Hillgreen Energy

Who are HillGreen Energy?

Hillgreen Energy operates multiple biomass and renewable energy facilities across the UK, delivering renewable energy solutions including solar panels and biomass systems for commercial clients mainly across agricultural sectors.

The aim of this project is to deliver a comprehensive end-to-end mobile application to assist Hillgreen Energy operators with equipment operations, maintenance and streamlining administrative and reporting functions for their operators.

What Are We Trying To Solve?

Greenhill Energy operators face several key challenges that need to be addressed:

Equipment requires routine maintenance checks to ensure optimal performance and prevent faults.
Regular check logging is required for insurance compliance. Operators currently reference lengthy manuals and make time-consuming phone calls to technicians for repairs.
No centralised system exists for tracking maintenance tasks and schedules, leading to missed deadlines and poor accountability.
Current generic software lacks industry-specific features, causing poor user experience and reduced productivity.

Gathering Insights Into The Problem

We visited 2 sites locally that operate where Hillgreen operate along with a visit to their office to interview operators, technicians and supervisors about their pain points and needs within the new solution.

We also shadowed operators whilst they completed their checks to get an insight into obstacles within the logging process, which for them felt overall quite tedious, and frankly never ending - this gave a sense of empathy of why checks mostly don’t get completed which is having a knock on to wider parts of the business operations.

An insight into responses from the interview sessions below:

Plotting Efficient User Journeys

Taking into account the initial requirements of the project and findings gathered from user interviews and insights of operational processes, we initially plotted out a MoSCoW chart and a refined userflow to ensure that users have everything they need within the app without it being overloaded with features. Overview of features below:

Voice input feature on check that will allow operators to log their answers at certain stages as a voice note. This feature will be supported by a transcription AP that retain the output of their answer as text.
Tasks created based on checks – tasks will automatically be scheduled and created within the app based on an answer on certain input types, mainly numerical or binary. Critical information can also be displayed within a check based on the input of an answer
Bespoke check creation in the admin panel – checks can be created and assigned to specific sites and machinery, these can also be created from duplicates of other checks on for example, similar machinery.
Notifications and alerts to notify operators of outstanding and due checks.

Wireframing & Testing

After iterating a set of wireframes and creating prototypes for key flows and states of the app, we took them back to the Hillgreen site to test on the operators, displaying real tasks and check information so that we could shadow them conducting the test.

The learnings from the feedback was really insightful as it demonstrated that the overarching need for the operators was simplicity.

Creating an Inclusive Design System

Our testing sessions were also most insightful as they gave us a good indication of the varying accessibility and usability needs are of the operators who will use the app on daily basis. It was clear that the level of user confidence in using an application such as this was of a varying levels amongst the group, so technical equitibility was at the core of the design phase.

This can be seen through implementing consistent interaction patterns across the app, with larger touch targets on buttons and cards, and using typography and iconography that is bold and clear.

The design system also factored in scalability to the admin console, but also future phases of this app, ensuring that designers and developers have a core set of components and documentation to iterate and build from.

Final Design Implementation

The final design balances functionality with simplicity, incorporating user testing feedback and accessibility needs. The interface features consistent patterns, clear navigation, and large touch targets for field use.

With an accessible color system and readable typography, the app effectively addresses initial problems while remaining scalable for future updates through its modular design system.

Feedback & Limitations

In the first two months after launch, 93% of assigned checks were completed by operators through the app—a vast improvement over previous reporting rates. The most significant feedback has come from both users on the operator and admin sides.

The voice input feature has been a game-changer. Instead of typing long descriptions while doing maintenance checks, I can just speak my observations. Makes the whole process much quicker.”

Having all my tasks in one place with clear priorities has made my job so much easier. The large buttons and clear text mean I can use it even when wearing safety gloves."

The automatic task creation based on our checks saves so much time. If something needs attention, the system creates the task right away, and we don't have to make separate reports anymore"

Limitations

Voice Function: With Operators in some instances working around loud machinery, transcription of voice notes in these cases has been broken which has resulted in the fallback solution of admins listening back to the voice notes. A remedy has been proposed for phase 2 whereby an alert will appear on the question panel if a voice note is triggered whilst background noise is above a certain decibel threshold.
Photo Quality: The photo capture feature sometimes struggled in low-light conditions common in industrial settings, resulting in unclear images that weren't useful for documentation. A phase 2 enhancement will include automatic light detection with recommendations for optimal photo conditions, as well as built-in flash control for consistent image quality.
Training Requirements: The transition from paper-based to digital systems required more extensive training than initially anticipated, particularly for operators less familiar with mobile applications.
Small testing sample: Due to the prototype on being tested on 2 sites, our research insights may have been slightly skewed. Some operators on untested sites reported their preference to have only relevant checks + jobs on the home dashboard as opposed to larger buttons. Those using the application at supervisor level also found that accessing a job after it’s completion to be particularly tricky as they have to select a ‘Show Completed’ toggle in the filter panel. A proposed remedy for this is to expose this toggle on the screen itself, whilst still keeping filtering attributes in a seperate screen.

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