Redesigning SRP’s Water app

The SRP Water app needed an overhaul to improve the customer experience. Users struggled with a clunky, outdated interface that hampered usability and engagement. The project aimed to modernize the app by upgrading from Xamarin to .NET Maui, optimizing forms, updating branding standards, and incorporating value-driven features. This rewrite was essential to provide a seamless, intuitive, and visually appealing updated experience for customers.

Maintain core features of the app while enhancing the user experience of all forms and pages

Implement as many value driven features as possible while not adding to initial project scope

Success would be determined by having more than 5,000 new water My Account signups, as well as improving the time on task for app’s most popular forms: account sign up, ordering water and making bill payments

With the announcement that Xamarin support would end in mid-2024, SRP recognized the need to rewrite the Water app to ensure both business continuity and customer satisfaction. The original app, hindered by an outdated interface and declining performance, needed to be revamped. The goal was to enhance the overall user experience, addressing the needs of stakeholders and end users alike. This project aimed to modernize the app, making it more intuitive, visually appealing, and efficient.

Unlike other larger projects at SRP, the Water app rewrite did not conduct any user research during its development. All updates were guided by feedback on the previous version as well as applying industry best practices with the UI.

Given the scope of the project, I focused my time and energy on the following aspects of the app:

Improving the forms: With the Order Water form, the initial version of the form was presented in an unclear fashion- the page itself was the form and could be easily navigated away from by mistake. In the rewrite, the form was given its own dedicated page to allow for clearer focus on the task at hand. Then, In the original version of the Water app, the Sign Up process occurred over multiple steps. In the rewrite this process was streamlined to a single form- allowing users to clearly understand the requirements of the form in a single view and not be caught off-guard when additional data was needed.

Cleaning up the Schedule: Originally, the Schedule of Subdivision water orders presented a large cognitive load to users. Every order showed all of their details within the same view, making it challenging to discern details. With the rewrite, the Schedule focused on progressive disclosure- allowing the user to see initial data of the schedule, then progressively showing more details if the user decided to progress further. The updated version of the schedule also allowed for users to quickly navigate to their own order in the event it was in a sub-optimal location; this small feature kept users from getting frustrated in the event that they began to spend too much time finding their order in the list.

Deeper Dashboard: Similar to the initial release of the Power app, the Water app’s Dashboard presented minimal data. While this experience was extremely simple, it did not meet the needs of users who wanted a better understanding of their account. To do this, I added abbreviated versions of the content of each main section (Schedule, Order, My Bill), allowing users to gain more detail about their account without the need to navigate into each section. Also, with Water customers billed annually or semi-annually, the “My Bill” section would populate only when an account had a balance. This allowed to minimize the user’s cognitive load while understanding their account information.

The mockups for this project were all designed and maintained in Axure RP. Development wise, the project was written in .NET Maui.

During the course of the project, some constraints on the scope of the project limited the impact of the final product:

Inability to Introduce New Features: The main goal of the project was to rewrite the application, so providing brand new features to the user were either kept to minimal in scale or left out of scope entirely. Providing users a history of their orders was one scrapped feature. Its addition would have provided users the convenience of seeing past and future water delivery orders, and the ability to manage them at scale. This feature could save users large amounts of time as opposed to making a call or attempting to manage these orders through the website.

Lack of User Research: With no iterative research, there were no true opportunities to see how the updates to current features would be received and possibly adjusted based on feedback. I applied industry best practices to all user stories and screens, but without immediate feedback on these adjustments I feel that the success of the UI was limited.

Similarly to other projects at SRP, my main role for this project was to ensure that the updates to the UI would improve the overall customer experience and hopefully exceed business goals. I worked closely with developers and various stakeholders throughout the design process. My role was important in enhancing dated flows, making improvements based on industry best practices, and ensuring the final product provided an overall improved experience for users.

Designing Mockups: One of my main roles was to provide high-fidelity mockups to stakeholders and the development team that would show how the updated UI would improve the overall customer experience. I ensured SRP’s latest branding standards were applied throughout every component and page, resulting in a product that was seamless to SRP’s look and feel.

Example of a functional prototype used in user testing

Collaborating with Developers: I closely collaborated with developers to translate design concepts into functional UI components, ensuring the visual designs were technically feasible and aligned with user behaviors and OS patterns. We implemented interactive features like subdivision water order schedules, bill payment forms, and water order forms, making these elements visually appealing and intuitive. I participated in regular agile sprint meetings to provide design feedback, troubleshoot issues, and maintain brand and design consistency.

Due to the recent timing of this project, no quantitative data is currently available. As data is gathered, this section will be updated.

Due to the recent timing of this project, no qualitative data is currently available. As data is gathered, this section will be updated.

The project provided a handful of benefits to SRP’s Water teams. It decreased maintenance costs from the upgrade to .NET Maui, enhanced customer security through the implementation of biometric authentication, quicker application support from Microsoft Sentry’s real-time error monitoring and user-centered data analytics.

The transition to .NET Maui gave the development team more modern practices, enhanced performance, and broader platform support. The updated UI components provided a design system for developers to collaborate with that was up to date with the latest brand standards.

Due to SRP’s decision to have My Account become supported by a third-party, any future updates to the SRP Power app would come from that vendor.