Why charging needs to be designed

At ABB E-mobility, we are investing in user experience and design to bring together clearer guidance for drivers and greater freedom for you to express your brand. This is the first in a series exploring that approach, beginning with how a familiar charging journey and a configurable brand experience can work together.

A charger has to explain itself

When you think about charging design, the shape of the product, its colors or the logo on the screen may come to mind first. The experience also takes shape in the information people need, when they need it, and why.

Is the charger available? Which connector should I use? How do I authorize or pay? Understanding those moments is foundational to guiding someone through charging. Translating them through design should make the experience easy to use for the first time and familiar for repeated use.

For a driver, the charger screen can be the direct conversation your site has with them. It welcomes them, tells them what to do next and sends them on their way. That conversation carries your brand, including the moments when someone needs help. The clarity of an instruction deserves as much attention as the logo beside it.

That gives you another way to evaluate the experience. Alongside asking whether a screen looks like your brand, consider what it is like to arrive at your site for the first time. Can someone understand what to do without already knowing your equipment? The welcome begins with helping them feel confident enough to start.

Your brand, a familiar journey

You operate the charging sites and own the relationship with the people who use them. The experience needs to reflect your brand, market and business model. At the same time, we have a shared responsibility to build familiarity and ease of use for drivers.

Those needs belong together. A driver should be able to recognize your brand without having to learn a different way to charge at every site.

That is why we have worked closely with customers to build a configurable system. The core journey remains familiar, while you can adapt logos, colors, messaging, brand videos and screensavers. The configuration tool lets your team preview those choices and publish them to selected chargers or a wider network.

This gives you room to think beyond logo placement. A welcome message can reflect the difference between a highway stop and a retail car park. During charging, a message can introduce your loyalty app or explain member benefits. Each is an opportunity to make the experience more relevant, while keeping guidance through the charging session clear.

Timing matters as much as the message. Before charging starts, someone may be concentrating on payment and the next instruction. Once the session is underway, information about member benefits may be more useful. When previewing your configuration, consider where each message belongs in that journey. Making space for your brand also means knowing when to give the charging instructions priority.

One experience, beyond the screen

The configuration approach introduced for the A400’s human-machine interface, or HMI, uses modules and components built on a shared platform. The OM System expands that principle across the digital interface and physical product. Panels, lighting and sound are considered alongside the screen as parts of the experience.

This is system design: considering how the parts work together and how the product serves everyone who depends on it.

The driver may be the most visible user, but you also have to manage the site. Installers have to bring equipment online, and service technicians may need to maintain it years later. Treating those needs as one connected design problem means considering operation, installation and service alongside the driver’s journey.

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Good charging design has to serve both the person using the charger and the business operating it. For a driver, that means clarity and familiarity. For you, it means expressing your brand and adapting to local needs. Our job is to build a system that can do both.

Start with your own sites: what should drivers recognize, what do they need to understand, and where could your messaging be more useful? Those questions turn brand configuration into a practical discussion about the experience you want to offer.