Home Harvest
An Urban Gardening Resource App
Overview
Baker Creek is a seed company and is America's top source for heirloom seeds.
After the pandemic Baker Creek saw an opportunity to better communicate with an emerging market of urban gardeners.
Task
Design a mobile app to cater to new target segment of urban gardeners to meet the needs in their gardening journey.
ROLE
Lead Designer
Project Manager
TEAM
Logan Ruscick
Estella Yu
Lac Nhi Nguyen
TIMELINE
2 Weeks
for Research | Ideation | Testing | Design
Research and Methods
Collect
Define
Analyze
Synthesize
19 Surveys
10 Interviews
Affinity
Map
3 Competitors
2 Comparators
Online Survey
Through the 19 online surveys we were able to better define the urban gardener target through two main limitations.
Gardening Space
Lack of Experience
User Research | Affinity Map
After Affinity Mapping 10 User interviews our team identified the targets main motivations as to why they garden and pain points addressing their obstacles.
Motivations
Reward
from
Labor
Relaxing
Process
​
*Dependent on successful growth of plant
Pain Points
Lack of
Confidence
Knowledge
Experience
In how to grow plants successfully
External Factors
Pests | Weather | Location
Therefore we conducted a C+C analysis to observe conventions used that could help address the user's painpoints so that they can fulfil their original motivations.
Competitors
Insights
Plant Info | Guides |Gardening Tips
Space Specific plant recommendations
Light Specific plant recommendations
Comparators
Tutorials | Helpful Videos
Community Groups | Forums
User Persona
Gabby the Gardener
Age | 26
Location | Bronx, NY
Job | Community Organizer
Goals
Challenges
Keep her plants alive
​
Create a relaxing atmosphere
​
Learn more about gardening
Lack of gardening experience
​
Not knowing what is wrong with her plants
​
How to overcome external factors
Problem
Gabby is an Urban gardener who lacks confidence in her knowledge of how to successfully grow her plants and faces challenges due to external factors beyond her control, such as weather conditions, pests, and her limited gardening area.
Therefore, Gabby needs a way to access gardening care information to grow her plants to fruition and avoid her gardening failures.
Solution
Home Harvest is a Gardening Resource app that will provide Gabby with relevant information so that she is confident in keeping her plants alive regardless of space, location, or aptitude.
The app will guide Gabby through the process of selecting the right plants, offering personalized recommendations based on her space, light exposure, and location.
Additionally, the app will offer a range of educational resources, including basic info, tutorials, and a community forum to connect with others to share experiences and help one another along their gardening endeavors.
Design and Iteration
Ideation
Usability
Tests
Iteration
Final
Design
Mid Fi
5 users tested
Features
High Fidelity
Home Harvest Prototype
Mid Fi Wireframes
Our team transferred preliminary sketches to digital mid fi wireframes to conduct usability tests to evaluate if our designs effectively achieved our solution's goals, while also observing any usability issues to iterate.
Usability Tests
Through usability tests we not only gained insight on how our product conveyed a solution to the user's problem, but also identified moments in the flow where there were either hesitation or usability errors.
5/5 users found it confusing as to what the home page's purpose was due to the layout
3/5 were unsure of how to continue the task
5/5 users hesitated, were confused and overall unsatisfied with this part of the flow
​
4/5 users reverted back rather than completing the intended flow.
By implementing a search function it removed friction and shortened the users task time.
We also broke up the categories into more digestible sections which allowed all users to better grasp the pages purpose.
​
We added titles on the tutorial page as well as updating visuals which was received as more intuitive by all users
Iteration | Hi Fidelity
Home Page
Input your Location
and Gardening Area​
Receive recommended plants for you
My Plants
Ability to add plants for ease of access.
Search Page
Search for plants
See what's recommended based on your location, and gardening area
Search Tips on gardening
Search Tutorials on how to plant specific plants or general information
Plant Info
Add to My Plants
Get specific info about plants
Learn how to manage external factors
Tutorials
Search for specific tutorials
Or browse videos on general topics
Community Page
Search Groups
Find your way to the FAQ forum
Join Groups
Final Prototype
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
LESSONS LEARNED
Overall I learned how important layout and UI design correlates to the user's understanding of how a product works and how it can remove friction in the user experience when done well.
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I also took away the importance of iterations and testing in creating a good product that is both visually and logically sound, it's easy to become blind to mistakes when you are closely invested in a project.