UX/Product Design
UX Research
Designing a seamless end-to-end experience for hosts and guests across Ivygo’s community EV charging app.
20 min read
Project: 9 weeks, Internship: ongoing
Ivygo is an Australian startup building a peer-to-peer network for electric vehicle charging. I first worked on the project through a 9-week UX challenge with Harness Projects, focused on improving the host booking approval and payout experience.
Following the final presentation, Ivygo’s CEO invited me to continue as a UX Design Intern, where I’ve been refining the guest booking and check-in/check-out flows, collaborating with the development team, and preparing my designs for launch.
Role
UX Researcher & Designer
(Harness Projects -> Internship)
Tools
Deliverables
Competitor analysis, journey mapping, persona, wireframes, high-fidelity prototypes
Opportunities
Host-side (Harness Projects)
Hosts struggled to approve bookings, view guest details, and manage payouts due to a shared interface and lack of real-time updates.
Guest-side (Internship)
Guests faced limited feedback during booking and unclear check-in, check-out, and session progress, reducing clarity and trust.
Problems
Jump to Solutions
Stakeholder insights
Business goals
Build a fair, community-powered EV network
Encourage host to guest crossover
Scale with a simple intuitive product
Key challenges
Hosts unclear where to accept bookings
Dual-role users confused by mixed terminology
Limited trust/safety signals
“We want to make EV charging accessible, affordable, and financially rewarding for all”
Competitor analysis
Feature
ChargeFox
PlugShare
Joosup
Airbnb
Uber
Camplify
Trust & Safety Signals
Real-Time Oversight
Booking Confidence
Booking Management
Dedicated Host Dashboard
To understand how other platforms support peer-to-peer services, I analysed competitors with similar features and flows to identify UX patterns relevant to Ivygo’s host experience. With no direct competitors in Australia, I focused on indirect and analogous platforms to gather insights from comparable models.
User interview insights
100%
Wanted a rating & review system
"I’d want a rating or photo — something to show they’re not dodgy."
I interviewed five users — current or potential Ivygo hosts and guests — to explore their expectations, concerns, and what would make them feel confident and motivated to use the app.
60%
Wanted a passive experience
"If it just ran in the background, I’d actually use it."
80%
Wanted clear host navigation
"I don’t know where to go to approve a booking, it just feels like a charger search tool."
60%
Wanted session oversight
"I’d want to know when they arrive and that it’s working — otherwise I’m just guessing."
40%
Wanted an in-app credit option
"I’d rather earn credit first than give my bank details upfront."
Host persona
An eco-conscious, tech-savvy EV owner who works remotely and sees hosting as a hands-off way to earn passive income.
Journey map
To better understand the host experience, I mapped out their journey from sign-up to payout. This helped identify where frustrations occur and where design could better support their needs.
Sketches
After identifying key pain points, I began sketching ideas to improve the host journey — from managing bookings to completing sessions — exploring layouts and content priorities.
These screens aim to give Hosts a clearer view of their bookings, availability, and recent session activity — all from a streamlined dashboard.
I explored how a Host might receive a booking request and what confirmation would look like once the booking is approved, ensuring key actions are intuitive.
These screens focus on keeping Hosts informed with real-time feedback — whether a booking is declined or a session is underway.
Finally, I sketched how the session wrap-up would look, including confirmation of payment to give Hosts closure and transparency.
Peer feedback suggested separating the session summary and review, which led to an updated wireframe (below) with a clearer, more focused flow.
Wireframes
At this stage, I created clickable low-fidelity prototypes (referred to as wireframes throughout this case study) to simulate key workflows and validate my hypotheses.
Before refining the visuals, I conducted usability testing on the low-fidelity prototype to uncover pain points, confusion, and opportunities to improve the flow. Each insight directly informed updates that I implemented in the final prototype.
Issues & solutions
After usability testing, I refined the interface into a high-fidelity prototype focused on simplicity, control, and clarity for Hosts. The following screens highlight key interactions and design decisions.
Implementation
While implementation wasn’t a core focus of this project, I mapped each feature based on assumed value vs. development effort to support prioritisation. These are high-level assessments, as I didn’t have access to exact dev cost estimates.
Review & rating system
Host-guest differentiation
Notification badge
Payments dashboard
Session summary screen
Session progress screen
Auto-approve functionality
Time-blocked visuals for overlapping bookings (like Google Calendar or Teams)
Gamified progress bar for Host milestones and earnings
Option to download earnings summaries as PDFs
In-app messaging for direct communication and increased confidence
Ivygo credit system
Key takeaways
Design for both user needs and business goals in a dual-role app environment
Balance feature scope with technical feasibility
Apply feedback from usability testing to improve clarity and reduce friction
Strengthen my ability to prioritise and justify design decisions
Designing for two user types in one app: balancing the needs of Hosts and Guests without overwhelming the interface required careful workflow separation and prioritisation.
Working without technical constraints: without direct access to developers, I had to make educated assumptions around implementation effort and feasibility.
Avoiding friction in the Host flow: small UX details like how and when Hosts approve bookings made a big difference — it took iteration and testing to get the right balance of clarity and simplicity.
Conduct another round of testing on the high-fidelity prototype
Collaborate with a developer to better understand technical constraints
Further explore gamification and messaging features