Democratizing access to Brazil’s electricity market data
Designing a unified developer portal to connect complex regulated APIs to external innovation.
Context
CCEE — the Chamber for the Commercialization of Electrical Energy — holds the most critical data in Brazil’s electricity market. For years, that data was accessible through two fragmented channels: a complex SOAP Integration Platform for certified agents and a static Open Data portal for the general public.
As the energy market opened up, demand for programmatic access grew. Startups, analysts and developers were left with outdated PDF manuals, scattered Postman collections and a steep learning curve involving digital certificates and rigid regulatory protocols.
The Challenge
The core challenge was twofold: simplify integration for external innovators without compromising the security and compliance required of internal agents. We needed to translate “bureaucratic” requirements into a modern, intuitive developer experience.
How might we create a single entry point that serves both a sophisticated trading-algorithm developer and a business analyst looking for historical price trends?
My Role
I led product design from discovery through delivery, acting as translator between technical architects, regulatory stakeholders and end users:
- Mapping complex journeys for three primary personas — CCEE Agents, external Startups/Energy Techs, and Business Analysts
- Defining the information architecture to unify SOAP and REST documentation
- Designing interactive wireframes for the API Playground and Dashboard
- Collaborating with engineering to define viable technical constraints for the sandbox environment
The Process
a.Discovery & persona definition
We identified three primary personas beyond the generic “developer”: CCEE Agents (distributors, generators and retailers integrating mandatory APIs under certificate-based authentication), Startups & Energy Techs (needing fast, public REST access without complex certification) and Business Analysts (tracking spot prices and market trends). Each persona shaped a dedicated onboarding journey.
b.Synthesis & user flows
We mapped a distinct journey for each persona: “CCEE Agent — First Integration” (certificate setup, sandbox testing, production rollout), “Startup — I want public data” (no-signup access to open datasets and REST queries) and “Analyst — I need insights” (glossary, spot-price visualization and exports). Visualizing these paths revealed where users dropped off due to unclear technical guidance.
c.Design & prototyping
I designed high-fidelity wireframes for the core features: a hierarchical documentation sidebar, an interactive SOAP simulator and a REST code-snippet generator. The goal was to move from “reading about” the API to “testing it” in seconds.
Outcome & Impact
A centralized, role-based developer portal that reduced integration time and support overhead.
Unified Experience: scattered documentation migrated into a single, searchable knowledge base
Reduced Support Load: interactive playgrounds and clear error guides cut basic technical tickets by around 40%
Faster Onboarding: new market agents can now validate digital certificates and test endpoints independently in the sandbox
Ecosystem Growth: lowered the barrier for startups building value-added services on CCEE’s open data
Learnings
Designing for developers requires a different mindset: clarity is more valuable than creativity. I learned that in highly regulated environments, the “product” isn’t just the interface — it’s the trust and security built into the user flow. Facilitating alignment between legal/compliance teams and UX designers was key to unlocking a modern experience.