CONNOR RAY COX
UX/UI DESIGNER
The goal was to design a gardening companion app with tips and reminders on how to care for your houseplant. The key was to offer an approachable personalized experience, using common language alongside a clean, fresh design. I took 4 weeks to work through the Research, Define, Design, and Testing stages while maintaining a human-centered design approach to reduce risk and uncertainty.
To understand the potential user's needs, motivations and possible frustrations.
There has been an increasing trend in gardening with more than a third of millennials growing plant and herbs indoors. With the benefits of plants for relaxation and air purity, millennials are becoming the leading group in the horticulture business. To kickstart the project I gathered research from a variety of sources to help inform my user demographic; Millennials aged 22-35.
Numerous plant databases, plant identifiers and care reminder apps already exist. Basic reminders offered little to keep the user engaged long-term, while project-based feeds covered an overwhelming range of topics. The challenge was to find a middle ground that answered the needs of the indoor gardener with flexibility to personalize and provide information in a language the user could understand.
I started by spending time analyzing and understanding the competition: primarily their methods, pitfalls and successes. I drew common themes to better empathize with the user.
COMMON THEMES
Looking to uncover how and why millennials find out information about plant care, I conducted some empathy interviews. Participants were 22-35 years old. These not only confirmed the growing interest but the pitfalls of indoor gardening.
KEY INSIGHTS
Secondary research confirmed the increased trend in gardening, with more than a third of millennials growing plant and herbs indoors. Projections estimate that by 2050, 87.4% of the population will be living in urban areas and anxiety will be the number one health issue, outranking obesity. With the benefits of plants for relaxation and air purity, millennials are becoming the leading group in the horticulture business.
After conducting Empathy and Secondary Research, it was revealed that I had three primary levels of gardeners who all have slightly differing needs to account for.
Taking the provisional personas I wanted to expand on what the users' thought process would be when acquiring and caring for a plant. So, I created a hypothetical journey map to discover potential pain-points.
With a base understanding of my potential users I wanted to get to know the specific user to inform design-thinking decisions. This would allow me to design for a singular user that represented my typical user.
Interviewing six participants I asked open-ended questions about their lifestyle, plant acquisition and care techniques.
Informed by the user research, I uncovered the specific stages of my users' journey and developed three strong personas to help drive the design for a variety of users. While they shared many needs and frustrations, the app would need to have the flexibility to keep all users engaged.
* View complete User PersonasOBJECTIVE
USER GOAL
* View COMPLETE Feature RoadmapI visualized the features by developing a simple site map to work off of. I then developed user and task flows that utilized the preferred features necessary to the app.
Research suggested that navigation simplicity was paramount, so I spent a great deal trying to design the simplest path for the user to follow. However, I realized that users would also need the ability to traverse alternate paths in case they took an alternative navigation approach. This helped form a better understanding of how all of the components could work together in a variety of ways in order for the user to achieve the desired goal.
During the research phase, I created a mood board that referenced both plant and task tracking apps in order to gain design pattern inspiration. I also looked to my product features, site map, task flows and user flows in order to form a complete low-fidelity version to test.
First with pencil and paper followed by a self-built, low-fidelity UI Kit I was able to construct an overview of the app and make changes both to the flow and visual language. I was looking to create a balance between the flow, understand the visual nature of the app and include an educational aspect to the app design.
I analyzed the common themes, key insights and potential features discovered during the research and define phases. I focused the initial Low-Fi wireframes' design on familiarity, simplicity and clarity in order to satisfy the users needs and goals.
The most important insight to consider was the app's usability and navigation elements. The users expressed a necessity for a simple and intuitive navigation in order to browse the app efficiently. So I referenced the task tracking apps as well as additional plant tracking apps for feature design inspiration.
* View ALL Low-Fi WireframesAfter conducting a physical usability test on my sketches I made slight adjustments and converted them into digital wireframes in Figma using my low-fi UI Kit. I was able to set up and adjust key elements quickly and with confidence.
Research revealed the importance of providing a design that was flexible despite the user's plant care experience. Strong imagery, navigation simplicity and basic learnability of the app became paramount while developing the brand.
A dark background, vibrant color scheme and strong bold imagery would guide a first-time user along the path of discovery while giving a seasoned veteran a portfolio to keep track of their collection.
Throughout the design phase I periodically worked on developing a functional logo. After brain-sketching designs, I started to convert two specific styles digitally in Figma. Eventually I settled on one style and ran with an abundance of iterations until landing on the final logo design.
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I moved from a creative, detail-driven design to the finalized the logo. Because of the need for the logo to be designed for a mobile app, I transitioned it to be Simple, Modern, and Scalable.
* View preliminary logo designsResearch revealed the users' desire to use plants as an interior design element which made it essential not to distract the user during navigation.
Starting with a dark-themed design, I implemented a vibrant color palette while utilizing a simple gray scale for the typography and accents. I also designed icons and buttons that were eye-catching and unique while remaining intuitive and familiar. Always maintaining that navigation elements' familiarity remained essential. Research suggested that strong vibrant colors as well as prominent tabs, icons, and buttons would improve the apps navigational elements.
Implementing the UI Kit across the wireframes helped showcase the imagery color and texture while also proving that the color scheme and visual hierarchy helped steer the navigation.
I used these wireframes to create a high fidelity prototype in Figma for usability testing in order to address potential improvements to the high-fidelity design.
Focusing on the intermediate persona I conducted usability testing with a small group hoping to validate my design choices and highlight pain-points in both the user flow and design.
The testing was conducted in person, allowing me to observe the users' reactions and body language, in addition to the screen and words they spoke. Some usability impediments were discovered. Below you can see the original version as well as the improved design.
All of my test subjects expressed interest in seeing a photo alongside the plant name instead of a care icon. Also, most users did not display a tendency to slide right/left to mark a task as complete. So, to improve usability, I utilized a common symbol of empty checkmark icons to mark instead.
Having the ability to receive a lot of information at once without feeling overwhelmed as well as providing multiple navigation paths at various stages were key takeaways from the usability tests.
Even something as simple as the need to provide the user with an alternative path to follow on the 'success screen' was revealed as well.
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As more people look to incorporate plants into their homes, Green Thumb offers a companion to guide the user through the care process in order to learn how to keep plants alive and grow their confidence to try new things.
After conducting two rounds of usability tests on low and high-fidelity prototypes an abundance of improvements were discovered. Witnessing the user explore the app and complete tasks helped make informed decisions. Conducting more testing is the most important next step.
Beyond this release, this project would require further development by allowing users to connect directly through an online community to create an avenue for asking questions and sharing their experiences through supportive social networks.
