OVERVIEW

This project is a mobile app concept called Root, designed to help plant parents—both new and experienced—stay on top of plant care. This was inspired by the struggles of my friends who attempted to and failed at caring for their plants. This app concept was created to help users like them overcome those barriers and achieve their plant care dreams.

For this project, I wanted to work on my mobile UI design skills and challenge myself to address product gaps based on user needs with the knowledge that this product would hypothetically enter a competitive market.

If you're looking for a project with a more robust research phase, please refer to the research section of my portfolio.

TYPE

Mobile UI design case study

ROLE

Product Designer

TOOLS

Figma
Miro

TIMEFRAME

2 weeks

Background

As a nature enthusiast and college grad with a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology, I have often been at the receiving end of plant care questions and woes. Many friends and acquaintances have voiced the desire to add more greenery to their living spaces in an attempt to liven the room and manage their stress levels. However, many reported struggling with trying to keep these plants alive after the first week. Driven by these woes, I decided to dive deeper into this problem space and see what I could do from a product design perspective.

The Problem

Aspiring plant parents want to populate their living spaces with plants, but struggle to keep them alive due to busy schedules and incomplete knowledge on plant care.

Solution Sneak Peek

I designed Root—a mobile app concept that would serve as a digital green thumb for struggling plant parents.

With Root, users would be able to keep track of individual plant requirements, be reminded of plant care needs, and discover new inspiration in the world of plant ownership.

‍Click here for the clickable prototype.

Understanding Business Needs & User Needs

Market Research

Two large focuses in the past year have been on self care and optimizing one’s living space. These trends manifest themselves on social media platforms such as Pinterest, where a quick search for room decor inspiration reveals that most rooms have splashes of deep green plants here and there.

Further studies have also shown that adding plants in an environment has been attributed to greater stress reduction and an overall better quality of life. After research confirmed a growing interest in houseplants, I turned to user interviews.

User Research

I conducted 6 user interviews with plant owners in order to understand goals and identify pain points when it comes to plant care. I decided to keep the interview relatively open with a few questions to direct the conversation. This would allow the interviewee to walk me through their struggles without many constraints. I then synthesized the research into two behavioral archetypes and an empathy map. To further shape my design goals and direction, I created three "How Might We" questions alongside my problem statement.

This is what users had to say:

"I water my plants, but they all die. Even the cactus."

"I kept forgetting to water them. I forget that they don't just exist."

"I want to be a plant parent, but I've always failed. Maybe I just don't know how to begin."

Behavioral Archetypes

Empathy Map

How Might We... ?

HMW help users keep track of individual plant needs?
HMW remind users to water their plants?
HMW keep users inspired and motivated when it comes to plant care?

Competitive Analysis

I decided to conduct competitive analysis before I began ideating solutions because I knew that there were already a few plant care mobile apps on the market. I referred heavily to my user interviews to understand what gaps these products may have when it came to meeting their needs.

I looked at a total of 5 popular plant care apps and found that:

Plant care apps generally fell into one of three categories: Plant Encyclopedia, Care Reminders, and Social Network (for plant lovers). This means that users may need to download multiple apps to meet all of their needs.
Most plant care apps labeled plants by both common and species name, but many plant owners enjoyed re-naming their plants (one interviewee had a Timinthee Chalamint). These plant care apps didn't offer a customization option for users to personalize their own experiences.
Most care-specific apps did not have a blog or inspiration feature. Many of my interviewees stated that while they were surrounded by the "plant aesthetic" on social media, they struggled with filtering through all the different plant care resources out there. As beginners with busy schedules, they needed a streamlined system that would make accessing reliable resources easier.

Design Goals

Based on the gaps discovered from competitive analysis and the user needs identified from user research, I defined the design goals that I hoped to achieve with this project.

User Goal:
To understand the basics of plant care.

User Goal:
To balance plant care with a busy schedule.

User Goal:
To stay motivated when it comes to plant care.

Design Implications:
Onboard users into plant care for their specific plant species.

Design Implications:
Notify users on care events, such as watering and fertilizing.

Design Implications:
Keep users inspired and excited about plants.

Solution Ideation

Keeping the problem statement in mind, I set aside 15 minutes to ideate a variety of solutions. Here, I didn't want to limit myself by practicality. Afterwards, I organized my solutions ideas into a chart that would help me figure out which solution ideas would best address the user needs and goals that I identified earlier.

