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PlantPants App
Duration: 4 months
Tools: Figma, Qualtrics, Adobe SuiteCanva, Miro
Skills: design research, UX design, survey construction, user interview, prototyping, ideating, usability testing
Problem
People are increasingly turning to houseplants as a way to connect with nature and enhance their living spaces. However, caring for houseplants can be a challenging task, often leading to plant neglect.
- Providing plants with adequate sunlight and water.
- Monitoring plants’ needs while traveling or maintaining a busy lifestyle.
- Not knowing exactly what a plant’s needs are or why it is becoming unhealthy.
User Research
The team has designed a user survey on Qualtircs to understand user needs in smart plantcare and tested early draft of interface sequences with users. 40 + responses were captured and we conducted 7+ interviews with key users.
Takeaway 1: Enhance clarity and education in the app's user interface (UI).
Users expressed confusion about the UI wireframes regarding the lighting and nutrient levels. We updated the UI with visual aids and interactive elements to make the information more digestible.
Takeaway 2: Prioritize automation and user convenience.
Users highly valued the auto-watering schedules, signaling that plant care tasks needed to be automated as much as possible. We implemented push notifications and an auto-docking feature to ensure PlantPants charges itself when low on battery.
Takeaway 3: Focus on core plant care needs and address user concerns.
While some users are interested in advanced features like camera-based disease diagnosis, our user research revealed that we needed to prioritize the essential plant care aspects: lighting, moisture, and nutrients.
User Stories
Using agile development methodology, we defined and organized a series of user stories that encompass epics “setup and user login”, “plant disease diagnosis”, “make plant care easier”, and “improve plant health and longevity”.
User Persona
Based on our previous user research and user stories, we created three user personas to identify our primary and secondary users.
User Flow & Design Sketch
After reviewing previous user research, user stories, and persona, we sketched out key wireframes in Figma and designed a list of features by pages.
Design Notes
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Focus on priority features on home screen - bring main features to home page.
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Include a feature to advise when PlantPot is low on battery/solar power.
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Add push notifications for features.
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Provide more direct feedback in the app as to what user is looking at.
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Be more explicit on what the nutrients are and why they make a difference in your plant’s life.
- Confusion around the first set of UI wireframes and how the user would know what lighting choice to pick for each plant.
Design System
Prototyping & Usability Testing
The team created a clickable prototype with Figma. With the clickable prototype, the team conducted an online usability test with 5+ users from user research group. We received feedback stating that the product was great in general, organized really well, intuitive navigation, straightforward, visually appealing and informative for all-level plant parents.