After the launch of the Solar savings estimator, I made sure to share my learnings with designers across Google by teaching an internal course “Design & Launch Your Search OneBox” with cross product area collaborators.
SAVING WITH SOLAR
The Project Sunroof site (google.com/sunroof) is a free, public tool for estimating the amount of renewable electricity that a home—or an entire city—could generate with solar panels. Project Sunroof uses machine learning to find feasible locations for solar panels on a roof. Then, the tool estimates electrical generation using historical weather, shadows from trees and obstacles, and locally applicable tax incentives. I joined the team after the Project Sunroof site had launched and worked with my product, engineering and marketing collaborators to make improvements to the site based on user feedback.
CREATING TOOLS FOR EXPERTS
In reading through many emails and pieces of user feedback, we began to see that there was a small group of highly motivated and influential individuals who wanted more solar potential information than what the homeowner tool could provide. They wanted to understand city-level solar potential so they could better advocate for solar-friendly policies. After conducting many user interviews with highly motivated expert users, I began sketching out with my team what a new addition to the Project Sunroof site might look like. I guided them in identifying user personas and critical user journeys we might want to address with this new tool.
My product and engineering teammates during a user journey mapping session that I facilitated.
DATA EXPLORER
After a lot of design iteration and user testing prototypes, we landed on the solution you see today in the Project Sunroof online data explorer. You can check out case studies and sample reports from three U.S. cities and search for your own city to see a detailed breakdown. You can also try out cross-referencing the city’s solar potential with the public data sets of current solar panel adoption and median household income. As the designer, my main challenges were organizing and explaining these data points clearly and concisely, while keeping in mind the knowledge base many of the data explorer users would have coming in. I used illustrations, color and type size to break up the space and make it more digestible and scannable.
DATA EXPLORER IMPACT
Since we launched the Project Sunroof data explorer, it’s significantly reduced time spent for users aggregating solar potential info from many different data sources. It’s also now used as teaching tool by experts in many organizations and nonprofits when explaining regional solar potential.
Upon getting feedback from the initial launch, we learned that many other organizations championing environmental causes could use a similar data explorer that leverages geospatial data. That led to the Environmental Insights Explorer (insights.sustainability.google) which estimates city-scale building and transportation carbon emissions data, as well as renewable energy potential, leading to more globally-consistent baselines from which to build policies, guide solutions, and measure progress. Analyses are derived from Google’s proprietary data and other leading sources. It was created in collaboration with Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy.
Finally, to help other designers who might be working in the space of data visualization and dashboards, I worked with my engineering partner and a fellow Geo designer to aggregate and share map data-viz best practices internally at Google.