Project Overview
In recent years, there has been a surge of purchasing house plants, and a whole host of plant shops have begun to emerge, especially in the New York City area. The problem I am aiming to combat with this design, is the issue of plant shopping being a very daunting and sometimes uncomfortable task -- especially when moving to a new city or being a completely new plant owner. This app’s purpose is to assist plant shoppers in making an informed decision on which plants best suit their space and needs before making the trek to the plant store.
Challenge
The challenge was to create a mobile application that encompassed the needs of plant shoppers, while also providing longevity in use with an integrated plant-log, watering notifications, and overall tips and tricks to keeping your plants healthy.
User Research
My first step to combat this challenge was to conduct user research, so I set up a Google Form in order to survey current plant owners to determine what their feelings were towards plant shopping, their confidence level when shopping, and issues they might have encountered during the process. The results of the survey provided me with user goals and pain points which helped me gain a better understanding of the problem I planned on addressing with this product. The personas below embody the research results achieved through the survey.
User Task Flow
This user task flow displays the initial survey that users will take upon entering the app. This goes through all of the profile-building steps that the app will guide the user through in order to create a personalized experience for them based on their specific plant needs. There is a "yes" path and a "no" path, with the assumption that some users will have owned plants before, and others have not. This allows the initial survey experience to be shortened for the "yes" path, because ideally the app will be able to conduct an analysis and provide suggestions based on the plants this user already has.
Sketches - Low Fidelity Prototype
After gaining a better understanding of the user’s needs, I drew up numerous UI components to capture what was going to be required following the user task flow of the initial survey.
Wireframe - Medium-fidelity Prototype
After completing my sketches, I took some time to reorganize and actually made the decision to move forward with a "yes" path and a "no"path. This allows for the "yes" path users, or the users who are plant owners to have a chance to skip all of the tedious questions of the "no" path, and arrive at the analysis and suggestions pages sooner. The "no" path allows for users who have little to no experience with plants to dive deep into their needs and analyze what their space might actually allow for.
Branding
In order to develop a cohesive and consistent brand within the UI design, I did some research on some of the trendiest and most natural looking colors in the market today. The colors below emulate a sense of connection to nature, and also look clean and crisp throughout the app design as a whole. I chose Georgia as the font because the serif characters give an elegant touch to the interface, while also maintaining a young and trendy feeling.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Once I completed my low fidelity prototype, I decided to move forward with developing the high-fidelity prototype for this app design. A major goal I wanted to achieve with Leafy was for it to look and feel like someone from a plant shop is helping you decide which plant is right for you. So, before further testing, I really wanted to take the time to develop the UI design components. This high-fidelity prototype goes as far as exploring and introducing the user to the app's features and functions, and includes both the "yes" and "no" paths that the app can take you on.
Retrospective
Being a mobile application, Leafy is made for the new and experienced plant parents on the go. Putting this app together has really helped me understand the intricacies that goes into plant shopping and research, and how complex it can be to find the right one for you. For future phases of design, I would like to develop more interaction points for this app, including: map integration for finding plant shops nearby, plant watering schedules, tips for care, and a community sharing platform where users can post photos and ask care questions.
