Talking Their Language

Using conversational design to make complex policy driven solar upgrades easy, inclusive and action focused.

Situation

For over four years, the NSW Government’s Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) had been researching and developing a program to address the “split incentives” barrier in the rental sector, a challenge where the cost of energy efficiency upgrades like solar panels is carried by the landlord, while the tenant benefits through reduced bills.

This research confirmed that rental properties, especially in the low income segment, were far less energy efficient than owner occupied homes. The problem wasn’t just financial, it was also experiential. The process to install solar on a rental property was complex, involving multiple parties (landlords, tenants, installers, property managers) and navigating long, information heavy government web pages where even simple answers could be hard to find.

When I joined the project team the program already had years of quantitative and qualitative research, but there was a gap between that data and a usable, human centred solution that could fit within government service delivery guidelines. My role was to translate that research into a practical, engaging and efficient experience for landlords that could be delivered within the constraints of the existing OEH digital environment.

Task

As the UX/UI and Conversational Designer, my primary task was to focus on the landlord user journey for solar installation mapping the full end to end process, identifying the biggest pain points and designing a solution that would:

Streamline navigation and reduce the time spent searching for information.
Make technical and policy driven content accessible and easy to understand.
Offer flexible support pathways, from self service to direct human contact.
Remain compliant with public sector accessibility, brand and tone guidelines.

Action

Immersing in existing research
I reviewed almost four years of OEH R&D outputs, including surveys, interviews, persona development, empathy maps and journey mapping. This gave me a deep understanding of landlord motivations, such as wanting to contribute positively to the environment, maintain good tenant relationships and make sound investments. The fears of cost blowouts, poor installation quality and the inevitable information overload was a main concern also.

Surfacing actionable insights
Through affinity mapping and persona validation, I identified recurring issues:

Confusing navigation and difficulty finding even basic details on government sites.
Lack of clear, validated reviews of installers and processes.
Overwhelm due to the number of steps, approvals and decision points in the process.
The need for reassurance that the investment aligned with financial and environmental goals.

Designing the solution
While my design focus was on the landlord’s journey, I deliberately avoided working in a silo.

The Solar Knowledge Chatbot was mapped to serve all user types involved in the process such as landlords, tenants, installers and property managers. This meant conversation mapping covered the full spectrum of questions each group might have, ensuring the solution was flexible and inclusive.

By consolidating these journeys into one product, the chatbot acted as a single, central virtual assistant. Users could get the right information, forms, and “paperwork” in one place, without having to navigate separate areas of the site or repeat their search across multiple channels.

Key design decisions

A friendly, approachable bot character with a consistent, accessible tone of voice.
Structured IA so users could complete their query in one interaction.
Mobile first messaging constraints (max 90 characters per response) and intentional pacing for natural feel.
Exit points to schedule calls, book an appointment, or receive tailored information by email.
Varied responses for repeated queries to maintain engagement and avoid bot fatigue.

Prototyping and flows
I developed detailed user flows and task flows to map every possible conversation path for all personas. Wireframes visualised how the chatbot would integrate seamlessly into the existing NSW Government site without disrupting established navigation structures. The prototype was then passed to OEH for further usability testing and refinement.

Result

The chatbot prototype was positioned to deliver:

Reduced time to information by consolidating content from across multiple government pages.
A multi user experience serving landlords, tenants, installers and property managers from the same entry point.
Multiple communication options to match different user preferences.
Better conversion potential by removing friction in the research and decision stages.

While the final usability testing and build out were carried out internally, my work established a scalable, user centred conversational design framework for government services handling complex, information heavy topics.

Conclusion

This project demonstrated how public sector services can be transformed by applying commercial grade conversational design principles with a multi user mindset. By consolidating separate journeys into one accessible virtual assistant, the experience was made simpler, faster and more human helping NSW landlords, tenants and stakeholders adopt sustainable technology with confidence.

BACK