Plant Care Reimagined
Background
GROVE was born out of my own frustration in keeping my lawn green and healthy.
Struggling with confusing and contradictory online research I sought to gain more insight into a process I felt was more difficult than it should be.
Project Timeline
10 Weeks
Problem
Plant care can be a rewarding hobby that enhances living spaces and general well-being. Despite growing interest in both outdoor and indoor gardening; lack of information and feedback can quickly take the enjoyment out of keeping plants happy and healthy.
How are people caring for their plants?
Second Hand Data
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After reading through hundreds of reviews and comments in the Apple Store I found the existing solutions lack a personal touch. These apps default to formulaic feedback and suggestions.
“It’s supposed to make things more convenient and easy to track and right now, I do not feel it is living up to that.”
-Planta Reviewer
“…I would still like an expanded search functionality). I also cannot figure out a way to edit existing notifications.”
-Blossom Reviewer
“Love that I can “save to my garden” and look back at what I’ve scanned and reread the info anytime. Love the “diagnose” feature as well!”
-Picture This Reviewer
First Hand Research
Why is this so difficult?
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Many of my interview participants experienced frustration not with the day to day task of caring for a plant but for the lack of feedback plants can give and even more confusing solutions for those problems. If a plant is showing signs of stress the problem may be too much or too little water. Knowing which direction to take comes from years of experience and unfortunately, a bunch of dead plants.
11 Interviews
12 Surveyed
Survey says…
The majority of responders currently get their information from internet searches with trial and error coming a close second. I found reducing the learning curve inherit in the plant care process will go a long way to lessen some of the frustration users are experiencing.
Affinity Mapping
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I also compared how current plant-care apps address these insights to identify any opportunities to fill a gap in the market.
Clustering
Analyzing
Defining Key Goals
The four key pain points are found are below. They would frame my solution moving forward.
Proto-Personas
Customer Path
Trying different solutions and achieving the same result is the quickest way to lose interest in a hobby.
To reduce customer frustration my solution offers personalized feedback on a plant by plant basis. Timely water and light monitoring and automatic scheduling with gentle reminders ensure the user feels supported in their plant care journey.
User Flow meets Storyboard
A user flow can only go so far when explaining an idea. I’ve found a quick and dirty storyboard can go much further in quickly explaining a concept to a wide audience.
Sketching
Design System Development
Ideation
I spent a great deal of time ideating on the individual plant’s status-card. This informed many decisions throughout the design process and helped shape the design system as a whole.
As with most designs, knowing when to put the pencil down can be the most challenging part of the process.
Plant Sensor
Grove…two in one
A slim sensor housing a moisture, light and humidity sensor, as well as a thermometer.
Mobile Application
An easy to use mobile application to guide your through caring for new plants, and provide immediate plant feedback.
Plant Homepage
The plant home page is the centerpiece of the GROVE App. Users need to view the status of all of their green friends at a glance, and easily dive deeper into the a specific plant’s condition and history.
Ask the Experts
Utilizing a social feed built into the app allows users to track and show off their progress but most importantly to ask questions. Posts can be filtered to those within your immediate vicinity to tap into the local knowledge in your area.
Add a Plant
Adding a new GROVE Plant Monitor is quick and easy with the GROVE App. The system then monitors your new plant for 24 hours to make a detailed and customized care schedule.
