How Strategic UX Research Helped Energy Smart Create a Better Marketplace Experience
Role: UX Designer
Responsibilities: UX Research, Competitive Analysis, Information Architecture, Wireframing, UI Design, Responsive Design
Tools: Adobe XD, Illustrator, Photoshop
Overview
Buying an energy-efficient product involves more than simply comparing prices. Customers need to understand technical features, verify compatibility, evaluate available rebates, and weigh multiple product options before making a decision
Before designing the Energy Smart Marketplace, I conducted a competitive analysis of several utility marketplaces, including Focus on Energy, to understand how users navigated complex purchasing decisions. The research highlighted opportunities to simplify product comparison to improve the overall shopping experience. These insights became the foundation for designing a marketplace that prioritized clarity and intuitive navigation.
Challenge
During my competitive research, one experience stood out.
The Focus on Energy marketplace provides a large catalog of thermostats supported by extensive buying guides, pricing tiers, comparison tables and compatibility information. While comprehensive, the experience requires users to move between several sections of multiple product pages before they can confidently compare the products, increasing the effort required to reach a purchase decision.
The challenge for Energy Smart was different.
Rather than presenting every possible detail upfront, the goal was to help customers quickly identify the right thermostat with less effort and fewer decision point
Research Process
For each experience, I analyzed:
Navigation structure
Product organization
Product comparison workflows
Information hierarchy
Calls to action
Educational content
Overall purchasing flow
This research helped identify patterns that either reduced or increased user effort during shopping.
Competitive Analysis
Focus on Energy:
What Worked Well:
Comprehensive educational resources
Strong rebate information
Detailed buying guidance
Robust feature comparison charts
Large product selection
UX Opportunities:
Information overload: Users encounter long buying guides, multiple comparison tables, pricing tiers, compatibility information, and educational content before reaching product decisions.
Lengthy comparison process: Evaluating products often requires scanning across feature matrices and multiple sections of the page rather than making comparisons directly within the shopping experience.
Weak visual hierarchy: Important purchasing information competes with supporting content, making it harder for users to quickly identify differences between products.
Decision paralysis: Because every product receives a similar visual treatment, users must spend additional effort determining which option best fits their needs.
Design Goals
Based on the competitive research, I established five UX principles for the Energy Smart Marketplace.
Support informed decisions: Integrate educational content where it is helpful without interrupting the shopping experience.
Simplify comparison: Allow customers to evaluate products quickly without navigating through multiple content sections.
Strengthen visual hierarchy: Guide users' attention toward the information that matters most during purchasing decisions. Use clean layouts, consistent interface patterns, and clear messaging to make complex information feel approachable.
Build trust: Use clean layouts, consistent interface patterns, and clear messaging to make complex information feel approachable.
The Solution
Compared with Focus on Energy, Energy Smart emphasizes:
Cleaner page structure with fewer competing elements
Stronger visual hierarchy that surfaces key product information first
Product cards designed for faster scanning
Simplified navigation with fewer decision points
Educational content integrated alongside the purchasing journey rather than separating users into long informational sections
Impact
The final marketplace transformed research insights into a more focused ecommerce experience.
Compared to many utility marketplaces, the Energy Smart design helps users:
Find products faster
Compare options with less cognitive effort
Understand rebate-eligible products more easily
Move from product discovery to purchase with fewer interruptions
Feel more confident throughout the decision-making process
Reflection
Studying marketplaces like Focus on Energy helped identify where complexity slowed users down and where thoughtful UX design could reduce friction. Those insights shaped an experience that balances educational content with a streamlined shopping flow, helping customers make confident, informed decisions.