Pop Charge

Role

Product Designer

Responsibilities

Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, User Testing

Team

CEO, 3 Engineers, 1 Product Manager, 4 Junior Designers

Problem

In today's fast-paced world, staying connected is essential. However, when your phone's battery dips to 2%, finding a nearby charger can be challenging. Traditional charging methods often require you to stay in one place, waiting for your device to recharge.

Introducing POP Charge—a platform inspired by grab-and-go services like Citibike and Revel. POP Charge allows you to pick up a portable charger at one location and drop it off at another, enabling you to keep moving while your phone powers up.

Person holding a smartphone with a map app open, sitting on a bike with handlebars visible.

UX Research

We conducted 20 user interviews to understand challenges faced when phone batteries are low. Key findings include:

We conducted 20 user interviews to understand challenges faced when phone batteries are low. Key findings include:

Affordability Expectations

Users anticipate paying approximately $1 to $2 for a portable charger rental. At this price point, they consider renting a charger a viable option when in urgent need of a charge.

Onboarding Challenges

Users struggled to operate rental kiosks to obtain a charger, often not recognizing their purpose. This indicates a need for more intuitive and informative onboarding processes.

These insights have been instrumental in shaping our approach to developing a user-friendly and cost-effective portable charging solution.

On-the-Go Charging Needs

Participants often experience battery depletion when away from home, especially during evening outings, while traveling in unfamiliar cities, or when forgetting chargers at work or home.

Persona

Based on our user research, we developed a persona to better understand and empathize with our target users' needs and frustrations

Profile picture of Jeremy Belsky, a 37-year-old graphic designer, with shoulder-length dreadlocks and a beard, standing against a beige background.

Problem Definition

Jeremy relies on his phone for various tasks, including communication with friends, coworkers, and clients. When his phone battery is low while he's out, he urgently needs a charging solution to stay connected. How might we alleviate the stress of a dying battery and enable Jeremy to recharge his phone on the go?

Competitive Analysis

We analyzed Citibike and RedShare apps as examples of a comparator and competitor. Both apps feature a user flow that starts with a map of available locations to pick up a product. Citibike's language and visual design are clear and uncluttered, while RedShare's copywriting was confusing for users. User testing of RedShare revealed that many users struggled with basic tasks, such as finding a nearby charger for rent and scanning the QR code to release a charger. This indicates substantial room for improvement over our competitor's app.

Screenshots of two mobile apps related to urban transportation. The left app shows a map with various location markers and details about a restaurant called BCD Tofu House, including address and rental information. The right app features a map with a highlighted route, displaying the number of bikes and docks, and options to plan or choose a pass for bike-sharing services.

These insights have been instrumental in shaping our approach to developing a user-friendly and cost-effective portable charging solution.

RedShare Product Usability Test

We conducted usability testing on the RedShare app and found that many users struggled with basic tasks, such as locating a nearby charger for rent and scanning the QR code to release a charger. This indicates significant room for improvement in the app's user experience.

A table titled 'RedShare Product Usability Test' with three tasks, each with colored dots indicating performance and statistics such as success rate, average time, and ease of use. Green, yellow, and red dots represent different performance levels.
A table summarizing a usability test for a product, showing three tasks with success rates, time, and ease of use ratings, accompanied by colored dots indicating performance levels.

We also tested RedShare’s usability with users and found that many users were unable to accomplish basic tasks like how to find a nearby charger for rent, and how to scan the QR code on the machine in order to pay and release a charger for rent. There was substantial room for improvement over our competitor’s app.

Identify the Problem or Before & After

Jeremy uses his phone for everything from talking to friends to keeping in touch with coworkers and clients. Sometimes when he is out and his phone is dying, he is in desperate need of a charge in order to stay connected. How might we remove the stress of running out of battery, and reconnect Jeremy to his friends and clients by allowing him to charge his phone on the go?

Key Design Features

From our compeitor analysis we arrived at 4 key features of our design in order to make it easy for Jeremey to get a charge on the go.

  1. An easy to spot Find Directions CTA (call to action)

  2. A clear Rent Me CTA so that Jeremy knows how to get the charger from the kiosk

  3. Jeremy can clearly see how much he was charged

  4. No hidden deposit fee

Lo-Fi Sketches

Collection of hand-drawn sketches illustrating different sections of an app or website, divided into three main categories: Onboarding, Payment, and Components. Each category contains various wireframes and diagrams depicting user interface elements, navigation flows, and functions such as scanning QR codes, making payments, browsing menus, and building notifications.

I created initial sketches to determine the application's structure and functionality, facilitating rapid iteration.

Mid-Fi Wireflow

Series of five mobile app screens showing a map-based navigation app, with prompts for finding nearby kiosks, entering location, and making a payment.

Hi-Fi flow

Series of six smartphone screens showing an app for finding kiosk locations with available batteries, including a splash screen, map view, location list, QR code scanner, and payment options.
Three smartphone screens displaying a mobile payment app interface. The first screen shows account information and a rental fee of $1 per hour with a green 'Continue' button. The second screen shows a pop-up to release a battery with a green 'POP' graphic and an arrow. The third screen indicates charging for 30 minutes, a fee of $0.99 per hour, and a pink 'Find Location' button.

Hi-Fi Design

Collection of mobile app screens showing a kiosk locator and user profile for a mobile app that helps find nearby kiosks with available batteries. Features include maps, search options, user profile, and rental transaction details.

User Testing

User testing showed a significant improvement over our competitor, with a 100% task completion success rate in our proposed POP Charge design. Users also found the process very easy, and the average task completion time was just 29 seconds—a 51% improvement over the competitor’s product.

Comparison chart of Redshare vs POP Charge showing success rate, difficulty level, and time in seconds, along with percentage improvements indicated by upward arrows.

The graphic below illustrates the performance comparison between RedShare and POP Charge, highlighting our design’s efficiency gains

Next Steps

We recommend a timer feature that clocks up with dollar amount due as a user is renting the battery. Also, we aim to work on a coupon and rewards feature for real world locations that house kiosks like cafes, restaurants or bars.