Morningstar Live View: is my system working?
Brady Starr
The client and the problem
Morningstar makes solar charge controllers used around the world. Live View is the small web interface built into each controller, used to set it up and check on it. It showed a lot of data but not much clarity: electricians who know volts and amps, but not solar theory, kept asking the same two questions. Is it working? Is this safe? And a wrong setting can damage real hardware.
The constraints
It runs on the controller itself, with a total asset budget of about 5 MB
System fonts only, no heavy visuals or libraries
Safety-critical setup steps, and several teams to align: product, engineering and remote monitoring
What I designed
A recommended setup wizard, three steps at most: confirm system voltage, choose the battery type, then optional remote monitoring
A redesigned Live View dashboard that leads with status: one card answers "is it working?" before any detail
Output in context: a simple gauge showing current watts against the system's maximum
A 30-day view that puts daily energy harvest and charge time in one chart, so changes stand out
Advanced data is still there, but it doesn't lead. Confidence comes first, detail on demand.
After: the redesigned Live View leads with one answer, operating normally, then output and the 30-day pattern.
Before and after: every reading at equal weight, versus status first with detail on demand.
On site, on a phone: setup walks the installer through the risky choices first.
The three steps: voltage and battery type are the settings that can damage hardware, so they come first. Remote monitoring is optional, because many sites have no internet.
The 30-day view: daily energy harvest and charge time in one chart, so a bad day is easy to spot.
Client: Morningstar. UX, setup flow and data visualization in a four-week engagement.
How it went
Four weeks from kickoff to handoff: setup wizard first, then the dashboard and charts, then refinement. Delivered as a clickable prototype, a code-based reference build, a UX intent summary and engineering handoff notes, so the team could implement it without guessing.
"Implementation went super fast. When that support is there, it is efficient." Herman de Haan, Morningstar
"Shipping is the best success metric, and we cleared that one pretty readily." Gavin Cannizzaro, Morningstar
Full case study: https://liveview.figma.site
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Posted Oct 11, 2026
Setup wizard and dashboard redesign for Morningstar's solar charge controllers, so installers can answer "is my system working?" at a glance.
