PlantCare
iOS App | New Product
Overview
Project Scope
My team and I developed an iOS native mobile app that would provide new and experienced "plant parents" with ways to grow in their plant tending skills and community, while also enhancing their own mental health.
Project Duration
2 Weeks
Methods
Topic Map, Screener Survey, User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Persona, Journey Map, Competitor Matrix, Feature Prioritization, Design Studio, Paper Prototype, Wireframes, Mockups, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Specifications Document, Style Guide
Tools
Figma, Miro
My Role
UX Researcher | Product Designer | Visual Designer (Final Hi-Fi)
Team
A supportive trio of UX Designers and city-dwelling plant lovers:
Sebastian Sandoval: Scrum Master, Team’s Rock, Voice of Reason
Phil Cote: Lead Artist/Architect, Eye of Precision
Gabriela Fish: Chief Empath, Visionary (according to Phil)
Case Study Snapshot
For those who prefer the gist.
Case Study Deep Dive
For those who prefer to dive into the details.
Discover
Understanding the Who + Why
Pinpointing the opportunity
With a work-from-home economy as the “new normal,” city-dwelling professionals find themselves at home for the majority of their day. For many, this often means small square footage with limited outdoor space. The pandemic-induced anxiety and uncertainty has cornered many into a highly-stressed and highly-isolated state. Consequently, indoor plant sales have been ever-increasing in the United States throughout the pandemic and show no signs of wavering in demand (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Within this resonating challenge lies an opportunity to improve the experience of growing indoor plants for users who are committed to adding plant life to their home while also committed to improving their mental health. The user struggles today because they lack the guidance to find and continually tend to plants that fit their lifestyle.
A niche in the market
Horticultural Therapy
Upon embarking on initial research around the intersection of mental health and plant care, our Design Team learned about Horticultural Therapy, which directly links plant care to mental well-being “where the process itself is considered the therapeutic activity rather than the end product” (American Horticultural Therapy Association).
Competitive Analysis
Through a Competitive Analysis, we learned that although plant care apps do exist (such as the popular Planta, Flourish, or Gardenia), their goals do not intersect with mental health. Rather, they are focused on helping users identify plants and keep them alive and have little to no direct concern with the user’s well-being. Other non-app work-arounds included Reddit pages and local Facebook Groups where plant owners are able to share plant clippings and/or plant advice communally.
“As the seed germinates, as a seedling develops, it proves to the individual that their actions made a difference. As the plant thrives, it builds self-esteem, it builds confidence, and it makes the person feel like it’s their success.”
— Joel Flagler, a professor of Horticultural Therapy at Rutgers University
User Research
In order to find the right users to interview, we sent out a screener survey with specific criteria in mind, that would address our problem area.
The survey participants that passed our screener:
Live in a city
Have plants in their home
Represent a range of skill levels
Were available for an interview to expand on responses
Following the screener, we conducted six user interviews with city-dwelling plant lovers (of varying skill levels) and asked participants, “why plants?” and “what benefits do they bring you?” Their answers validated our assumptions and provided consensus with Horticultural Therapy — plants in the home DO indeed provide users with mental health benefits.
What we heard
“Plants are like humans, you have to take care of them, you have to nourish them. You have to give them love.”
“I have a lot of failures - here is my plant graveyard. Some work well and some it doesn’t work out well.”
“I like the process of watering plants, it’s nice to tend to them, it makes me feel good.”
“I have in the past tried to bring home plants that fill the space and look trendy, but I can’t keep them alive… I want to be confident I won’t kill them.”
“When picking plants to bring home, I consider ‘how likely is it to die?’ The majority of the plants I own are low maintenance.”
“I want more plants now because 2020 is depressing, and I think plants could help.”
Affinity Mapping
Using sticky notes, we gathered the observations and key takeaways from the user interviews and organized them into themes that eventually formed "I" statements to help us understand our primary user's behaviors, needs, and motivations.
Synthesizing research into insights
Our trends led to these overarching insights about our user:
Stress Relief
For people living in cities, having plants in the home has the capacity to alleviate stress and amplify relaxation.
Social Support
People new to plant care are often anxious about killing plants so they rely on their social network and online searches to assist in their journey.
Emotional Connection
People get the most emotionally attached to plants when it reminds them of people in their life or they have directly helped a plant survive.
No prescribed routine
People prefer to tend to their plants in ways that align with their own mental models and lifestyle rather than a prescribed routine.
Holistic nourishment
People feel nourished themselves when they nourish plants, especially when they associate plants with people in their lives.
Define
Naming the What (While Anchoring in Who + Why)
Constructing a Persona
We manifested these research insights into the persona of Alexandria Martinez. Alexandria anchored our team in real-life experiences throughout our iterative design process.
