Greenhouse
Plant Care. Simplified
Easing the Burdens of Plant Owners
Taking care of plants isn’t quite as easy as it would seem and comes with its share of challenges. This case study summarizes the pain points we discovered about indoor plant ownership and proposes our solution.
Introduction
When someone is new to indoor plant ownership, knowing when and how much water can be frustrating. We intend to take all of the complicated parts of plant ownership and make them as easy as taking a photo and setting reminders.
The Team
Jenny Clausen
Nate Jolley
Scott Hickenlooper
My Role
Design Research
Wireframes
User Interviews
Usability Testing
Survey & Interview Data
Our research process involved three zoom interviews with plant owners as well as a survey of over 100 people about their experiences with plants. This is what we learned as a result:
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86%
of the people we surveyed own anywhere from 1 to 10 plants
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65%
of the people surveyed own plants to bring happiness and aesthetics into their home
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95%
of the people surveyed indicated that at least one plant had died due to the owner's lack of proper care knowledge
Competitive Analysis
During the survey, we identified three mobile apps in use among those surveyed that would be in direct competition with the Greenhouse app. One of the questions in our survey was directly related to app user preferences and reasons users had selected a particular app. We then conducted a SWOT analysis, created a priority matrix, and identified four opportunities upon which to build.
| Planta | Vera | Gardenia | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identify Plant Through Photographs | |||
| Discovery Page | |||
| Free Watering Schedule | |||
| Earn Rewards for Keeping Plants Alive |
Problem Statement
“We observed that most plant owners struggle to keep their plants alive, which is causing them to feel inadequate as plant parents. How might we inform plant parents with the information they need to better care for their plants?”
Testing & Iterations
User Flow Iterations
After an initial round of user testing on a lo-fi prototype we discovered that users had trouble understanding the on-boarding process. The user flow was modified to abandon the introductory screens and to go directly into the task of adding a plant.
Interaction Design Iterations
As shown below, we removed the ‘sun’ progress symbol and replaced it with a more recognizable progress indicator. We also added the ability to swipe out of onboarding and discover pages
Navigation Simplification
User testing also uncovered that app could be simplified into 3 main areas instead of the 5 menus in the prototype.
Modified user flow:
Key Takeaways
Simplify. Based on user testing, we learned that utilizing standards in iconography and functionality was more important than introducing novel, but not immediately recognizable, solutions.
Iterate. We learned to listen to and make adjustments based on relevant user feedback.
Community. A final, surprising insight we gained from user feedback was the desire many testers had for a user community where they could interact with other plant parents.
Initial user flow:
