Gravity
Building the best EV charging experience in America.
Gravity
Building the best EV charging experience in America.
Role
Senior Product Designer and Manager
Team
1 Product Designer
3 Engineers
My contribution
User research
Experience design
Interaction design
Design system
Timeline
5 weeks
Role
Senior Product Designer and Manager
Team
1 Product Designer
3 Engineers
My contribution
User research
Experience design
Interaction design
Design system
Timeline
5 weeks
Gravity had one charging station with a team of about twenty people, including two software engineers. There are no managers or designers, so I owned the full product and design process. The goal of this project was to build the mobile app to streamline the driver experience and lower the need for on-site attendants.
Audience
From the start, we aligned on Gravity’s key user personas. It was crucial to provide the best experience for both groups, considering their language preferences, charging habits, and levels of tech-savviness. EV owners: fluent in English, tech-savvy, typically charge before or after work (9–5) Rideshare drivers: limited English proficiency, less tech-savvy, charge multiple times throughout the day.
Audience
From the start, we aligned on Gravity’s key user personas. It was crucial to provide the best experience for both groups, considering their language preferences, charging habits, and levels of tech-savviness. EV owners: fluent in English, tech-savvy, typically charge before or after work (9–5) Rideshare drivers: limited English proficiency, less tech-savvy, charge multiple times throughout the day.
Research
I've started my journey with speaking with the team and conducting user interviews with drivers. I've found that: Gravity had one charging station with an on-site attendants, limiting scalability. 1/3 of drivers don't speak English, creating communication challenges. Confusing payment process: drivers had to pre-select charging amounts. Growing transaction disputes due to unexpected idle fees.
Research
I've started my journey with speaking with the team and conducting user interviews with drivers. I've found that: Gravity had one charging station with an on-site attendants, limiting scalability. 1/3 of drivers don't speak English, creating communication challenges. Confusing payment process: drivers had to pre-select charging amounts. Growing transaction disputes due to unexpected idle fees.
Visual explorations
Once the wireframes were ready, approved by the team, and tested with drivers, I moved on to defining the visual design aligned with Gravity’s brand voice and style. One direction I was exploring is having the vertical charging progress bar, similar to the way it’s shown on chargers IRL. Although, after some exploring different touch points, it appeared that vertical bar is less scalable. For example vertical bar can’t be shown nicely in Live Activity on user’s lock screen. Thus, I chose horizontal bar for better consistency.
Visual explorations
Once the wireframes were ready, approved by the team, and tested with drivers, I moved on to defining the visual design aligned with Gravity’s brand voice and style. One direction I was exploring is having the vertical charging progress bar, similar to the way it’s shown on chargers IRL. Although, after some exploring different touch points, it appeared that vertical bar is less scalable. For example vertical bar can’t be shown nicely in Live Activity on user’s lock screen. Thus, I chose horizontal bar for better consistency.
Final design
Plug in
Active charging
Confirming charger
After multiple iterations, it was decided to have the style that feels premium aligning with Gravity existing branding. That direction led to balanced mix of dark and light layout, keeping the premium look, yet keeping good readability.
Final design
Confirming charger
Plug in
Active charging
After multiple iterations, it was decided to have the style that feels premium aligning with Gravity existing branding. That direction led to balanced mix of dark and light layout, keeping the premium look, yet keeping good readability.
Final design
Live Activity
Account page
Idle fees
For drivers conveniences, I have also designed Live Activity widgets that appear on the lock screen displaying the charging progress and possible issues occurring during charging such as power problem, idle fees and others.
Final design
Idle fees
Live Activity
Account page
For drivers conveniences, I have also designed Live Activity widgets that appear on the lock screen displaying the charging progress and possible issues occurring during charging such as power problem, idle fees and others.
Design system
I built the design system featuring typography, color styles, layouts, components and variables for fast implementations of new designs. Variables were built with collaboration with iOS engineer so that we could use the same variable names in the code.
Design system
I built the design system featuring typography, color styles, layouts, components and variables for fast implementations of new designs. Variables were built with collaboration with iOS engineer so that we could use the same variable names in the code.
Remedies
Once the main flow was designed and improved based on feedback from the team and customers, I built the map with different remedies such as payment issues, power problems, plug issues, unexpected disconnections, and others.
Remedies
Once the main flow was designed and improved based on feedback from the team and customers, I built the map with different remedies such as payment issues, power problems, plug issues, unexpected disconnections, and others.
Signage
Led the end-to-end design and deployment of durable charging station signage to improve driver usability. Over a one-month sprint, I conducted industry research, collaborated with engineering on hardware integration, validated prototypes on-site, and managed final production.
Signage
Led the end-to-end design and deployment of durable charging station signage to improve driver usability. Over a one-month sprint, I conducted industry research, collaborated with engineering on hardware integration, validated prototypes on-site, and managed final production.
Leveraging AI
I use AI to speed up every step of building a product, from the first idea to the finished code. I use AI tools to quickly turn photos and sketches into visual designs so the team can see concepts early on. When it’s time to build, I use AI coding assistants to write clean code, add polish animations, and fix live issues. By using AI to create smart prototypes and test ideas fast, I help the team move much quicker from a brainstorm to a launched product.
Leveraging AI
I use AI to speed up every step of building a product, from the first idea to the finished code. I use AI tools to quickly turn photos and sketches into visual designs so the team can see concepts early on. When it’s time to build, I use AI coding assistants to write clean code, add polish animations, and fix live issues. By using AI to create smart prototypes and test ideas fast, I help the team move much quicker from a brainstorm to a launched product.
Learnings
There were many learnings from user interviews and ongoing feedback throughout the project. These insights pushed us to refine Gravity’s brand voice toward clearer, simpler language and more intuitive flows. The focus shifted to reducing cognitive load while staying transparent and upfront about charging, pricing, and expectations, so drivers always understand what is happening without needing extra explanation.
Learnings