An abbreviated look at Alexandria, PlantCare’s research-based Persona.
Understanding Alexandria’s journey
We mapped out Alexandria’s journey of caring for plants, and considered how the PlantCare app could specifically benefit her and her needs.
With a research-backed persona and journey map, our team reframed the initial challenge into a solution-generating problem statement.
Problem statement
Although there is a wide range of online resources regarding plant care, beginner plant owners often experience uncertainty as to what types of plants will both enhance their mental health and thrive in their home environment. Alexandria wants to bring positive energy to her living space while being able to care for the plants she already has, as well as expand her plant collection in ways that align with her lifestyle.
How might we empower Alexandria to grow in her journey as a plant mom while simultaneously enhancing her mental health?
Develop
Ideating and testing the How (While Anchoring in Who + Why)
In response to this “How Might We” question and all of our research insights, PlantCare took root, an iOS native mobile app that cares for plants and their people.
Through a MoSCoW (Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Won’t Have) Feature Analysis, we prioritized onboarding as a must-have feature in our app in order to be able to customize the app experience for each user, including plant and community recommendations based on the user’s preferences and lifestyle. The onboarding process was also a must-have in order to orient the user to a new app with comfort and a conversational tone, and diminish any unease about not having a “green thumb.”
Design Studio Ideation to Mid-Fi Mockups
Since deciding to focus on Onboarding primarily, our team ideated around the content of onboarding in a sketch-filled Design Studio. From there, we brought our design to Mid-Fidelity screens using Figma. Every feature and element from the progress bar to the questionnaire linked back to responding to the user’s pain points of purchasing plants misaligned with their home/lifestyle and not being able to care for them well.
After launching the app, the user is given the option to login or sign up. Then proceeds to set up their account.
The user is asked a series of questions in order to recommend specific plants based on the user's home, skill level, and lifestyle.
The user can also learn about each recommended plant and also locate them at nearby plant shops.
Mid-fi Usability Testing
Once the mid-fidelity screens were developed into a clickable prototype we tested two essential tasks in our mid fidelity Usability Testing.
Task 1: Set up user profile.
“The criteria makes sense that’s what they would ask me at a plant shop. One thing to add —do you have indoor or outdoor space?”
Based on this user comment, we would add questions about pets at home and outside space in the hi-fi questionnaire
Task 2: Select + locate plant.
“I wanted to go back and check the next plant out!”
Based on the results of this task, we would increase user controllability by including back icons or buttons on each onboarding screen.
From Mid to High-fidelity
Based on the Mid-fi usability testing results, we designed a moodboard, experimented with earth tones, and designed a full color high-fidelity prototype. This hi-fi iteration includes changes based on feedback from the users that were tested. For example, two users suggested having a short introduction about the app’s purpose before beginning the onboarding process. During the construction of the hi- fidelity, we included a series of screens to introduce user’s to PlantCare, the app, before users would start any kind of account set-up.
Terry Cotta, Plant Care’s Onboarding Guide
We looked at the onboarding processes of comparators like Duolingo, known for utilizing a fun character that guides the user into the discomfort of learning a new language, a parallel experience to being a beginner plant owner. We even nostalgically considered Clippy, the decades-old Office Assistant that would support new users in Microsoft Word.
From the launch screen through the end of onboarding, we wanted Alexandria, or any user, to feel excited, calm, and diminish her self-doubt. So, Terry Cotta, PlantCare’s guide was born. Through the character of Terry Cotta, the user has an immediate “friend” who guides them through the entire PlantCare experience (even past onboarding, Terry is present on the Home screen and you can access Terry for tips from the user’s Profile).
Hi-fi Usability Testing
Testing the same tasks as we did during mid-fidelity, we were met with excellent results. However, our color earth-tones color palette received mixed reviews.
Task 1: Set up user profile.
“The photos in the questionnaire were very helpful to have that to decide, and everyone likes a visual.”
Key takeaways (Task 1):
Progress bar: Increased communication to the user by making the incremental change more obvious and more specific to communicate clear progression
Questionnaire: Expanded the questionnaire to include questions recommended by users and to validate how many questions and onboarding screens is “just right.” Continued to provide photo for each answer choice
Device Selection + Visual Design: Based on colleague critique, we shifted the art-board size from an iPhone SE to an iPhone 11 to show our design in an updated viewport. We also gave our app a visual design makeover, with a more modern monochromatic palette of greens (with one pop of color for Calls to Action) rather than earth tones.
Task 2: Select + locate plant.
“I would like to know do these places stock pots as well? That would be the next step — click on each of these and then it would go to the google map company listing.”
