Western Power: Phase 5 Project Report

We’re currently working on the latest phase of Western Power Distribution’s “Power Reporter App”.

In 2016 we designed and launched the original app on both iOS and Android platforms. Since then we have continued to support WPD by delivering a marketing campaign for the app and added new features and functionality in further phases.

The app gives WPD customers the ability to report power cuts from their phone or tablet, live chat directly with their customer services team, check outages on the power cut map, save locations and receive alerts when there’s a power cut nearby.

One of the main features introduced in the latest phase is the ability to add multiple postcodes as a single Saved Location alert. Thanks to user feedback we found that although users loved the location alerts, we have some customers who manage sites that cover a number of postcodes e.g. businesses complexes, warehouses, university campuses, etc.

Gravitywell’s challenge was to design a simple interface for selecting lots of locations where the user does not necessarily know of all of the postcodes or simply has too many to enter one at a time.

Our chosen solution was to allow users to create circular selection areas over a map which then returns a set of postcode pins. If the area is a more awkward shape, users can create additional circles to cover more locations. It’s a simple and neat interaction that’s designed for touch screen interfaces where precision selections are difficult to manage.

At Gravitywell we recognise that listening to user feedback is a crucial part of the design and development process, particularly for longer-term projects and services. Without that valuable input from the users themselves, it would be too easy to miss potential improvements.

The new release of the Power Cut Reporter will be out in December and you can download the Power Cut Reporter from both the App Store and Google Play.