I accepted the role at Bulb right before the onset of a turbulent period for the energy market. When I joined in January 2023, the company had gone into special administration due to unprecedented spikes in wholesale energy costs.
Despite an uncertain future for the business, I was able to spend the next 11 months giving the member account experience a full revamp, structurally and visually. By the time I left, the new Bulb account design was live to all 1.5 million members.
The original Bulb account was born under design principles that worked really well in the company's early disruptor days.
But as the company grew to become the UK’s largest green energy supplier, and the needs of their members became more complex, the account started suffering from feature bloat and inconsistency.
The refreshed Bulb account design highlights your current balance in real time, with a topline summary on your account health, as soon as you log in. Dynamic widgets on the dashboard show you the latest updates on your meter readings, payments and statements so you instantly know whether something is upcoming or overdue.
A sticky navigation panel enables you to quickly switch between pages to make comparisons without needing to navigate back to the home screen.
The redesign was rolled out incrementally across 6 weeks, starting at 1% and ramping up to the entire member base. This went on during an era of peak anxiety around energy bills, with the new Bulb account design witnessing some of the highest traffic in history due to regular price cap increases.
Bulb was acquired by Octopus in December 2022, and members were migrated in spring of 2023. Sadly, this means Bulb account is no longer available.