Key takeaways (Task 2):
Increase the user’s sense of control through evident “Back” buttons, “Skip for now” options, and Calls to Action that communicate specific navigation flow
Add reviews/details of local plant shops from the map page
Add icons to the plant page that communicate basic plant care information in scannable format
Make the specified health benefits of each plant prevalent on the plant’s page
Users reported a 10% increase in their overall satisfaction from mid to high fidelity prototypes.
Deliver
Presenting the solution (in its latest iteration), next steps, and key take-aways
From Hi-fi to Higher-Fidelity
Based on the results from hi-fidelity usability testing, we quickly made adjustments into a “final” prototype. In this latest iteration of the prototype, critiques from colleagues were also applied, including a total revamp of the app’s visual design.
Visual Redesign Research
Based on feedback on our color palette, I led the visual redesign of the entire prototype.
I drew on inspiration from other plant-related apps, even downloading them on my phone and exploring a variety of layouts, flows, and screens. For our PlantCare app I selected a refreshed tone, an updated iPhone 11 Pro artboard, a minimal feel with a lot of white space and a completely revamped vibe.
The Latest Hi-Fidelity Design
Through plant health, mental health, and communal health, our application serves to enhance the user’s overall well being. As such, PlantCare’s Primary Navigation pages include: Home, Plants, Profile, and Community.
From the Plants page, users have three secondary navigation tabs: “For you,” where users can explore plants recommended to them based on their specific user profile (generated from the Onboarding process); “Find” where users are able to explore a database of plants based on their health benefits and locate where to purchase plants in nearby small business plant shops; and “Benefits” where users can learn more about the therapeutic attributes of plant care.
From the Profile page, users can view their complete user profile . The Profile houses all of their customized information and preferences from the onboarding process including location, skill level, aesthetic, home environment, and more. From their Profile, users can “Add Plants” to reflect the plants they have in their home. Each plant would then provide the option to utilize notifications for reminders to water, change soil, prune, etc. Additionally, users receive “Achievement” badges while they use PlantCare, for reaching various milestones in their journey as a plant parent.
Finally, from the Community page, users have three secondary navigation options: “Discover,” where users can join groups of plant people recommended to them based on their profile; “Connect,” where users can reply to message boards and engage with their existing communities; and “Exchange,” where users can either sell their plant clippings for a small profit or exchange clippings with others nearby for free.
The three pages contain a collective choreography as information from one page syncs and builds on information in the other. For instance, the user’s location and their plants listed in their profile would then influence which community groups are recommended to the user.
Through each page and each integrated feature, we respond directly with the user’s pain points of high stress, high isolation, and uneasiness about their plant care abilities.
The community-based interactions of our app, the celebrations of plant-based achievements, and the user’s ability to either make a profit by selling clippings or exchange plants for free, offer added benefits for users. PlantCare has a high potential for long-term engagement.
As the user’s plant tending skills develop, so will how they use the app.
Terry Cotta guides the user throughout the onboarding and beyond, similar to Duolingo’s owl. Here you can see the comparison of both apps.
From paper prototype to a second hi-fidelity prototype, Plant Care is sprouting. Here you can see onboarding with the addition of Terry, in a more modern viewport with the updated visual redesign.
The "Find Plants" map feature through four iterations of design. The latest iteration includes a "Yelp"-like rating and contact info of the local shops.
The plant description through four iterations of design. The latest iteration includes digestible care instructions as well as mental health tips.
What’s Next?
Keep growing, of course!
After presenting our project to stakeholders, our team was grateful to hear that PlantCare received the Green Light to continue design and development!
The following next steps would ensure PlantCare continues to be designed with utmost precision and care.
Continue to monitor and respond to Key Performance Indicators such as the Customer Satisfaction Score (Baseline: 90% user satisfaction) and Net Promoter Score (Baseline: 100% of users said they would use the app themselves and recommend it).
Design, validate, and test secondary navigation pages (“Connect” and “Exchange” from Community; “Find” and “Benefits” from Plants) in a high-fidelity prototype with additional tasks
After additional rounds of Usability Testing, share the results with internal and external stakeholders
Once investment is raised, pass along Style Guide, Specifications Document and High-Fidelity Prototype to Developers
After all, in order to cultivate a seed, we have to create conditions ripe for growth.
How did I grow through this as a Designer?
I learned research happens throughout the entire design process - not in one “phase” of design. I constantly found myself interacting with competitors and comparators and continue to informally interview in order to gather data and continually keep assumptions in CHECK.
I flexed my muscles of visual design in a 24 hour turnaround to go from the first hi-fi prototype to the second. I realized I LOVE visual design. I kinda already knew that, but this strengthened my love and my desire to grow in that area (attending some workshops in the near future).
This project started off ambiguous - designing from scratch with just a proposal, a topic map, excitement, and a supportive team. I learned to lean into the ambiguity of UX, and embrace the infinite possibilities.
