scroll
DESIGN ROLES
-
UX/UI Design
-
Visual Design
DESIGN DELIVERABLES
-
User Research
-
User Personas
-
Wireframes
-
User stories and flow
-
Prototype
-
UI Sketches
TOOLS
-
Figma
-
Miro
-
Google Forms
-
Notes App (Apple)
Overview
What is GreenHaus?
Currently, there are so many available apps to help gardeners and plant enthusiasts at any level for growing and maintaining their plants. GreenHaus aims to take the best out of each of the available apps and put them together without being too overwhelming.
The Problem
The brief for this project is as follows: “Create a simple mobile app to tell users how to care for their plants. Must include an image of the plant (photo or drawing). You can decide on the basic care information such as how often to water/feed it. Must be easy to read and navigate, don’t put too much information on the layouts and make sure the app layout makes it easy for users to get the key information required to ensure proper care for the plant.”
The Solution
The solution as shown by my design is first and foremost, personalized recommendations. I really meant for GreenHaus to be for those just getting their first plants and don’t know where or how to start by giving them a little quiz as soon as they sign up so they can have personalized plant recommendations. I also wanted to provide them with a source of information, where they can search any plant and see how often they should be watering them, how to repot them, what kind of soil the plants might need, whether or not the plants are toxic to their pets, among other features. Lastly, I wanted to provide new plant owners with a way to remind them to water their plants.
Research and Discovery
User Survey
To begin, I sent out a survey and was able to get back an overwhelming 28 responses from those who own plants. In order to create an app that would cater to my users’ needs I asked the following questions:
-
How many plants do you currently own?
-
How long have you had plants?
-
Where do you currently find information on how to care for plants?
-
What problems do you currently face when caring for your plants?
-
Out of your collection, which is your favorite plant?
My survey findings showed that the biggest problem they face is how often and how much they should be watering their plants, which will end up being one of my app’s important features. I also noticed that not a lot of people out of those who took my survey use apps. Only 2 out of the 28 people said they use an app, using apps like Planta and Growit. 62.9% of those surveyed own more than 5 plants, so I figure they are well-versed in the ways of plant growing and plant care, so I think creating this app more for those who are completely new to plants would be the route I take.
​
Another thing I noticed is that one survey participant owns 5-10 plants, uses a mobile app (GrowIt), and claims to have problems such as not knowing where to put their plant, not knowing how often or how much to water their plants, and also faces issues regarding light, temperature, and humidity.
​
Another participant has had about 2-5 years experience with plants and owns more than 10 and uses Planta. I had predicted mobile app use would usually be common amongst users who have at least some experience with plants and users would own a few, about 5-10 plants. However, this proves me wrong. This participant also answered that they don't know where would be the best place to put their plants, even though they use Planta, possibly one of the best mobile apps for plants on the market currently.
Competitive Analysis
There are already so many apps for users who own plants, so I decided to look at the top three plant care apps.
​
Planta (best overall)
-
Best, but only if you get the premium upgrade
-
For free, user can still log the different species of plants they have, keep track of light intensity of the room in which they've been placed, and get push notifications for when their plants should be watered
-
App's best free feature: detailed instructions about different watering methods (e.g. water over the soil, bottom watering, water bath)
-
Paid: fertilizing, misting, repotting, and pruning instructions and reminders. You'll also get features that use your phone camera to automatically identify plant species and estimate the light levels in your rooms. Overwintering instructions, care guides and articles, as well as plant recommendations based on your skills and your home's environment.
-
Weakness: the app's best features are only accessed if it's paid for, which is understandable, nothing comes for free
​
Florish
-
FREE
-
Users manually enter plant species and the app shows what it's supposed to look like when it's healthy, provides care instructions with water and light preferences, and common issues that would cause them to fall ill.
