SmartGrid Analytics Interface Design

As senior creative and online manager at eMeter, I partnered with the product team to develop a series of user interface prototypes for a new meter data application — designed to visualize and analyze aggregated data collected from smart meters across an energy grid.

Discovery began within real constraints: the established eMeter UX/UI design system and the boundaries of the BIRT plugin for the Eclipse IDE. Rather than fight those limits, I used them as a frame and looked outward for inspiration.

Two references shaped the visual language of the project. The first was Google Analytics — I studied their chart color system closely, examining how they built a palette flexible enough to serve a wide range of visualization types and data categories without feeling chaotic. The second was the world of financial data design, particularly stock chart interfaces. By that point, stock chart UI had become one of the most refined corners of data visualization, and I was drawn to Morningstar specifically for its use of soft, neutral grays — a palette that felt authoritative without being cold.

The result struck a balance I was proud of: conservative enough to earn trust in an enterprise context, intuitive enough to lower the learning curve, and forward-looking enough to feel current at the time. It was design that knew its audience.

The prototype proved its value beyond the screen — two customers signed on as early adopters to pilot the new dashboard features, validating both the design direction and the product's market readiness.