Improving interfaces - four years in a row
SMA Solar Technology AG | UI/UX Designer | 2021 - 2025 | Sunny Portal, 360° Installer App | NDA - visuals limited
Going into the project
Sunny Portal powered by ennexOS is the web platform through which solar system owners monitor their energy production and consumption. The SMA 360° app was a separate, greenfield product built specifically for solar installers — designed to replace a slow, complex commissioning process with something that could be completed on a phone instead of a laptop. Both products shared the same underlying problem: a gap between what users needed in the field and what the software actually delivered. The portal had grown into something dated and inconsistent. The app was a chance to start fresh.
Auditing the old
Feature additions across multiple teams had left Sunny Portal visually inconsistent and increasingly hard to navigate. The first task was mapping where the UI had drifted and establishing what a coherent baseline should look like — work that ran in parallel with the broader design system effort.
The auditing was already in progress when I joined, as there was already a lot of work done by my design peers. Nevertheless there was a lot of opportunity for me to gain the insights on what could be improved.
image source: https://www.sma-sunny.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sunny-Portal_Blog-3_figure-1.jpg
image source: https://manuals.sma.de/OffGridSystem-PL/Images/jpg/10428772107__Print.jpg
Modernizing the new
The portal had an active user base. Improvements had to be introduced incrementally, if possible — better visual hierarchy, updated components, cleaner layouts — without disorienting users who already knew their way around. This meant working closely with engineers to phase changes in without breaking existing flows.
Improving the commissioning
The 360° app was a different challenge entirely. The goal was a fast, straightforward commissioning process for solar installers — scanning QR codes, discovering devices, configuring systems, and registering on Sunny Portal.
Every step had to be carefully considered and kept the professionals in mind who later on had to use the app. Shaky connection and bad lighting were just two of the considerations that I had to make.
image source: https://www.sma-sunny.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sunny-Portal_Blog-3_figure-1.jpg
image source: https://en.sma-sunny.com/files/2017/05/PVSystemSetupAssistant-SunnyPortalHomeManagerExchangeStep5.png
Prototype, present, repeat
Every feature went through Figma: wireframes, high-fidelity designs, interactive prototypes, and annotated specs for engineering. Working directly with developers meant catching issues before they became bugs, not after.
Design decisions also had to be regularly presented. In the agile work environment this was often done by my product owner but more often than not I had the chance to present my work to 150+ people on Teams.
Results
More intuitive to use
The functions were kept the same. But users had an easier understanding on what was happening with their solar system than before.
Visual consistency
Every feature was now following an underlying design system and language.
Understanding the issues
Not everything could be done immediately. Having said that, the feedback from users was still valuable to apply when figuring out anything and everything.
One more thing about the Apps…
Detailed screens cannot be shown publicly due to NDA. The SMA 360° app is publicly available on the App Store and Google Play — the product you can download is the one I helped design. Happy to walk through specific decisions in a conversation.