Access management for EV charging

Help admins easily setup charging programs and manage EV drivers.

Overview

Context ChargePoint’s admin portal was critical for workplaces to manage access on EV charging stations and help drivers accordingly use charging stations . Overtime the admin portal had grown into a powerful but complex, fragmented tool with outdated patterns. It worked well for power users like support agents who knew where everything lived, but left everyday station admins struggling with even the most basic tasks, like setting access policies and approving drivers. This led to operational bottleneck. Support was swamped with 20k setup-related cases and stations took up to 6 months before becoming available to drivers.

Goal
Our goal was to redesign admin portal to create streamlined, scalable workflows that help admins effortlessly set who can charge, when, and at what price ensuring drivers get reliable information about charging access.

IMPACT

The redesign turned Access Management from a support-heavy system into a self-service platform. Admins regained control, drivers gained clarity, and support teams could focus on growth instead of troubleshooting

• 45% increase in subscription revenue

• 20% reduction in support call volume

CONSTRAINt

The admin portal was built on legacy code which was soon to be retired. All new development needed to happen in new framework. Design team took this opportunity to create a new design system that works across our apps to have shared taxonomy and patterns to have consistency and increase design velocity.

research

Key USers in the ecosystem

The system served

1. Novice admins: new to charging programs

2. Advanced admins: need bulk actions to efficiently operate at scale

3. EV drivers: need the app to reliably show the right access and pricing set by admins

Delays and usability errors while setting up station charging policies led to:

• Stranded EV drivers desperately looking for charge

• Angry EV driver messages and emails to admins

• HR escalations

MApped Existing Process & gaps

The admin portal helped admin create station and driver groups and apply different policies on them such as:

• Access hours

• Pricing shown in-app

• Driver eligibility

• Station visibility

DESIGN Guidelines

1. Unify the setup: One workflow instead of fragmented tabs.

2. Empower self-service: Provide contextual help and smart defaults when possible.

3. Connected systems: Reflect admin actions instantly across driver and support touch points.

4. Progressive clarity: Surface only what’s relevant for the user’s experience level.

Problem1: Hop Across Tabs to setup hours, pricing and eligibility policies

Admins needed to move between 4 disconnected screens living in its own tab to configure a single charging program. It resulted in knowledge gaps and workflow gaps

SolutioN 1: A streamlined single form workflow to setup All the policies

Introduced progressive form patterns where each policy (hours, pricing, eligibility) expands with helpful defaults. Enabled bulk actions for large-scale admin operations

Problem2: Setting multi-level pricing policy was the most complex and confusing

Multilayer pricing (peak, off-peak, idle, employee vs guest tiers) was powerful but intimidating. Created high dependency on support as they helped admins to break even or get competitive edge.

solution 2: A self serve experience with contextual help

Inline explanations, examples, and benchmark comparisons (e.g., “What similar businesses charge”).

Problem3: Admins had to use time consuming manual driver approval process

The admins preferred a hands off process to add drivers to the charging network but he auto approval was a dumb process where the network was made secret (with code numbers) making it hard for drivers to look for it. hard to track if code numbers was being misused or leaked as once out drivers got automatically added to the charging network. So admins resorted to Manual approval process which was time consuming. Workplaces needed “employee-first” rules.

Solution3: Flexible Approval automatation

Auto-approve trusted groups, while keeping manual review options for others. Admins gained confidence and time back.

DESIGN system

I created and documented a unified design system for admins, support teams, and EV drivers. Shared taxonomy, patterns and reusable components made the system scalable and increased product velocity. I detailed implementation notes in confluence and shared my organized Figma files with developers.

Cross PLatform impact

The changes in admin portal opened up opportunities to show rich information on driver app that helped drivers:

• Easily find eligible stations they can charge at

• Trust the app

• Easily request access to start charge

Drivers misinterpreted that the pricing was set by ChargePoint. Added help text to convey it was set by the workplace.

reflection

This project reminded me that simplicity isn’t about removing features, it’s about aligning systems with human expectations, . Designing for admins meant designing trust into every decision