Damian Harrop
Table of Contents
Overview
UI Art: Clip Studio Paint
Wireframe Software: Figma
Usability/Preference Testing: Maze & Google Forms
Dev Time: 5 months (1/21 – 5/21)
Plantalda is mobile application prototype to help plant parents of all skills and experiences take care of their plants. This app will help users track their watering patterns, plant health, and all of their plants. This app is strictly a prototype, and will no longer be in development.
Introduction
When I first started developing this project in January 2021, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with this project. This was my second case study, and I wanted to shift my focus from games to an application. I had a few ideas, but couldn’t really find a problem that needed a solution. A proposal I made was a plant health application, that would help users take care of their plants. I took inspiration from my parenting of over twenty plants, all of which need a different watering schedule and different sunlight, and how plant apps can be confusing and overwhelming.
To start my research, I downloaded three plant apps to see if I could find a problem, and how I conjure up ideas for a solution. I will go further into detail about the three plant apps, but in my research I found that a lot of the apps were really confusing in layout, and expected things of the user like remembering when each plant was last watered as they are added into the app. The problem that I wanted to fix was a pretty simple one, where I wanted to make a plant tracking app that was easy to use and understand, and make it more user friendly and allow the user to get to different pages in different ways to make it easier. From there, Plantalda became an application that would help users track their plant health, in a user friendly and simple way.
The Problem: Plant care applications are very confusing in formatting and information, and also have bland color palettes that make it hard for things to stand out.
My Solution: Make a “dark mode” color palette for an application, as well as make it easier to navigate the application with easy to understand buttons.
User Research
Problem: What is my audience? Is there really a problem here I can solve?
My solution: User research!
Starting my process of research and development, I needed to confirm that there was a problem that needed to be solved. There are a lot of plant health applications in app stores and online, and I wanted to make sure that there were problems in these applications before I add to the pool of plant health applications. There would be no point in making an application if there were already perfect applications out there!
My goal in this survey was to break respondents into different groups of their experiences with plants, and ask different questions based on their experience.
Around 40% of surveryors said they didn’t have a plant, but would like to, while around 50% of surveyors did have plants and have experiences ranging from being barely able to take care of a succulent to being surrounded by plants.
When asking those who do not have plants and want them, I asked what would be holding them back, I had a vast majority respond that they either can’t remember to take care of their plants, or that they don’t have sufficient lighting in their space.
Lastly, I asked those with and without plants what they would like from a plant care app, what they need in an app. I found some good information where people want to have to have water tracking, health tracking, naming plants, and getting some tips for taking care of their plants!
With that, I was able to make a plan of what I want to add to the prototype, and would want to make it more new plant parent friendly.
Competitive Analysis
When researching competitors on this market, I found a lot of competition! There were a broad amount of applications for both indoor plants to gardens. For this research, I downloaded three mobile applications; Planta, Vera and Gardenia. There were many different types of applications, all of which did look the same, mainly clean graphics with a green color palette, but none of them really stood out from one another. I chose those three because they were the higher rated apps, and I wanted to see what the best had to offer. While looking at these apps, I was disappointed in how these operated. First, Gardenia was an outdoor plant application that was missing so much, from plant health to watering, it only allowed the user to add plants to their garden and name their plants. It was nice that they allowed the plants to be named, but overall the app was pretty much useless when it came to my needs as a user. Vera was pretty decent as an application, where I was able to find a wide range of plants, as well as have a watering countdown, and a plant health tracker. Planta was the best where it had great information conveyed to the user; a watering countdown, plant health tracker, and tips on how to water, sun, and fertilize the plants. While Vera and Planta were both good apps, there were issues with the layout and the graphics. The layout was confusing, and the graphics were subtle and monotonous which lead to confusion as nothing grabbed my attention.
Looking at Vera and Planta, these apps have a really nice color palette, but there is not a lot that is grabbing my attention as a user. I wanted to make a plant app that would have really nice graphics that would make things more easy to use for the user, as well as make the layout less confusing. From the feedback I received with my survey, as well as looking at the apps I downloaded, I wanted to make features of tracking watering dates, plant health, and when adding a new plant the user can name it. Both Vera and Planta had buttons on the bottom of the screen as well on the home screen that could go to different places, but it was to the point where I didn’t remember where to click to go to certain areas, and it felt like I could only go to some areas if I were to be prompted by a notification on my phone. Overall, it was not a great experience, and I was determined to make one that was simpler, yet better.
To look at my SWOT Analysis + Competitive Analysis documentation, click here!
Personas
After conducting my initial user survey, I wanted to cover the broad range of users I received in my feedback, and address their needs and wants from this project. I focused more on the experience of the user in plant care, where it is important on where they are in experience because they would need different things from an app depending on how many plants they have and how many different plants they have.
