Back to Projects

Sapient Energy Insights

Background

At Sapient, we had built a plug load management and analytics system for commercial customers. By way of smart power strips and plugs, our solution gave customers ability to control all of the sockets in their buildings, a industry first. We had built some basic analytics into the application, but customers needed more. Especially when dealing with multiple buildings, people needed a way to know exactly how their energy was being used and how they could reduce their energy usage. We aimed to build a solution that gave customers an overview of the energy profile for: their portfolio of buildings, individual buildings, and even specific equipment installed in their buildings.

Discovery

I worked closely with our in-house energy experts to hone our approach to presenting the energy usage we were capturing. In commercial buildings, energy usage breaks down into End Uses: HVAC, Lighting, Plug Load, and sometimes Refrigeration. Many commercial buildings do not have clear insight into anything more than general utility bill energy usage numbers. Even giving customers a breakdown across end uses would constitute a huge win for them.

What we also wanted to make sure that we could "prove" the insights we were showing were true. To solve this, we designed an analytics view that was powerful, but also accessible enough to allow less-technical users to understand the structure.

Example Pages

The end uses trends page shows energy usage over time by end use
The end uses trends page shows energy usage over time by end use
This page visualizes peak demand periods for a building, a key driver in energy cost.
This page visualizes peak demand periods for a building, a key driver in energy cost.
Location trees in a building can be quite complex. Users needed a way to select individual locations, but also see the whole location tree in context.
Location trees in a building can be quite complex. Users needed a way to select individual locations, but also see the whole location tree in context.
Location trees in a building can be quite complex. Users needed a way to select individual locations, but also see the whole location tree in context.
Location trees in a building can be quite complex. Users needed a way to select individual locations, but also see the whole location tree in context.

Final Designs

While there was a ton of behind the scenes effort by engineering to get this feature out the door, the impact to the interface was actually quite minimal. We were able to insert calls-to-action about zoom meetings right into existing workflows.

Outcomes

This feature ended up being a hit with customers and allowed them to safely perform inspections right from their office. It also has long-term benefit because smaller follow-up inspections don't need to be in person anymore.

Back to Projects