Plant Parenthood
A hypothetical app that uses social media & intuitive data gathering to make at-home gardening fun and engaging.
Duration 3 weeks
Project Type Mobile App, IOS, Prototyping
Team Solo Project
Tools Adobe XD, Adobe InDesign
Project Overview Design a Watchdog App or Website with an easy-to-use dashboard (desktop or mobile) that visually displays the data sets within each of six different data categories.
Deliverables After user testing and further refinements, present your final as a multipage PDF and as a video that shows the different states of the dynamic charts.
Initial Problem Discovery
What problem am I trying to solve?
How can I make at-home gardening less daunting and more motivating?
Other options:
How can I make social media less anxiety inducing?
How can I connect social media with plant parenthood?
Initial Research /Problem Validation
Why is this problem important?
48% of Gen Z Say Social Media Makes Them Feel Anxious, Sad or Depressed, 58% Are “Seeking Relief” from Social Media
Statistics from businesswire indicate that Gen Z’ers are decreasing their use from social media due to its increase in negative psychological impact. This study increases a positive outcome when social media use is reduced, and this is detrimental to various social media companies that thrive on this target demographic.
Initial Research /Problem Validation
If social media makes users sad ☹︎ , what makes users happy?☺︎
“In the last three years, houseplant sales in the U.S. have increased 50 per cent to $1.7 billion.”
National Gardening Association
“Plants resonate with millennials as an antidote to this insane connectivity.”
Eliza Blank, founder and CEO of 6-year-old indoor plant retailer The Sill.
Environmental psychologist Sally Augustin, Ph.D, suggests that caring for plants really is a healthy option for stress relief, and could explain why so many millennials are so drawn to the hobby. “…and for the sharing generation, displaying our plant “parenting” on social media is something that actually feels good. “The share-ability of plants isn’t just because they’re visual — our social channels are a reflection of ourselves,” says Blank. “It’s like a badge of honor, being a plant owner. Like, ‘I’m succeeding at something that’s not tacky!’It’s not a humble brag, it’s something to really be proud of and that other people can be genuinely supportive of, too, like, ‘Hey! You kept that plant alive!’”
Initial Research/ Competitive Audit
What are other apps doing to solve this problem
Cool way of organizing plant data, but is overwhelmingly filled with information and clunky in its UX Design
Application is beautifully designed with a specific aesthetic, but doesn’t have a functioning live dashboard
With a 4.9 ★ overall standing and 190k ratings, the overall sentiment of the reviews speak of how relaxing and simple the game is
Whose problem am I solving?
Plant-loving Gen-Z’s & Millennials
Understanding Target Audience
“Plants offer meaning and fulfillment in millennials lives without all the commitments that come with pet ownership [and parenthood].”
—Darryl Cheng,
Instagram plant influencer
Why does this matter?
I can trust that the user base of this application is targeted towards a demographic that is used to UX patterns of social media apps, and must be aware of what toxic patterns to purposefully negate in my designs.
Research & ExplanationWhat methods of UX research will I use to help drive clarity and focus to my solution, and why?
UX RESEARCH METHOD 01: SURVEYSThe goal of my interview process was to find out specific pain points and benefits each individual has had with their social media and plant parenthood experiences.
Problem Statement
How might I design an application that can motivate users to take care of their plants and encourage the use of social media?
Hypothesis Statement (So what)?
If I make an app that is solely focused on sharing plant parenthood data, then users will be more likely to enjoy their social media experience and be better at taking care of their plants!
Problem/Opportunity Spaces
How am I going to address the problem spaces in my designs?
Problem space #1: Social media apps are anxiety inducing due to the app’s focus on likes and shares
I want to create a solution that can help users relieve social media anxiety by having a UI focused on anonymous admiration
Problem space #2: Plant apps complicate plant stats to inform plant owners of how they’re doing
By generating educational content in the app, users will have consolidated information about their plants and how to better take care of them
User Testing
Select 3 people to user test
Research & Explanation
What methods of UX research will I use to help drive clarity and focus to my solution, and why?
UX RESEARCH METHOD 03: DIGITAL PROTOTYPE USER TESTINGI interviewed 3 users and asked them to answer the following questions while using my prototype
Question 01
When you first look at this dashboard, what information do you see first? (Initial monstera screen)
The name of the plant
“Scabbers”
Heirarchy wise I see the big leaf first
Question 02
What is the health rating of Scabbers during week 5?
10/10
10
10
Question 03
Where can you find out more about Monstera Deliciosas?
Scroll down after “common issues”
Couldn’t find it (thought it would be next to Scabber’s name)
Under common issues
Question 04
Do you have any other comments on the usability of this app at its current state?
How do I see my friend’s plants?
How do I add a photo of Scabbers
How do I edit my plant name, what does a notification look like to remind me to water plants, what will it look like if i want to get down to the exact measurement
The Solution
Plant Parenthood is a mobile social media application that is the happiest and social media app that enables users to connect to fellow plant parents and take care of their own plant collection at home.
App Walkthrough
I played around with a new prototyping app, and created a rigid user journey for you to go through.
Here are the phases
Click “Tasks”
Water plants
Check Locations
Find Monstera Plant
Check Monstera Stats
Check Photos
What did I learn?
Simplify.
I learned that in trying to make more sections within a single app/case study, the more I made it more complicated for myself. To simplify is another way to work smarter, not harder!
Do not assume.
Assumptions hurt the design decision process. Instead, I realized that asking the right questions actually helped me expedite my design decisions.
Iterate.
This was the third take of my attempt at creating a plant related app. I think that without the last two iterations, I wouldn’t have been able to critically rethink poor design decisions that I had created before.