I then analyzed the ideas for impact and feasibility. In a real-world setting, this would be an extremely important part in which I would consult with engineers and product managers in order to determine the feasibility of the features in regards to timeline, budget, and business goals. I knew that some of the features, such as AI-recognition of plant species and digital plant medical help, would require an amount of machine learning that would be complicated to implement for an MVP.

Eventually, I settled on the following core features:

Plant profiles with customizable plant names and photos. User interviews revealed that users had trouble keeping up with individual plant needs. With this feature, users would be able to create plant profiles for each of their plants and find a breakdown of information on their plant's care needs. Each profile would include information on light, watering, and fertilization for that specific species in addition to a calendar on which users could view their care schedule.
Database of care information based on plant species. Due to the complexity of AI-recognition, I decided on a searchable database of information instead. This way, users would still be able to identify the needs of their plants in an easy-to-consume manner.
Blog feature with "tip of the day" and a searchable article database for plant tips. Users mentioned both wanting to stay motivated in plant care and struggling with filtering the massive amount of plant information on the internet. This blog feature would curate plant care tips and serve as a trustworthy resource. Here, plant experts and content writers would come in to work on the blog posts.
Plant care reminders. Push notifications are a common feature that almost all competitor apps had. I decided to include this because it would meet user needs to stay on top of plant care and also meet user expectations on what plant care apps should include.

Design

Low Fidelity Wireframes & User Testing

I sketched out various low fidelity wireframes on paper in order to flush out the core feature explorations. After narrowing down my explorations, I conducted usability testing with 3 potential users using these low fidelity wireframes to gather feedback on flow and layout. Based on user feedback, I reiterated upon my designs and moved to my laptop to build out high fidelity wireframes.

Design System

Because this project is meant to be an original app concept, I created a design system and worked on branding before moving forward with the high fidelity wireframes. I wanted a brand that appeared clean and calming, so that users would trust this app and feel that their plant needs would be well taken care of. To do this, I utilized pastel colors and rounded corners to create a welcoming user interface.

Login

Login pages are a rather intuitive part of the mobile app experience. I worked on building a simple flow that would solidify Root's branding.

Home

The main user goal was to efficiently meet all plant needs, even with a busy schedule. Hence, I decided to include a plant care to-do list at the very top of the page, followed by a "Plant tip of the day" to maintain a sense of inspiration upon entering the app.

My Plants

I decided to include a 'My Plants' page because user interviews had revealed that users wanted a way to keep track of individual plant needs. Users would be able to filter through their plants and view details on each plant based on species. To create a personalized experience, I added in features allowing users to add photos of their own plants and name their plants.

During usability testing, users stated that a calendar (not included in initial lo-fi explorations) would useful in helping them keep track of each plant's needs. This was a feature that I implemented into the final design.

Discovery

Another user goal was to maintain a sense of inspiration and motivation when it came to plant care. Additionally, some users struggled with filtering through the endless flow of information on the internet. To meet this user need, I added a blog feature that would allow users to search for various tips and learn from a trusted source.

Add New Plant

When it comes to adding a new plant, I focused on creating a simple flow that would not require too much effort on the user end. Users would be able to search through a database of plants and add a plant profile that is already filled with species-specific information. This also decreases the amount of time that users spent searching for various plant care information.

Next Steps & Measuring Success

1. In a real-world setting, more usability testing would be carried out prior to launch along with continuous iteration of the designs.

2. Determine business and go-to-market strategy. This would normally be done prior to finalizing designs because this app would be entering a competitive market. With branding aimed towards a younger adult audience, I would hypothetically market this app on social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. Currently, the app is free, but for next steps, I would work on building more complex features (such as AI species identification and a medical plant doctor) that could be part of a paid user plan.
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3. Measurements of success. For now, KPIs to track would be the number of downloads, retention rate, and daily active users. When a paid plan is implemented, another useful KPI would be conversion rate from the free to the paid plan.

Learnings & Reflections

Demonstrate unique value. Entering a competitive market means that my app would have to demonstrate unique value that would make it stand out over its competitors. It was important to conduct thorough competitive analysis to find gaps and determine my product's core features with user goals and pain points in mind. This unique value would also need to be expressed when it comes to marketing strategy later on.
Future improvements: Due to time constraints, I did not conduct any user testing on my color palette and user interface after the initial testing with lo-fi wireframes. I know that iteration and feedback are key, and will focus on implementing more user testing in the future to ensure that my intentions are actually being carried across in my designs.

Root