Mercury Cosy

Overview

Mercury Cosy was a digital product concept created for Mercury Energy to make home insulation easier for everyday homeowners to understand and improve.

The project transformed a traditionally technical, expert-led process into a simple visual journey — helping people assess their home's insulation, understand what the results meant, and discover practical next steps without needing specialist knowledge.

The problem

New Zealand homes can lose a significant amount of heat through inadequate insulation. While improving insulation can make homes warmer, healthier and more energy efficient, understanding the current condition of a home is not easy for most homeowners.

Existing information was often technical and fragmented. People had to interpret reports, understand unfamiliar terminology and work out what improvements were actually relevant to their property.

The opportunity was to make this information more accessible, understandable and actionable.

The challenge

The challenge was to make home insulation information more accessible and engaging for everyday homeowners. Many people lack the time or technical knowledge to read long reports or arrange in-person inspections.

The goal was to design a simple, visual and interactive solution that helps users quickly understand their home's insulation condition and learn how to improve it — all without needing expert assistance.

Pain points

Research into the existing experience highlighted several recurring problems:

• Homeowners had limited understanding of insulation and where problems might exist in their home.
• Technical reports contained too much information and were difficult to interpret.
• Important findings were not always translated into clear actions.
• Different parts of the journey — assessment, advice, products and expert support — felt disconnected.
• Users needed a faster way to understand what mattered without becoming insulation experts themselves.

Design opportunities

From the research, we identified several opportunities to simplify the experience.

Make the assessment approachable

Instead of asking homeowners to understand technical insulation terminology, the experience could guide them through a simple questionnaire using familiar questions about their property.

Turn data into a visual story

Rather than presenting users with a dense report, the product could translate their answers into a visual representation of the home — showing where insulation exists, where heat may be escaping and what could be improved.

Connect insight with action

Recommendations should not stop at explaining the problem. The experience could connect homeowners with relevant products, practical guidance and experts who could help complete the work.

The solution

A one-stop digital insulation experience

We designed a fully digital product concept that connects homeowners with insulation expertise through one coherent journey.

The experience combines a guided questionnaire, a personalised visual report, practical recommendations and access to experts — allowing users to move from "What is happening in my home?" to "What should I do next?" without leaving the experience.

Guided questionnaire

The journey begins with a lightweight questionnaire designed to collect the information needed to understand the user's home without overwhelming them.

Simple language, illustrations and progressive steps reduce the cognitive load of the assessment and make a technical subject feel approachable.

Visualised report

Instead of returning a traditional text-heavy report, the experience translates the assessment into a visual model of the user's home.

Illustrations help users understand where insulation is present, identify potential problem areas and see recommended improvements in context. The report combines visual explanation with practical information so users can understand both what is happening and why it matters.

Work with experts

For homeowners who want additional support, the experience creates a clear bridge between self-service information and professional help.

Rather than treating the digital experience as the end of the journey, the product connects users with experts who can provide further advice and help turn recommendations into real improvements.

The result

Mercury Cosy explored how a complex home-improvement service could become a more accessible digital product by combining education, assessment, visualisation and expert support in one experience.

The concept helped demonstrate how Mercury could move beyond providing energy and become a more useful partner in creating warmer, healthier and more energy-efficient homes.

The project received a Silver Award at the Best Design Awards 2020.