RESEARCH
DEFINE
IDEATION & DESIGN
PROTOTYPE
FINAL DESIGN
MAMA PLANT
The app that creates an immersive and personalized experience. For every plant enthusiast with little or intermediate experience with plants, that wants to give the best care to their green companions
PROBLEM
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Many apps on the market with inconvenient notifications
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Lack of reliable and comprehensive information on plant care
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Boring garden galleries
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The user needs in person consultations in case of emergencies with plants
TARGET
Millenials and generation Z. During 2020, about $8.5 billion were spent on plants and gardening related items . For some reasons like (economics, housing, culture) plants have become the "children" of millennials and gen Z. We're now living in a society that loves to share its life on SM, interact online and depend on the phone 24/7.
Research
To start my secondary research I did some benchmarking to understand and to know what the competition offers. After this step I created a survery with 22 questions. The survey would give me insights such as: the user's current struggles with plants, their motivation to have plants, their previous experience with plant apps, their worries and fears, among others.
The survey was done remotely through Google forms and there were 14 participants.
Findings
Once the survey was finished, I emptied their answers into an empathy map and categorized them.
Insights
Define
User persona
Ideation & design
User flow
Main features
Onboarding intro
Immersive garden
In person consultations
Lo-fi wireframes
Branding
I wanted the logo to be fresh and lively, I added curved lines to simulate movement and some leaves as an accent. As for the colors i wanted earth tones to transmit tranquility and vitality.
Logo
Color palette
Typography
Prototype
(main features)
In order to offer personalized notifications the onboarding intro is a must. From my findings i concluded it was important to have this intro and to be able to control when is best for the user to get notifications or reminders. This will help to configure the app according to the user needs and times.
You get the option to choose between beginner or intermediate, but of course the app is free for everyone to use it. After that, the user will introduce the number of plants they own , how many hours a week they can dedicate to their plants and what time is best to get the notifications. From here the user needs to set a specific time in which they will receive notifications.
The app will also ask you to share your location, in order to be able to give the user tips and recommendations according to their region (climate, sunlight, etc)
Plant mama has a feature specific for countries with limited sunlight thought the year, for example, the nordic countries. This feature is enable with your location and the user can always have access to it though the menu in the help section.
To add plants the user will have 3 options: identify a plant via google lens, upload a picture from your gallery or write the name if known. The app will recognize the plant and give all the information about it.
Next step is to add it to the garden. The app will create a profile for you plant with all the information. Once the watering and fertilizing info has been added, the app will create a schedule and reminders for the user.
After this process the app will create an accurate illustration of the current plant, from the chosen picture. This is to create a more immersive experience and engage the user. They will feel closer to their plants instead of just looking at a photo album. It looks aesthetically better.
It's know that an aesthetically pleasing design creates a positive response in people’s brains and leads them to believe the design actually works better.
Finally, you can see how the garden will look once more plants has been added.
In the help section the user will be able to find a local expert and ask for help, the catalog and information about the perfect plants for low sunlight regions and some tips for taking care of your regular plants during the winter.
In the "Find a local expert" section, the user will have access to a database, here they can search and connect with local experts, get in person consultation and plant diagnosis assistance.
In "Search and connect" it's possible to find an expert in the area, the user can navigate through the map and see the people available.
Onboarding
Inmersive & realistic garden
In person consultations
Final prototype
As an extra, I made a web page, merely informative. Here the user can read about the main features of Plant mama app, but also has the opportunity to access his profile and check his information.
Next steps
User testing
Due to the shortness of the project, I didn't have enough time to do an user testing. This is the next step to test the features of the app
Develop more features
I would like to further develop the sections "Plants for winter" and "Winter tips". Since my survey was very much local, most of the participants struggle to keep their plants in good health during winter or would prefer to get plants that are adapted to the low sunlight conditions. For which I feel that it's an important feature, because these topics have a lack of importance in most of plant apps in the market.
Gamification
I would like to add some kind of gamification to make the experience more fun and engaging.