Monitoring + Purchasing
Provided wireframes, a UI spec, and ongoing review feedback for a Fuel Gauge application that tracks data plan usage. The application alerts the user when metered resources run low and provides access to a purchasing site.
Mobile Application
Challenges
Information design was challenging because of limited space and plan complexity. Plans often include multiple resources—e.g., time, data, web, video, email, home vs. roaming. Some plans add daily limits or invoke throttling behavior when a threshold is reached.
Solution
Each resource has a color-coded “fuel gauge” graphic with explanatory text to help the user monitor and make purchasing decisions.
“Best practice” is to synthesize complex information for the user. For example, if a 2GB plan has a 500MB daily limit, the fuel gauge turns red when use is close to the daily limit. The explanatory text says “500MB available in 3 hrs: 20 min.”
However, with limited resources for developing algorithms, the final UI groups multiple fuel gauges under a plan title with each resource type clearly labeled.
