New account website in beta

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I’ll kick off. I’m used to having a stack of account pages waiting in my (vertical) tab list. Once I’d discovered where the old pages had migrated to, I was disappointed to see this:
  

 
For comparison, this is what the tab stack used to look like:
  

I’m hoping this is a temporary shortcoming on somebody’s ‘to do’ list, along with adding a favicon.

Quick check on my account reveals:

Which only applies to my gas usage (on any day I choose to check ) - electric is ok. On the “old “ website the gas info. is up to date. 

There could be other differences but I haven’t time to check atm.

Mmmm…… better correct myself here - the equivalent page on the old website also showing the gas daily usage missing some data BUT looking at the monthly page ( which is the one I usually check on ) the gas DAILY usages are shown in both cases ! Maybe there’s been a gremlin in the works for a while ?

Thanks for putting this together ​@Firedog 

Great idea and a perfect way to get the community getting their voices shared and heard on changes that affect them. 

I’ve shared the post thread with one of our key stakeholders linked to the website and the Forum team will continually monitor the thread and pass points across as it grows.

We’ll also aim to provide any updates and changes that we hear have been implemented too!

This thread isn’t just for grumbles and bug reports - if you think something is better than it was, then say so! Here’s my first

💐Bouquet

At the old site, it was always troubling that quantities were expressed with less precision than the level available. I was delighted to see that both the Meter readings page and the billing details page now show consumption values with the precision afforded by the meter - for most modern meters, that’s to the nearest 0.001kWh. Here’s a comparison of meter readings:
  

 The new billing details page now shows the maximum precision:
  

It’s a long time since I asked for this, so many thanks to whoever made it possible. Now, if only they’d apply the same principles to usage data … That will be a topic for another post.

Already LOVING the upgrade!

But I’ve found a missing feature - the Direct Debit Calculator and prediction graph. Is that one on the roadmap to drag over?

At a quick first look:

I’m not too keen on the new usage charts.

In the current portal version the half hourly figures for each day are in two columns on the same page, making it easy to copy/paste each column into a spreadsheet. (for records and calculating PM percentages).

In the beta version the half hourly figures for each day are are spread over 4 pages, they are in reverse order starting at 23.30 then descending, and even worse do not copy/paste correctly into the spreadsheet.

Current:

Beta:

In fact just copy/pasting from the first page of the beta (as screen shotted above) I’m not at all sure what is being copied/pasted.
AM and PM slots yes, but a jumble of AM and PM all in one column some with odd figures such as 2.24 AM and 9.36 AM which seem to be in place of the usage figure.
It looks to me like it’s copying - timestamp (descending); blank field; odd AM figure in place of the actual usage - and pasting it all into one column.
 

Numerical values: Precision

I’ve shown in a previous post how the display of consumption figures (kWh) has improved on readings and billing pages. Some of these figures used to be shown with 0, 1 or 2 decimals ​​​​​with no declared justification for the choice. Since most modern meters return values with 3 decimals (i.e. to the nearest 0.001kWh), there can be little reason to round or truncate them.

The same reasonableness hasn’t stretched to usage pages with all their vital statistics. If I want to check what my background usage (i.e. the consumption by devices that have to run continuously) is, I’ve found that the best indicator is half-hourly usage data for the wee small hours of the morning, say 02:00 - 05:00. At that stage, all lights are out (except perhaps sensor-controlled security lights) and everything that can be switched off is off. All that’s left are relatively insignificant items like modem/router, IHD and mains-powered heat/smoke alarms, and some really important ones - fridges and freezers. So what does my night-time consumption look like? Here’s a rather complicated graphic showing my consumption in the middle of last night, from four different sources. Of course, they all originate in the same place - my meter, but how they’re presented is wildly different.
  

I don’t really think I need to explain how misleading this might be. Just one example: my usage at 03:00 was the same (0.00kWh) as at 03:30 according to the new website. According to the app, it was only ¼ of the 03:30 amount (0.01 | 0.04). However, the true figures as revealed by the API show that the consumption at 03:30 was more than five times what it had been at 03:00! (the 03:00 figures give the usage in the half-hour 03:00-03:29).

Please may I ask for (a) consistency, and (b) preferably maximum precision when displaying usage figures?

Numerical values: Presentation
  

1. 👍Meter readings no longer show leading zeroes.
   I’m sure having leading zeroes was the norm before to match the entries made when submitting readings manually. If the meter was capable of showing five digits before the decimal point, then that is what had to be submitted, even if the first digits were all zero. This is not necessary with smart meters, so it was time to bring this format up to date.
     
2. 👎Meter readings don’t show trailing zeroes.
   This is a pity. If a reading happens to end with no units or tens, the zeroes aren’t displayed. It’s obvious what the figure is when you look closely, but missing zeroes at the end of the number offset the whole number and make it difficult to scan the column as a whole. It’s really simple to achieve, so can we please see trailing zeroes where appropriate?
     
3. When OVO decided to upgrade its typographic style a couple of years ago, they invested in a custom-built variant of the Lineto Circular typeface. I hope the web designers were given the opportunity of voting for the features they would like to have; among them are tabular numerals. [Tabular numerals are designed with the same width, so that - say - 88,888,88 takes up the same width as 11,111.11. This means the decimal points will always line up as well.]
   
   When the typeface was first introduced, I suggested that this feature ought to be used at the account site for tabular data, no matter whether the data are actually in an HTML table or not. This is particularly important for financial data, so that columns of figures line up, making for less error-prone entry on a numerical keypad, say. The same applies to meter readings. I’ll dig out my illustrations of the difference if anyone’s interested, but meanwhile I’ll ask:
   Please could tabular numerals be used for tabular data at the new site?
     

PS after a couple of hours playing: I think all it takes is to apply the typeface’s alternate stylistic set 5. All this appears to do is to broaden the digit 1; the other numerals seem to have the same width when rendered, and no other glyphs are affected that I could spot. I used font-feature-settings: "ss05";  in a likely spot to get what I was trying  to achieve.

 

Select account

  
For some historical reason, I have two OVO accounts. I know where the second came from, but it has never been used and no-one has been able to get rid of it. So what? 

The account site has for many years had a sign-in time-out of, I think, 30 minutes. This is frustrating enough by itself, but now having to select an account every time I’m signed out is extremely annoying, especially when it’s the wrong account that’s selected by default.
  

I’ve commented about this irritant that has affected the OVO Energy app for some time, but now seeing it at the new site is really disappointing.

• Please can the 30-minute timeout be relaxed, or perhaps made optional? 
• Can the account selection be stored (e.g. in the Mixpanel cookies like it always has been) to avoid having to make it for every single sign-in?