To look at my Persona documentation, click here!
Content Strategy Outline + Sitemap
During the planning process, I broke down my ideas into main components for what I planned to have in the project. I wanted to break down the project into a few components: plants, plant info for each plant, plant health, and a calendar where users can track which plants they watered and when.
To look at my Persona documentation, click here!
Wireframe
The problem: I need to make a plant care application base that is understandable, and easy to use.
My solution: Make a low fidelity prototype
During week 9 of development, I made a low fidelity prototype for how I wanted the layout to look in the app. I didn’t do any on paper prototypes for this project, I instead went into Figma and started making a prototype. This was supposed to be very simple and to the point, where there aren’t a lot of real test assets in the app. This part of development was supposed to be strictly for usability testing.
To look at my first prototype, click here!
Usability Testing
In week 10 of development, I was able to test my first iteration of wireframes with three of my friends. I brought my figma prototype into Maze, and made some tasks for them to do. A lot of it was really great! All the testers were able to do the tasks really easily. The tests took very little time because they were able to do the tasks pretty easily, and there weren’t a lot of issues.
To look at my first usability test’s feedback, click here!
During week 13 of development, I was able to do a second usability test with a high fidelity prototype. There was some good feedback from testers where they found the graphics to be a little boring, and to not work really well with the pictures of the plants. They also said that there was no log out button, which was a piece that I missed and put in later. It was some great feedback because I did not know that my graphics weren’t good enough or eye catching enough, and that it conflicted with the plant images, so for my final prototype iteration I would go in and make the graphics look better and more cohesive. After week 13, there was very little time to do more usability testing due to the semester ending, so I did not do any other usability testing.
To look at my second usability test’s feedback, click here!
Branding
The problem: How can I possibly make this more interesting and stand out against the competition.
My solution: Contrasting color palette that is different, yet neutral and fun!
The whole point of this project was to make an application that would look simple yet get people’s attention with the graphics. In most of the applications I have seen, it was very clean looking as well as has a green color palette. I like the lime green, or a true green color palette, but I wanted to be a little bit different and set my app apart from the other apps with my color palette.
To try and find what would be the best course of action with color palettes, I made a preference test to see which would be the best, using more greens, or using more blue toned greens. It was fascinating because a lot of my users like the blue toned greens more than the true green colors which was interesting! I thought that people would like the more green looking colors more, but 66% of testers wanted the blue toned greens.
To look at my preference testing results, click here!
As development continued, I wanted to make a clear color palette for myself, which I chose down below. These colors are blue based, but still very clean and nice looking, I found it on Canva and it is called “Under the Ferns” which is very fitting! I changed some of the colors where instead of the dark green I made it a dark grey to really bring out the contrast. I was inspired by a game called Subnautica that I have been playing recently. The game takes place in a world that is made up of only ocean, and I started playing it to try and get rid of my fear of the ocean (it hasn’t worked). During the night cycle of the world, all of the fish start glowing in certain parts of their body. Thinking back to the feedback I got of my graphics, I thought that would be a really cool idea if I made my color palette like that. All the plant apps I looked at had a very bright, yet neutral color palette, so I thought making mine very contrasted would stand out against the competition.
Conclusion
Overall, I am pleased with how this project went. Going into the project, I was happy to find a lot of different apps there to help plant lovers of all skills and experiences keep their plant family alive and well. I think that with my research and usability testing, I was able to create an application prototype that was simple, yet effective. I think that it was a great experience as well as I have never made an application for mobile before, so working with a smaller screen and a different resolution was a great learning experience. I am happy that I kept the application simple with not a lot going on, but also kept the graphics fun and interesting so that it attracts people to look in certain areas more than others.
It was a great experience, but overall, I am not very pleased with this project entirely. I was not really passionate about the project, and found it difficult to keep up with it and do the best that I could for the class I was taking this in. I think with Covid-19 made it really hard for me to bounce back and do my best work. I think that a prototype is the best that I will get with this project, as I think this is as good as it will get, and I want to focus on other UI/UX case studies that I have in mind.
Prototypes
First Prototype:
Since I do not want to make this application into a full fledged product, I have been making my prototypes in figma. The first prototype in Figma was my high fidelity mockup, where I made a first pass of my graphics. It was to do usability testing and to set up the basics of the graphis to see if people even like the graphics.
To look at my first high fidelity prototype, click here!
Second Prototype:
In my second iteration for the prototype, I updated all of the art and made things look less figma-ish. I made assets for all things I wanted to such as the settings, and the addition button and the backgrounds. I also found a nice font, called Tienne, to use as well, I think it looks a lot cleaner than the one I had earlier.
