Home Retrofit Assessment Platform

An expert process, aimed at non-experts

Retrofitting a home well depends on reliable building data, expert surveying and accurate energy modelling. Homeowners rarely have any of those things or the knowledge to judge them.

That left a gap between accessible decision-making for non-expert users and the genuinely complex technical process underneath. The question was whether a digital product could simplify the decision without sacrificing technical reliability.

Reframing a feature as a service

We framed this project as a service + platform: retrieve public property data, run a pre-qualifying assessment, and the homeowner is guided towards a recommended package.

• Data inputs: property information publically available from EPC data
• Pre-qualifier: assessment of energy efficiency impact
• Decision support: tailored improvement recommendations

Validating demand and viability together

This was a feasibility study with two questions running in parallel: is there real market demand, and is the product actually viable? I worked from a clear set of principles:

• Reduce complexity for non-expert users
• Guide people toward reliable outcomes, not just more options
• Align the interface with how the service really runs: survey → recommendations

A guided, mobile-first prototype

I designed a prototype that generates tailored recommendations from property data, connects homeowners to qualified surveyors, and structures information progressively - simple on the surface, technically honest underneath.

An evidence-based go / no-go

• Validated early market interest with potential user groups
• Demonstrated it's feasible to combine public property data with energy modelling
• Gave leadership a clear, evidence-based decision on product direction and investment

When you design for non-experts in a technically complex domain, the real job is structuring their decision-making so they reach an outcome they can trust. — Project takeaway