An iOS app proposal to Google Nest
My Role:
UX Designer,
Project Manager
My Contribution:
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Team Management, QA,
User Research, Data Analysis,
UI Design, Style Guide and Spec Doc Creation
Duration: 2 weeks
Status: in progress
Problem Space
Prolonged indoor time and struggle with work-life balance during quarantine can result in heightened anxiety levels.
Indoor plants have become the safest and most accessible source of nature for many. However, taking care of plants can be stressful if plants do not thrive in spite of the efforts of the plant owners.
Design Goal
How might we provide a way to help plant owners and their plants mutually care for each other.
Outcome
Leaf - a plant care and self care mobile app. We aimed to enhance plant owner's plant care knowledge and sense of companionship.
Impact
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​Alleviate quarantine anxiety and plant care stress
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Enhance plant owner's plant care knowledge
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Cultivated and strengthened a sense of companionship
Grow together with your plants
Design Process
User research, Secondary research
Affinity map,
Persona
Market Research,
Competitive Matrix
Usability Test
Future Steps,
Reflections
We followed the UX design steps above. In the end, we reflected on the lessons learned from each component of the design process, as well as future plans for this project.
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Click on the icons above to jump to the step you want to learn more about!
Discover
Our team set out to validate our initial assumptions around plants and well-being, as well as potential needs in the plant care space. We conducted secondary research and user interviews.
We were able to find numerous cases supporting our hypothesis. Specifically, a study by psychology scientists from University of British Columbia suggested that interactions, and even observations of plants is connected to positive impact on personal well-being. Furthermore, they concluded "examples of plants could be: a houseplant, a dandelion growing in a crack in a sidewalk, things not human-built".
User Interview Notes
We interviewed 6 potential users who are plant owners to better understand their needs, attitudes and pain points around plant care.
Synthesize
Using the findings from user interviews, we were able to group them into themes to find trends. Affinity mapping provided actionable insights which lead to features of "leaf" and two user representations. We created Tony and Lauren, who are representing two distinctive types of plant owners (novice and seasoned, respectively).
We arranged the findings from user interviews into 10 general themes. User's attitudes towards keeping plants, routine plant care behaviors, and plant care pain points were discussed in depth with the interviewees.
Affinity Map
Affinity mapping enabled us to validate our initial assumptions and infer three actionable insights:
Two personas were created to represent our primary and secondary target audiences.
They each have different needs and goals, however, they both share the same desire to better care for their plants.
Tony
The new plant owner
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Wants direct and timely feedback from plants
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Feels bad when plants don't thrive
Lauren
The seasoned plant parent
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Enjoys her plants and wants more out of them
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Always happy to share tips and advice
A journey map was also created to allow us to better understand how Tony, an average new plant owner, goes about raising his first plant in a normal situation.
With the help of all of the above research insights, we were finally able to arrive at a clear and better defined design goal for the remainder of the design process.
Ideate
We are aware of an abundance of plant care apps and websites that exist in the current market. In order to better understand the gap in user needs, our team also conducted business analysis on the current plant care market, as well as in-depth research on potential partners.
Competitive Matrix
Competitive matrix showed that among plant care apps, there are very few smart features, aside from plant identification from a photo.
With a better understanding of the market and user needs, we were able to envision how leaf could potentially fill the gap in the existing plant-care realm:
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Multi-featured
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Smart device integration
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iOS mobile app
While we were exploring smart devices, Google Nest came to mind. Google Nest is the most widely used smart home device on the current market. It measures, monitors, and displays data that is vital to plant survival: temperature, humidity, and sunlight.
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All of this data could be used by plant owners to better care for their plants. Plant owners could feel more confident when caring for their plants, because what needs to be done is now backed by accurate and real time environmental data.
Gif provided by Google Nest
Google Nest aims to make our homes learn to take care of the people inside it. This aligns with our vision for an iOS app that utilizes Nest data to better care for plants. Therefore, our team headed into the design phase with three main features for an iOS app called “leaf” to help our target audience Tony and Lauren.
Iterate
The design phase started with feature prioritization. Our team quickly narrowed the scope of the minimum viable product (MVP) for this design sprint. The three main features mentioned above will be explored, produced, and tested. We then conducted one round of rapid sketching, and a low-fi wireframe was produced during the design studio.
The team then took inspiration from each other and created a mid-fidelity prototype in Figma collaboratively. A round of usability testing was conducted in person and via an online usability testing platform on this prototype.
The second iteration of the prototype was created in hi-fidelity. We introduced brand, color, curated images, illustrations, as well as refined copy and navigation items. A second round of usability testing was conducted to validate these additions and changes we made from the mid-fidelity prototype.
Testing
Our team took into consideration of the feedback gathered from users of the first round of usability testing and made changes to one of the main feature screens - Community.
We then conducted the second round of usability testing with this mockup. The changes we made were validated. In comparison to mid-fi prototype, the direct completion rate improved by 18%, and time on task (ask a question in the forum) decreased by 19 seconds on average.
Final Solution
Plant Contact List
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customizable plant profiles
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Plant.ID API imbedded
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PlantStat powered by Nest
iMessages from Your Plants
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never miss a self care and plant care reminder
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practice kindness to your plants and yourself
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grow with your plants
Online Community
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exchange tips, seeds, and harvests
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ask questions Google can't answer
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find a plant sitter
Takeaway
Future Steps
Since we learned from our usability tests that users are intrigued by the plant illustration. We plan to expand on a virtual “plant buddy” concept for the plant illustration on home screen. This is a feature we planned on implementing originally but did not explore due to time constraint.
We see the potential to engage younger users with a virtual assistant - plant buddy. Users can interact with the plant buddy to:
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customize plant and planter
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choose plant personality
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earn awards and badges
We envision this feature could encourage especially younger users to take interest and complete plant care activities. Additional rounds of usability tests are needed to validate this addition of feature.
Reflections
From research:
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house plants are scientifically proven to have a positive effect on personal well being
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plant owners have emotional connections with their plants to various degrees
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there is a lack in products that harbor or cultivate this emotional connection
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From testing:
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users expressed strong interests in using Leaf to help care for their plants
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users were interested in the plant illustration on home screen
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we could leverage this interest and make it an accessible pathway to a virtual plant assistant feature in future iterations
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From project:
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timeboxing is a valuable technique that should be practiced often
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it is important to zoom out and talk to more people about design logic of the product
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online usability testing platforms are great tools that yield incredible data