To look at my final prototype, click here!
Overview
UI Art: Clip Studio Paint
Wireframe Software: Figma
Usability/Preference Testing: Maze & Google Forms
Dev Time: 5 months (1/21 – 5/21)
Plantalda is mobile application prototype to help plant parents of all skills and experiences take care of their plants. This app will help users track their watering patterns, plant health, and all of their plants. This app is strictly a prototype, and will no longer be in development.
Introduction
When I first started developing this project in January 2021, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with this project. This was my second case study, and I wanted to shift my focus from games to an application. I had a few ideas, but couldn’t really find a problem that needed a solution. A proposal I made was a plant health application, that would help users take care of their plants. I took inspiration from my parenting of over twenty plants, all of which need a different watering schedule and different sunlight, and how plant apps can be confusing and overwhelming.
To start my research, I downloaded three plant apps to see if I could find a problem, and how I conjure up ideas for a solution. I will go further into detail about the three plant apps, but in my research I found that a lot of the apps were really confusing in layout, and expected things of the user like remembering when each plant was last watered as they are added into the app. The problem that I wanted to fix was a pretty simple one, where I wanted to make a plant tracking app that was easy to use and understand, and make it more user friendly and allow the user to get to different pages in different ways to make it easier. From there, Plantalda became an application that would help users track their plant health, in a user friendly and simple way.
The Problem: Plant care applications are very confusing in formatting and information, and also have bland color palettes that make it hard for things to stand out.
My Solution: Make a “dark mode” color palette for an application, as well as make it easier to navigate the application with easy to understand buttons.
User Research
Problem: What is my audience? Is there really a problem here I can solve?
My solution: User research!
Starting my process of research and development, I needed to confirm that there was a problem that needed to be solved. There are a lot of plant health applications in app stores and online, and I wanted to make sure that there were problems in these applications before I add to the pool of plant health applications. There would be no point in making an application if there were already perfect applications out there!
My goal in this survey was to break respondents into different groups of their experiences with plants, and ask different questions based on their experience.
Around 40% of surveryors said they didn’t have a plant, but would like to, while around 50% of surveyors did have plants and have experiences ranging from being barely able to take care of a succulent to being surrounded by plants.
When asking those who do not have plants and want them, I asked what would be holding them back, I had a vast majority respond that they either can’t remember to take care of their plants, or that they don’t have sufficient lighting in their space.
Lastly, I asked those with and without plants what they would like from a plant care app, what they need in an app. I found some good information where people want to have to have water tracking, health tracking, naming plants, and getting some tips for taking care of their plants!
With that, I was able to make a plan of what I want to add to the prototype, and would want to make it more new plant parent friendly.
Competitive Analysis
When researching competitors on this market, I found a lot of competition! There were a broad amount of applications for both indoor plants to gardens. For this research, I downloaded three mobile applications; Planta, Vera and Gardenia. There were many different types of applications, all of which did look the same, mainly clean graphics with a green color palette, but none of them really stood out from one another. I chose those three because they were the higher rated apps, and I wanted to see what the best had to offer. While looking at these apps, I was disappointed in how these operated. First, Gardenia was an outdoor plant application that was missing so much, from plant health to watering, it only allowed the user to add plants to their garden and name their plants. It was nice that they allowed the plants to be named, but overall the app was pretty much useless when it came to my needs as a user. Vera was pretty decent as an application, where I was able to find a wide range of plants, as well as have a watering countdown, and a plant health tracker. Planta was the best where it had great information conveyed to the user; a watering countdown, plant health tracker, and tips on how to water, sun, and fertilize the plants. While Vera and Planta were both good apps, there were issues with the layout and the graphics. The layout was confusing, and the graphics were subtle and monotonous which lead to confusion as nothing grabbed my attention.
Looking at Vera and Planta, these apps have a really nice color palette, but there is not a lot that is grabbing my attention as a user. I wanted to make a plant app that would have really nice graphics that would make things more easy to use for the user, as well as make the layout less confusing. From the feedback I received with my survey, as well as looking at the apps I downloaded, I wanted to make features of tracking watering dates, plant health, and when adding a new plant the user can name it. Both Vera and Planta had buttons on the bottom of the screen as well on the home screen that could go to different places, but it was to the point where I didn’t remember where to click to go to certain areas, and it felt like I could only go to some areas if I were to be prompted by a notification on my phone. Overall, it was not a great experience, and I was determined to make one that was simpler, yet better.
To look at my SWOT Analysis + Competitive Analysis documentation, click here!
Personas
After conducting my initial user survey, I wanted to cover the broad range of users I received in my feedback, and address their needs and wants from this project. I focused more on the experience of the user in plant care, where it is important on where they are in experience because they would need different things from an app depending on how many plants they have and how many different plants they have.
