OVO Energy

January 2025 - Present

As a Staff Product Designer, I led the redesign of OVO’s in-app customer rewards offering, Beyond.

In collaboration with the propositions and design system teams, I reimagined how Beyond was positioned and consumed, as well as rationalising Beyond’s relationship with OVO’s other reward schemes, such as OVO Live and paid-for products and services. My goals were clear: enhance perceived value and drive greater engagement and retention.

Who we redesigned it for:

We redesigned our rewards offerings with three key customer segments in mind:

1. Active - these are customers who have arranged a direct debit with us and have installed a smart meter. As such, they are able to access our full rewards range. Our priority for these customers was to increase their perceived value of our offering and to increase engagement and retention.

2. Eligible - these are customers who hadn’t yet arranged a direct debit with us and/or installed a smart meter. If they were to do so, they’d be eligible to access our full rewards range. Our priority for these customers was to incentivise and inform.

3. Ineligible - these are primarily Pay As You Go customers, or whose properties aren’t suitable for a smart meter. Our priority here is how to ensure perceived value with limited access to our rewards range.

We’d outgrown our old home

Beyond lived within the home and offers screens. As our partnerships and propositions had grown and evolved, it became clear that we needed a dedicated space within the app through which we could scale.

Defining a vision for the app

Our work on rewards didn’t happening in isolation. Our ambitions necessitated a foundational shift in our design system, with a key focus on personalisation and contextualisation.

1. Personalisation - We redesigned the app to reflect each customer’s individual setup—whether they use Pay As You Go, Direct Debit, a smart meter, or products like EV charging—so every experience starts with what matters most to them.

2. Contextualisation - Our modular approach allowed us to create multiple, personalised entry points for rewards. Alongside a consistent position in the navigation, contextualised cards allowed for improved way-finding and discovery.

Do points mean prizes?

We were intrigued by the idea of developing a points-based rewards system that could assist us in unifying our offering, whilst driving engagement and increasing retention. Whilst the concept of collecting points isn’t new to the retail sector, its application within the energy market is recent by comparison.

So, in collaboration with our content design team, I wove a design solution into the existing interface utilising our latest design system components. We released this as a time-limited beta for 10,000 customers where different offers were released each week for four weeks. Early results indicate a substantial increase in engagement and conversions, meaning that points may indeed mean prizes!

Bringing it all together

I led several workshops bringing together product management, XD and the propositions team. We captured existing research, defined user needs, created sketches and prioritised features.

Our design solution brought together Beyond and OVO Live into a dedicated ‘Rewards’ section, whilst paid-for products and services were decoupled from ‘Offers’ and given their own new home.

Within the Rewards section, customers can instantly perceive the value of their Beyond membership—tracking their points and energy credit accruals, the value of offers they've claimed, and their progress towards net zero through a dedicated achievements section. Seasonal or one-time rewards are united alongside partner perks, core propositions such as ‘Free Electricity’ and OVO Live, which offers exclusive access to events at venues like the OVO Arena Wembley.