Kenza - Mitsubishi US

Kenza was one of my favorite projects. I worked on it start to finish with a great team.

Small business owners and building managers needed a way to control temperature from a distance and monitor energy usage. They wanted to save money and stay better informed. The business wanted to expand from an enterprise market to one of smaller businesses (2-50 employees) An existing product, Kumo Cloud, has similar features and could act as a starting point. I worked start to finish as the Lead UX designer on the project with a 6 month timeline.

We spoke to small business owner about their pain points in order to get a larger view of their needs. We determined that while our existing product Kumo Cloud was sufficient for some user needs, it lacked key features necessary for small business (such as remote monitoring). To prepare I read research and case studies from previous Mitsubishi products in order to better understand our existing users. I also read case studies about energy usage from small businesses drafted by Mitsubishi Electric. I documented many competitor apps such as Trane and Nest to anaylize their design before starting on the design for ours. I created personas from the research to help tailor the user experience to each person.

I started off making sketches. I would discuss with the team: 5 developers, 2 freelance designers, a project manager, a director, a senior director. We would work to together and speak about what needed to be edited and updated with each iteration. Or strategy was to aim to sell to the (Aaron) business owner demographic while making an app that is simple and efficient for a larger demographic.

The sketching stage was one of the most important (and fun) parts of the design process. I experiment and ideate in many different directions during the sketch process.

The dark designs were asked for by the business. I argued that light mode is better for seniors, our target demographic. A dark mode option was added later.

Kenza was one of my favorite projects. In the end, I designed the logo, built the design system and even got to name it!

The mobile aspect of the design was one of the most rewarding parts of the project. The persona of the property manager was intended to use mobile more than either the building owner or installer and thus I tailor the experience to her. I concentrated on making this aspect of the experience easy to use and very accessible. 

The desktop was intended mostly for use by the building owner and installer. This view shows more information for that purpose though all the mobile functionality is still included.

The email component was used as a way to keep the user informed of the energy used and money saved per month. Its was primarily used by the business owner. 

Kenza was a project that I got to work on start to finish. Its still very near and dear to my UX designer heart. I learned to be creative but to temper it with research and user testing