[Introduction]
Solo UX/UI Designer | Nov 2024
Severn Trent has partnered with Nectar in a pioneering first for the utility sector, linking the UK’s largest water provider with the nation’s most recognized loyalty programme. The initiative aims to engage customers with their water usage by transforming everyday conservation choices into tangible rewards—offering Nectar points, savings, and a positive environmental impact. This pilot project is scheduled to run for 18 months, after which, if successful, it will be rolled out to all customers.
Target Demographic | 25,000 smart‑meter customers
Tools used | Adobe XD, Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Miro
[Description]
The Challenge
Average water usage in the UK = 142 litres/person/day (most believe it’s under 20 litres).
Leaks are a hidden problem: dripping taps waste 4L/day; toilets waste up to 400L unnoticed.
The design challenge:
Make water use tangible and trackable
Shift behaviour through gamification and rewards
Blend two household‑name brands into a seamless experience (brand stitching)
My Approach
Mobile first design
Based on our analytics, nearly 70% of our users access the site via mobile devices. Applying the mobile-first design approach, we prioritised creating a streamlined, intuitive experience optimised for smaller screens. This ensures clear visual hierarchy, easy navigation, and accessible touch targets, enhancing usability and engagement on any device. By designing for mobile first, we focus on essential content and interactions, then progressively enhance for larger screens - delivering a seamless and efficient user experience across all platforms.
Prioritising what matters most
To deliver in just four weeks, the focus was sharp: launch with core features first, guided by the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) - knowing a few well-chosen features would drive most of the value. Phased releases let real users shape the product by tracking usage and understanding what the user really want. This follows Jakob’s Law, which means learning from users and quickly improving the design based on their feedback.
Bento style - Modular, Flexible, Effortless
The bento layout forms the backbone of scalability - each card modular, each element intuitive. By embracing Miller’s Law and reducing cognitive load, users enjoy a simple, swipeable canvas that supports adding, removing, and shifting features in rhythm with their needs. The consistent grid matches the Smart Tracker design, a layout that is familiar for Nectar users to learn the product faster.
Brand stitching - Harmony, Not Handover
The subtle blending of Nectar’s vibrant palette with Severn Trent’s trusted tones created brand unity with minimal friction. The approach draws on the Law of Uniform Connectedness, ensuring that from the colours to components, customers feel continuity, not compromise. By harmonising design languages and shared components, the product remains instantly recognisable for all, fostering trust and clarity at every touchpoint.
Kick off
To kick things off, I teamed up with our researcher, Iain, to put together a moodboard exploring bento-style design inspirations. We looked at creative ways to showcase the weekly water goal using infographics, experimented with different layouts for showing water usage trends, and brainstormed fun streak counters to reward people for hitting their goals week after week. Above all, our focus was on keeping everything simple and easy to understand, so users could make sense of their progress at a glance.
Before designing, we mapped every possible user journey to make sure the experience is seamless and free from dead-ends or confusing loops. This upfront work helps us spot and prevent friction before it can impact the design, ensuring users can move confidently from start to finish.
Onboarding
I wanted the onboarding journey to feel effortless. Since this project targets specific users, we sent campaign emails with direct links to the onboarding page. Working closely with Nectar, we streamlined the process - users simply enter the last 11 digits of their Nectar card to link accounts instantly. If someone doesn’t have a Nectar card, it’s just one click to register, and they’re brought straight back to connect the dashboard - quick, simple, and user-friendly.
Weekly water goal
I wanted the UI for the weekly goal to feel easy to read and motivating. The card shows you exactly what you need - your target, how much water is left, and the Nectar points you’ll earn when you get there. With the team, I designed a smart, intuitive tank - full at the start, gradually emptying as you use water. Stay on track, and you’re rewarded. Finish too early, and points slip away. Keep the streak alive and unlock even more. Miss a week, and it resets. Simple. Clear. Rewarding.
Streak counter (redesigned during phase 2 release)
I wanted the streak counter to feel simple and motivating. The card carousel makes progress easy to follow - showing what’s active now, and what’s next. Each week you stay within your water goal, you earn more Nectar points: 10, 30, 70, 150, 300. From week six onwards, every streak earns 300 points, with the usage goal locked (to the usage goal given for week 5) to keep it realistic and achievable. It means staying on track feels rewarding, effortless, and sustainable.
Daily trend graph
The Daily Trend Graph gives the user a clear, elegant view of your daily water usage across the week. I designed it in a line graph format to make the progress effortless for the user to follow, it helps the user see where they stand today and what’s needed for the days ahead to stay on track with their weekly goal.
Badges
A card that celebrates the users' achievement. With a simple tap, it opens into an organised library - revealing every badge earned along the way, and those still waiting to be unlocked.
Points bank
All points earned since the start of the trial are shown here in a tabular format. Keeping it simple - Date of points earned, description and how many points earned.
Product feedback
While I cannot share exact metrics, user feedback and internal evaluations reveal strong engagement and satisfaction with the gamified water-saving experience. Though some users initially missed streaks, usage data demonstrated genuine efforts to meet weekly goals. This positive trend shows we were able to influence water consumption habits, helping users reduce waste and save money through more mindful usage.
What I learned
Working on this project was an incredibly rewarding experience for me as a UX designer. This project challenged me to think beyond just creating a visually appealing interface - I had to design something that genuinely motivates people to change their daily habits for the better.
One of the most valuable lessons I learned was how to balance speed and quality under tight deadlines. Delivering a functional, user-centered product within just a few weeks pushed me to focus on what really matters and prioritise features that would bring the most value. It reinforced the power of the 80/20 rule in design, and how starting simple can lead to meaningful impact.
Integrating two very different brand identities into a single cohesive experience was another eye-opener. It required careful attention to detail and a delicate balancing act to ensure users felt the trustworthiness of Severn Trent alongside the familiarity and energy of Nectar. This showed me how powerful subtle visual harmony can be in building user confidence.
One area I could have improved was allowing more time for user testing and feedback during the initial design sprint. Given the tight deadline, the focus was heavily on rapid delivery of core features, which limited opportunities to gather deeper insights from real users early on. More extensive usability testing could have helped uncover subtle pain points or behaviours that might have informed refinements to the onboarding flow and dashboard interactions sooner. Balancing speed with more iterative user validation would have strengthened the final product even more.
Overall, I thrive under pressure and really enjoyed the fast-paced, high-stakes decision-making sprints with the team. These intense sessions pushed me to think quickly and deliver iterative solutions in rapid succession - design, test, launch, review, and refine. This cycle kept the momentum going and ensured continuous improvement. This project was truly a unique and rewarding experience that sharpened my ability to adapt and deliver quality work within tight constraints.
