UX trip: charging app teardown

The town Chapel Hill now uses three separate charging station types at town facilities, which means three separate apps. A user thinks: how annoying. A UX designer thinks: opportunity!

The ChargeUp app had me swearing at it this morning. I had used it once before, and remembered scanning a QR code on the station to get started. I open the app and click the big "Charge" button at the top right:

ChargeUp app main screen


This dumps me to a screen "We notice you haven't added a vehicle yet" - what? I didn't have to last time?



The add vehicle screen has a list of every car company that has made a chargeable vehicle. Why can't I type so I don't have to scroll to "T"?



OK, now I have a vehicle, can I charge? I can't click the vehicle to charge. If I hit the back arrow, I'm adding a vehicle again. I click "add" and now I have a second vehicle? What? **swearing commences**

Are there other buttons I can click? Oh, there's navigation at the bottom of the screen, and a suspicious lightning bolt on the right. Finally, there it is! QR code scanner to start charging.


Did you notice that navigation bar in the original screenshot? I sure didn't at the time. There's a map, and favorite stations, and settings.

I should note, once I add a vehicle, the "Charge" button does what I'd expect, and goes to the QR scanning page.



Recommendations

How do we fix things? Don't annoy a new user! Even if I don't have a vehicle, take me to the charging page. I propose including the "add vehicle" button you've already got to the charging page.

Examine the flow of the app - once I've added a vehicle, going "back" should probably go to the home screen.

Make the lists in the vehicle entry page accept typing, and filter the lists based on text entered.

A lingering question: I'm currently charging at a station - can I add it to my favorites?

And BTW, on the ChargeUpEV webpage, if I click the logo at the top, I get to a nearly blank page for "default.aspx". Probably not what they intended.

Hey ChargeUp - need a UX consultant? Give me a buzz.

On my list for a UX trip: Charge Point and Shell charging apps.

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