Plantful
An online plant care experience
The online plant care experience is growing yet many online tools are outdated or are inaccessible for many users. Users are seeking an experience that allows them to track, log, and diagnose their plants to ensure that they stay healthy. Plant care websites need to have easier user flows and better accessibility.
I developed a plant care website from start to finish in order to better the user experience in this industry. I used this design framework that allowed me to pin pain points through research, and shape those into design decisions through user testing and design iterations.
Create a website that creates an easy user flow.
Develop a website that can diagnose plants and offer more features for users.
Address and tackle current user pain points from competitors.
User Research
UX/UI Designer
User Testing
Overview
Background
The Process
Project Objectives
Conducting research on competitors was difficult due to paywalls and subscriptions.
Researching and learning about plant care with no prior knowledge in the plant industry.
Building out the branding and logo from scratch.
Project Challenges
Responsibilities
65+ hours
Timeline
Figma, Miro, Google Office
Tools
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
View Final Prototype
To build a better understanding of potential users, I conducted two methods of research, a competitive analysis and customer interviews. This research helped pinpoint user pain points and empathize with potential users. For the competitive analysis, I researched direct and indirect competitors to understand how current sports apps currently run and areas to improve on.
I conducted the competitive analysis on two direct competitors and one indirect competitor. I was able to develop thoughts and ideas on industry trends and current obstacles. By conducting this research, I was also able to develop provisional personas of potential users for Plantful.
I conducted user interviews with 5 participants all with different levels of understanding in plant care to get a range of perspectives. The participants ranged in age from 19-30 with 3 females and 2 males.
I was able to empathize with the participants in existing pain points and needs that they want in the plant care industry. These user interviews helped me build a strong understanding of what users prioritize.
Key User Interview Insights:
4 of the 5 participants state that current resources are outdated and difficult to navigate. This shows that the current user flows of existing websites make it difficult for users to find what they need.
All of the participants would love to see an affordable plant care tool. Many new and updated plant care tools are subscription based, which prevents people from having accessibility to them.
3 of the participants want there to be an online version instead of just the app. The current competitors mainly function on apps rather than on a website. These 3 participants claimed that sometimes they’d like to access these functions on their laptop.
Empathize
Research Approach
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
01
I was able to pull together the information from participants, develop patterns, and create commonalities in each participant’s answers. I created this empathy map from those findings to create a more organized view of my thoughts.
I developed this persona as a representation of the wants and needs of one of the main demographics that Plantful is designing for by utilizing the user interviews and research conducted.
Abeni Eze is a Nigerian-American coffee shop owner in Denver, CO. He loves plants and nature, which is one of the main reasons why he started up in Colorado. His shop is detailed with plants and has a lively, modern environment. He wants to ensure that the plants stay alive as he believes that if the plants are alive then his coffee shop will stay alive. He is desperately seeking a platform that will save him countless hours of Google searching for the solution and wants an option to build a profile, so it remembers past searches.
He is new to growing and taking care of plants. He believes that they bring a positive energy to his shop and would love to be able to log updates and obtain treatment plans in a website to help keep his thoughts organized.
Empathy Maps
Persona Development
Define
02
I was able to develop two main user flows to help elevate the experience for users on the Plantful website. The first user flow is the plant diagnosis tool. This user flow allows users to upload photos on the website to receive a diagnosis and treatment plan. The second user flow is the profile and entries user flow. This allows users to go to their profile and write down entries/logs to essentially keep journal updates on their plants to record their progress.
User Flow
Ideate
03
I utilized research conducted from the competitive analysis to gather design trends and current industry standards. I was then able to develop preliminary sketches to build a soft layout of the website while keeping the user’s in mind. My main goal was to ensure that the plant diagnosis and profile pages were easily accessible.
Paper Wireframes
I developed these low-fidelity prototypes to get a grasp of the user flows to help eliminate any pain points before creating the high-fidelity designs.I utilized all of the prior research to help ensure that I am empathizing with the user to view the website from their perspective.
Profile/Entry Post User Flow
Plant Diagnosis User Flow
Low-Fidelity Prototype
I developed a logo, color palette, and branding style for Plantful while utilizing the low-fidelity designs to create a strong, unified prototype for the website. The profile/entry post user flow I wanted to keep simple yet effective, so that people can quickly login and create entry posts to update the progress on their plants. The profile creates efficiencies for users as it acts as a hub with their journal entries, saved plants, and old diagnoses.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Prototype
04
Profile/Entry Post User Flow
Plant Diagnosis User Flow
With these high-fidelity prototypes, I wanted to create a look and feel of simplicity with a mix of lush and greenery. The plant diagnosis user flow is definitely one of the most important as it is the tool that is really pulling people into Plantful. I wanted to ensure that it is accessible multiple ways by putting the tool in the homepage and the diagnosis page. I wanted to ensure that the design was smooth and efficient through each user flow. Now, my designs are ready for usability testing.
I brought together 5 participants with 4 of them being from the user research interviews. The usability tests ranged from 10-15 minutes long. I utilized these usability tests to showcase the features that Plantful looks to put out and to see if these features align with the user needs that were identified from the empathize phase.
Key Objectives from Usability Testing:
Test the user experience and ease of navigation when using the features of the app.
Test if there are any pain points during any part of the user flow.
Test to see if the features fill the needs of the users.
The participants found that they were able to complete the tasks with ease while running into very minimal pain points. Here are some of the following highlights and problems that the users ran into:
Participants were able to complete the tasks with no problems, but some participants found some pain points. Here are some of the insights that were gained from the usability testing:
Key Findings from Usability Testing:
Save Login Option (3 participants) - Some participants noticed that there was no save login information option. They wanted this option to help save time from having to login every single time they use the website.
Word Visibility (5 participants) - All of the participants were struggling to read the name of the plant after doing the diagnosis. The white text wasn’t working well on top of the banner photo of the plant.
Diagnosis Page Design (2 participants) - Some users voiced that the diagnosis page design lacked visuals. The participants wanted more visuals like icons and more modern designs.
Easy Navigation (5 participants) - All of the participants voiced how easy and simple it is to complete the user journey. It took participants very little steps to complete their tasks, which many praised.
From the feedback that was received from the usability study, I focused on creating these three main changes to the website’s designs:
Created a save login button on the login screen to prevent users from having to login every single time when using the website.
Darkened the photo of the plant behind the name to make it more readable for users as it initially did not pass the color contrast test.
Developed a more modern design in some of the pages to create a more modern look and feel to the website.
For the next steps, I would conduct more usability tests to ensure that the user flow is smooth and addresses all the users’ needs. I would then send the completed designs over to the development team to create the fully functional website.
Usability Testing
Product Revisions and Next Steps
Test
05
Remember Me Button
Color Contrast
Design Upgrade
I was able to learn how to build out the design of a website by utilizing the research methods, data analysis, UI development, and user experience. I developed many skills from this case study and ran into many speed bumps, but was able to overcome them. I still have many things to learn as I continue my journey and process.
Through it all, I was able to design a plant care website that is accessible and efficient to help address user needs and provide great care for all plants.
Final Takeaways