To look at my Persona documentation, click here!
Content Strategy Outline + Sitemap
During the planning process, I broke down my ideas into main components for what I planned to have in the project. I wanted to break down the project into a few components: plants, plant info for each plant, plant health, and a calendar where users can track which plants they watered and when.
To look at my Persona documentation, click here!
Wireframe
The problem: I need to make a plant care application base that is understandable, and easy to use.
My solution: Make a low fidelity prototype
During week 9 of development, I made a low fidelity prototype for how I wanted the layout to look in the app. I didn’t do any on paper prototypes for this project, I instead went into Figma and started making a prototype. This was supposed to be very simple and to the point, where there aren’t a lot of real test assets in the app. This part of development was supposed to be strictly for usability testing.
To look at my first prototype, click here!
Usability Testing
In week 10 of development, I was able to test my first iteration of wireframes with three of my friends. I brought my figma prototype into Maze, and made some tasks for them to do. A lot of it was really great! All the testers were able to do the tasks really easily. The tests took very little time because they were able to do the tasks pretty easily, and there weren’t a lot of issues.
To look at my first usability test’s feedback, click here!
During week 13 of development, I was able to do a second usability test with a high fidelity prototype. There was some good feedback from testers where they found the graphics to be a little boring, and to not work really well with the pictures of the plants. They also said that there was no log out button, which was a piece that I missed and put in later. It was some great feedback because I did not know that my graphics weren’t good enough or eye catching enough, and that it conflicted with the plant images, so for my final prototype iteration I would go in and make the graphics look better and more cohesive. After week 13, there was very little time to do more usability testing due to the semester ending, so I did not do any other usability testing.
To look at my second usability test’s feedback, click here!
Branding
The problem: How can I possibly make this more interesting and stand out against the competition.
My solution: Contrasting color palette that is different, yet neutral and fun!
The whole point of this project was to make an application that would look simple yet get people’s attention with the graphics. In most of the applications I have seen, it was very clean looking as well as has a green color palette. I like the lime green, or a true green color palette, but I wanted to be a little bit different and set my app apart from the other apps with my color palette.
To try and find what would be the best course of action with color palettes, I made a preference test to see which would be the best, using more greens, or using more blue toned greens. It was fascinating because a lot of my users like the blue toned greens more than the true green colors which was interesting! I thought that people would like the more green looking colors more, but 66% of testers wanted the blue toned greens.
To look at my preference testing results, click here!
As development continued, I wanted to make a clear color palette for myself, which I chose down below. These colors are blue based, but still very clean and nice looking, I found it on Canva and it is called “Under the Ferns” which is very fitting! I changed some of the colors where instead of the dark green I made it a dark grey to really bring out the contrast. I was inspired by a game called Subnautica that I have been playing recently. The game takes place in a world that is made up of only ocean, and I started playing it to try and get rid of my fear of the ocean (it hasn’t worked). During the night cycle of the world, all of the fish start glowing in certain parts of their body. Thinking back to the feedback I got of my graphics, I thought that would be a really cool idea if I made my color palette like that. All the plant apps I looked at had a very bright, yet neutral color palette, so I thought making mine very contrasted would stand out against the competition.
Conclusion
Overall, I am pleased with how this project went. Going into the project, I was happy to find a lot of different apps there to help plant lovers of all skills and experiences keep their plant family alive and well. I think that with my research and usability testing, I was able to create an application prototype that was simple, yet effective. I think that it was a great experience as well as I have never made an application for mobile before, so working with a smaller screen and a different resolution was a great learning experience. I am happy that I kept the application simple with not a lot going on, but also kept the graphics fun and interesting so that it attracts people to look in certain areas more than others.
It was a great experience, but overall, I am not very pleased with this project entirely. I was not really passionate about the project, and found it difficult to keep up with it and do the best that I could for the class I was taking this in. I think with Covid-19 made it really hard for me to bounce back and do my best work. I think that a prototype is the best that I will get with this project, as I think this is as good as it will get, and I want to focus on other UI/UX case studies that I have in mind.
Prototypes
First Prototype:
Since I do not want to make this application into a full fledged product, I have been making my prototypes in figma. The first prototype in Figma was my high fidelity mockup, where I made a first pass of my graphics. It was to do usability testing and to set up the basics of the graphis to see if people even like the graphics.
To look at my first high fidelity prototype, click here!
Second Prototype:
In my second iteration for the prototype, I updated all of the art and made things look less figma-ish. I made assets for all things I wanted to such as the settings, and the addition button and the backgrounds. I also found a nice font, called Tienne, to use as well, I think it looks a lot cleaner than the one I had earlier.
To look at my final prototype, click here!