Enhancing Solar Self-Education with a
Glossary Experience
Designing an integrated glossary to clarify complex solar terminology, reduce sales rep dependency, and create a more self-serve proposal experience for homeowners.
Role
Product Designer
Duration
Present
Tools
Figma, Jira, Useberry, Dovetail, FullStory, Chromatic
This project is a followup on my proposal redesign project. If you haven’t checked it out, please take a look!
Challenges After the Redesign
Although the redesigned proposal enhanced clarity and transparency, feedback indicated that many homeowners continued to struggle with understanding fundamental solar concepts. As a result, they remained reliant on sales representatives for clarification, leading to ongoing back-and-forth communication. This dynamic introduced friction into the process and highlighted a persistent gap in baseline education necessary for homeowners to feel confident in making informed decisions independently
Direct Feedback From Homeowners
Goals
I set the following goals aiming to solve the problems identified.
Initial User Interviews & Key Insights
I conducted 12 interviews with homeowners who had used our proposal, uncovering consistent pain points: proposal drop-off when encountering unfamiliar terms, difficulty defining key solar concepts, and a desire for accessible educational content that doesn’t disrupt the flow.
Early Design Exploration: Low Fidelity Ideations
I explored a wide range of concepts through quick, low-fidelity sketches, mapping ideas against scope, goals, and feasibility. I collaborated with cross-functional partners to refine key term definitions and narrowed to two promising directions: inline term definitions and a glossary sidebar for further testing.
Usability Testing: Comparing Interaction Patterns
I tested two glossary interaction prototypes with homeowners to evaluate clarity, usability, and impact on reading flow. The Inline Text Links offered instant definitions but risked visual clutter and hesitation to click. The Glossary Button provided scalable, grouped definitions without disrupting flow, though it required users to search for terms. Insights from this test informed the final design direction.
Inline Text Links
✅ Instant definition of the selected term
❌ Risks visual clutter and interrupted comprehension when overused
❌ Users may hesitate to click links if they fear being navigated away from the current flow
Glossary Button
✅ Provides broader context without disrupting reading flow
✅ Glossary button behavior is clear and intuitive
✅ Groups related terms to support deeper solar education
✅ Can scale and be included across the entire EverBright platform
❌ Users have to search to filter terms
Prototyping and Usability Testing
I conducted usability testing with over 30 participants in Useberry with both homeowners and stakeholders. I collected quantitative clickstream data and cursor behavior to observe interaction patterns, and asked questions to assess participant’s overall experience and preferences.
Usability Testing: Comparing Interaction Patterns
Altogether, participants preferred the glossary due to its clarity, simplicity of use, and cleanliness. These results led me to go forward with the glossary.
Final Design Recap
Clicking Glossary Button
Relevant terms are filtered for the specific module
"View All Terms" allows users to see all solar terms and search for a specific term
Accessing The Glossary From Another Module
Second Entry Point From Menu
Entering the glossary from the menu allows scalability across the platform
Design Execution & Measured Outcomes
This project aimed to address limitations in understanding key solar terms following the proposal redesign. Since launching, we’ve seen a considerable usage rate of the glossary, an increase in deal closure rates, and a significant decrease in the number of sales representatives needed for Term Clarification. Overall, the glossary button has helped alleviate solar term confusion, and promote EverBright’s mission of furthering solar education and making the proposal more self-service.
Addition to Design System
In addition to satisfying business goals, I was also able to add the “Drawer” component to the central design system, where it is now being used across the platform.
What I Learned
🔬 Run targeted user studies with tools like Useberry, using both qualitative insights and clickstream data to guide design decisions
🧩 Craft clear, unbiased research questions to avoid leading responses and gather meaningful feedback
🤝 Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders early and often to stay aligned as business needs evolve
🗞️ Simplify technical language and data into clear, digestible content for broader audiences
📈 Design intuitive visuals to clearly communicate trends and data over time
What I Would Do Differently
🔍 In usability studies, place greater emphasis on testing content and language clarity by designing specific tasks to evaluate comprehension, not just interaction
🏠 Prototype and test the Proposal experience in edge-case home contexts (ex. missing utility bills, off-grid properties, or unavailable data) to uncover potential gaps.
Next Steps
📚 Expand solar education beyond the glossary towards guided learning, introducing contextual onboarding moments throughout the proposal
🌎 Modularize the proposal content for utility contexts that may vary across different states to support regulatory changes or market shifts without reworking the whole flow
🖱️ Track long term comprehension themes through support tickets, clickstream data, etc. to uncover new gaps in solar education to address
Want to Learn More?
I’d love to discuss my approach and impact further. Feel free to reach out!
CONTACT & SAY HELLO 💌