Bulbe Customer Acquisition
Redesign of the institutional website and enrollment flow, guided by user research to increase trust and reduce conversion barriers.
Customer
Bulb
Categories
UX Research; UI/UX Design
Duration
3 months (2023)
My Role
Product Designer
Tools
Figma
Team
Solo design (in squad with PM)
The biggest obstacle to conversion wasn't the usability of the enrollment flow. It was trust. Before optimizing the signup process, we had to make a business model unfamiliar to most users understandable.
Context
Bulbe is a company that operates photovoltaic plants in Minas Gerais and distributes energy credits to residential and commercial consumers through a distributed generation model.
Since the service is contracted entirely through digital channels, the institutional website represents the primary point of contact between the company and its future customers. Beyond presenting the service, it needed to clarify a business model unfamiliar to the public and guide users toward contracting.
When the project started, Bulbe was looking to improve its acquisition funnel efficiency, reducing doubts during the journey and making the enrollment process more trustworthy for new customers.
The Challenges
Although the enrollment flow was relatively straightforward, the company noticed that many users reached the end of the journey still uncertain about contracting.
The main doubt was understanding how the service actually worked.
Users didn't clearly understand the role of Bulbe, Cemig, and the customer themselves within the solution. Many believed solar panels would need to be installed, others imagined they would stop receiving utility bills, and some even distrusted the legitimacy of the business model.
The challenge, therefore, wasn't just redesigning a website or simplifying a form. It was building trust in an innovative service and transforming complex information into a clear narrative for potential customers.
The Approach
Before proposing any solution, I conducted a Discovery to understand both the business and users' perception of the product.
The process was structured across three complementary fronts.
Business Understanding
The first step was to deeply understand Bulbe's operations, strategic objectives, and challenges faced by teams involved in customer acquisition.
To do this, I performed:
Stakeholder research;
Direct and indirect competitor benchmarking;
Heuristic evaluation of the existing website;
Analytics and heatmap analysis;
Marketing and Customer Service interviews;
Service Blueprint construction and validation.
This research revealed not only opportunities for improving digital experience, but also recurring patterns of doubts and objections faced during the sales process.
User Research
With business vision consolidated, I conducted qualitative research to validate two hypotheses:
the website didn't provide sufficient information to explain the product;
the enrollment flow was simple, but didn't convey security to the user.
The research combined moderated interviews, usability tests, and questionnaires, allowing analysis of behavioral aspects and also quantitative indicators of understanding, interest, and trust.
Participants included users unfamiliar with Bulbe and customers who had already completed the enrollment process, making it possible to observe the journey from different perspectives.
Synthesis
After testing, I organized all records in a Rainbow Sheet, classifying recurring issues and problem severity.
Next, I consolidated findings in a pain points and opportunities map, converting each insight into User Stories and product requirements that would guide the ideation phase.
User Research
Objectives
The research sought to answer two central questions:
Can the website clearly explain how Bulbe's solution works?
Does the enrollment flow convey enough confidence for the user to complete the contract?
To answer these questions, two tasks were performed during testing.
In the first, participants freely explored the institutional website to understand the company's proposal.
In the second, users who weren't yet customers completed the entire enrollment process while verbalizing their perceptions and expectations.
At the end of each stage, interviews and questionnaires complemented observational data, allowing us to cross qualitative and quantitative evidence.
Key Findings
The two initial hypotheses were confirmed.
However, the research revealed an even more relevant problem: the difficulty wasn't in navigation, but in understanding and credibility of the value proposition.
Among observed patterns were:
users believed they would need to install solar panels in their homes;
there were doubts about the relationship between Bulbe and Cemig;
many didn't understand why they would continue receiving a utility bill;
the offered discount seemed "too good to be true", raising concerns about the service's legitimacy;
several participants didn't realize that completing the form would effectively initiate a contract;
upon finishing the sign-up, users didn't know what the next steps of the process would be.
these same patterns also appeared in the daily doubts recorded by the Support team, strengthening the reliability of the research findings.
From Research to Solution
the research results were transformed into User Stories and prioritized according to their impact on user experience and business objectives.
this process guided the main Design decisions.
all these decisions emerged directly from the evidence gathered during Discovery.
Experience Design
The Solution
O projeto englobou um redesenho completo do site institucional e do fluxo de cadastro da Bulbe.
um Design System compartilhado foi desenvolvido para todas as páginas, utilizando tokens, componentes reutilizáveis e variantes responsivas para desktop, tablet e mobile.
a arquitetura de informação foi reorganizada para responder às principais dúvidas dos usuários logo no início do funil, reduzindo a carga cognitiva antes da adesão.
entre as principais entregas estão:
Redesenho da Home, reforçando a proposta de valor, diferenciais e credibilidade da empresa;
criação da página Como Funciona, dedicada a explicar o modelo de geração distribuída;
desenvolvimento de infográficos interativos explicando o papel da Bulbe, da Cemig e do cliente ao longo de toda a jornada;
reestruturação da página Quem Somos, destacando usinas, certificações e autoridade da empresa;
criação de uma página dedicada para a Área do Cliente, centralizando perguntas frequentes e conteúdos sobre a Fatura Bulbe;
redesenho completo do fluxo de cadastro, migrando-o para um ambiente dedicado e tornando mais claros os próximos passos após a adesão.
todos os fluxos foram prototipados em alta fidelidade, incluindo interações, animações e comportamentos responsivos para diferentes dispositivos.
Results and Learning
upon project completion, I recommended that Bulbe conduct another round of user research to validate whether the implemented solutions had reduced doubts and increased confidence during the acquisition process.
despite the recommendation, this stage wasn't prioritized while I remained on the project.
subsequently, website maintenance was transferred to the company's internal team, which made changes to the originally developed solution.
this project reinforced a conviction that began to guide my work as a Product Designer: conversion improvements rarely start at the interface level. before optimizing flows, it's crucial to deeply understand what prevents people from trusting, comprehending, and making decisions.