-
Provides watering reminders and plant care tips
-
App uses phone camera to estimate light intensity in a room and provides recommendations for plants based on light settings—also useful for determining whether the plants you already have are getting enough light
​
Blossom
-
Most informative
-
Has a "search" function which serves as a plant encyclopedia, "reminders" for setting up push notifications for watering, fertilizing, or repotting, and a "my garden" tab designed for quick access to information about the user's plants
-
No light meters or personalized plant recommendations, but there is a camera-based plant identifier (not sure if it's completely accurate, however)
-
Has a database of more than 10,000 indoor and garden plants and each entry comes with a page about its preferences for light, soil, water, temperature, humidity, potting, and propagation.
-
All these features are free, but only allows a limited number of uses, and then the user faces a paywall in order for unlimited access for all the features.
User Personas
After research through user surveys and competitive analysis, I then needed to determine GreenHaus’s target audience. I mainly wanted the target audience to be those completely new to plant care, but also didn’t want to alienate seasoned plant owners.
Information Architecture
User Stories and User Flow
After gathering data through research and creating my personas, I began to craft some user stories and user flow:
-
As a new plant owner, I want to get personalized plant recommendations based on my space so I can have a plant collection
-
As someone with a lot of plants, I want to keep a log of all my plants so I can keep track of their health
-
As someone completely new to plants, I want all the information I can possibly get (i.e. watering, light needs, when to fertilize, etc.) so I can maintain a collection of plants successfully
-
As someone with a busy schedule, I want to be alerted of when I need to water my plants so I can keep my space full of life with plants
Sketches, Wireframes, and Initial Testing
Sketches
The next step after crafting user stories and flow was to begin sketching. I already knew what I wanted to go for in terms of how I wanted the information to be presented.
Wireframing
From there, I went on to make my wireframe. I wanted to lay down more detail and actual copy and figure out how I was going to make the content more personalized for the user.
Branding
In terms of what I wanted my app to look like, the first thing I chose were the fonts. For anything I design, I like to choose sans serif fonts because not only are they easier to read, I really like how clean they look. While talking over details of my app with my mentor, the first thing I mentioned when I told her I was naming my app “GreenHaus” was “Well, you already know I like Lady Gaga, and she brands a lot of her stuff with ‘Haus’, e.g. ‘Haus of Gaga’ (her creative team) and ‘Haus Laboratories’ (her cosmetics brand).” My mentor then mentioned Bauhaus and I looked into its aesthetic and designed the logo accordingly.
The color palette was chosen with the help of coolors.co. Being a plant care app, I obviously wanted to have green in there, but also something soft to complement the green so it wouldn’t end up so monochromatic, so I added the last two colors seen on the style tile, named “Khaki Web” and “Baby Pink”.
Clickable Prototype & Usability Testing
After figuring out the general aesthetic of my app, I began to prototype my app in Figma. I feel like from my wireframe I made so many changes and little tweaks to make my prototype what it is now.
For testing, I had users complete some tasks under two scenarios. The first was to complete the onboarding quiz where the user wanted to grow plants both indoors and outdoors, they have a pet, they have more than 1 hour per day to tend to their plants, they have a good amount of light in their space, and they were interested in succulents, pet friendly plants, herbs, and flowering plants. From there, I tasked them with viewing the first plant recommendation and adding that first plant to their greenhaus.
​
The second set of tasks I had them complete was under the scenario in which the user didn’t need to go through the onboarding process and just wanted to add plants to their greenhaus and set reminders.
The users interviewed had no trouble completing these tasks and ultimately decided that GreenHaus would be useful in their plant care.
Conclusion
I enjoyed working on GreenHaus! I was scared going into it, just because I knew very little about plants, but luckily I have friends who own plants and google to help me out. I particularly enjoyed looking up plants that are pet friendly because I have two cats and one of them really loves to eat roses for some reason. Luckily, roses are not toxic to cats, but this had me curious as to what other plants are pet friendly.
I personally feel like GreenHaus has potential as an app to enter the market competitively. I feel like I have incorporated the best features out of the best plant care apps on the market currently. The next steps would be to add more plants into the database and possibly add more features like having the user use their camera for light detection.
