You open your energy app to save money, but the best time to use energy is not obvious. So you guess, and you miss cheaper off peak windows.
The Problem
How might we help households spot cheaper off peak windows in time, and feel confident acting on them without learning energy jargon.
The Solution
We designed a real time off peak guidance experience, supported by goals, progress, and tips.
These charts show the cost of suboptimal timing. Usage peaks in the evening just as prices spike, so households consume more during the most expensive window and pay more without realising a cheaper period is coming.
For users, that means higher bills and low confidence. For Octopus Energy, it means weaker adoption of time of use behaviours and less value realised from Agile style pricing.
THE PROBLEM
What is really getting in the way
When pricing is hard to interpret, people default to doing nothing. Three barriers kept coming up.
PEAK PRICING CONFUSION
Users don’t fully understand how peak pricing affects their bills
LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
There’s a knowledge gap around renewable energy benefits and how users can optimise
LIMITED MOTIVATION
Without clear incentives, users are hesitant to change their habits
So we focused on removing those barriers by making cheaper windows impossible to miss, turning them into clear next steps, and reinforcing the habit through goals, progress, and simple tips that fit real routines.
To ground the problem in a real routine, we focused on Sarah, a 27 year old marketing manager in London who works from home and closely watches her bills. She is not looking for more information. She wants confidence. If pricing is unclear, she defaults to the safest option, doing nothing. Our job was to make the next best action feel obvious in the moment, so she can save without learning energy jargon.
After anchoring on Sarah, we scanned how other providers drive load shifting. Most approaches either rely on fixed off peak windows and discounts, or expect customers to actively monitor prices and plan ahead.
Octopus already has the strongest real time pricing capability through Agile, but the value only lands when people notice the moment and feel confident acting. That insight shaped our direction, turn pricing signals into clear prompts in the moment, then reinforce better timing through goals, progress, and practical tips.
SOLUTION
The solution real time cues goals and rewards
Why It Works
The issue is not missing data, it is missing clarity. This experience turns pricing into a decision you can make in the moment, then reinforces repeat behaviour through goals, progress, and practical tips so savings build over time.
DELIVERY & PITCH
A Winning Idea
Team: Coral 8
We were a team of eight Coral 8 working end to end in a 24 hour hackathon format from problem framing and research synthesis to concepting UI flows and a final pitch. We presented the concept to Octopus Energy judges in a 10 minute pitch and handled follow up questions on feasibility and adoption.
Feedback from Judges
We were a team of eight Coral 8 working end to end in a 24 hour hackathon format from problem framing and research synthesis to concepting UI flows and a final pitch. We presented the concept to Octopus Energy judges in a 10 minute pitch and handled follow up questions on feasibility and adoption.
• Strong UX led concept that is clear to navigate
• Clean, uncluttered UI that stays on brand
• Incentives and gamification align with Octopus direction
• Energy saving tips feel familiar, on brand, and useful
• Behavioural psychology approach matched internal research
What needed tightening
• Prove real world impact and sustained behaviour change
• Validate how well it scales across different tariffs and routines
What I learned
When a system is complex more data rarely solves it translation does. Real time cues outperform static dashboards when the goal is behaviour change. Incentives work best when paired with clear next actions not just tracking.