PRODUCT: Houseplant diagnostic app ROLE: Research, Design, Interaction DURATION: 3 months
Project Vision
HouseCall is a plant diagnostic app designed to keep houseplants healthy. For this project, I used a goal-directed design method developed around user personas and their needs. The result is an app that prescribes care and treatments for sick plants. HouseCall also keeps track of healthy plants and their routine care.
Challenges
Create a diagnostic and treatment journey based on the houseplant's symptoms
Balance daily plant care features with diagnostics
Develop an app with beginner-friendly UI and information
Make plant stats easy to track, whether sick or healthy
RESEARCH
Using a goal-directed design approach, I conducted qualitative research methods. This consisted off a kickoff meeting, literature review, competitive analysis, stakeholder interviews, and a persona hypothesis construction.
I began by asking myself the following questions:
"What is the product and who is it for?"
"What do our primary users need the most?"
"What challenges could I face moving forward?"
"Who do I see as my biggest competitors?"
Meet the Users
Prang
23
Teacher
USER 1:
Prang is new to houseplants. She has trouble keeping them healthy. Prang wants to know what she's doing wrong and how she can help her plants.
Kevin
44
Database Admin
USER 2:
Kevin has a few plants at his desk from colleagues over the years. He's looking for an app that will remind him to water them.
Priya
36
HR Manager
USER 3:
Priya is a plant lover with many houseplants. She'd like a way to accurately diagnose her sick plants.
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed four total competitors, three direct and one indirect. Each offered at least one service that HouseCall has. After conducting a competive audit, I identified areas that HouseCall could improve upon:
Three apps were locked behind a paywall
Text and buttons were too small and difficult to read
Too much information on one page required endless scrolling
Not enough color contrast
Successful takeaways from the audit were:
User flows were easy to navigate with detailed UIs
Useful features including photo support and easy plant identification
Planta | Direct Competitor
Plant Parent | Direct Competitor
Flora | Direct Competitor
Plant Nanny | Indirect Competitor
DESIGN
Preparing the journey
I constructed a user flow that maps out both journeys: sick plant diagnosis and adding a plant.
Wireframing
After determining the preliminary flow, I moved onto wireframing the user journey. This stage of development allowed me to determine which pages and features were crucial for the app's function.
USABILITY STUDIES
User testing
Once the wireframes were complete, I conducted the first round of user testing. I gave participants tasks to complete through both journeys. The five paint points encountered were:
The Home page's name was confusing to users
The plant profile's lack of navigation between plants and inability to return to the Home screen
The HouseCall diagnosis button was unclear
The plant profile should have check boxes for the care prompts and a clear label for sick status
The search results needed a confirmation option when adding a plant
Pain point 1 | Confusing Home page
The Home/plant collection screen received a title of "My Plants." Previously it did not have a title so users were confused what to call it.
Pain point 2 | Plant profile's navigation
Each Plant profile page lacked navigation between plants and the home screen. Navigation buttons were added at the top of the page.
Pain point 3 | Diagnosis button
Users did not understand what the Diagnosis button was because it differed from the rest. To remedy this I created a new diagnostic method. I created Healthy and Sick status buttons underneath the plant's name. Selecting the Sick button will begin the diagnostic journey.
Pain point 4 | Plant care prompts
Users wanted the icons next to the plant care stats to be replaced with check boxes. These keep track of task completion.
Pain point 5 | Add plant confirmation
The Add Plant process was missing a confirmation screen. Once users hit Yes to confirm their plant result, they were suddenly taken to the Plant Profile page. I added a confirmation screen and directed the button to the My Plants page.
STYLE GUIDE
I used research from the competitive audit to create HouseCall's color palette. Competing apps were green-heavy to reflect the subject matter. I researched what shades of green had a positive affect on viewers. I discovered that houseplants with both green and magenta tones elicited the highest rates of happiness.
I identified houseplants with both colors and chose the inch plant as HouseCall's official houseplant. I chose a vibrant green and magenta to create balance and contrast to adhere to WCAG standards.
Takeaways
Creating the HouseCall app was a positive experience. Houseplants are a hobby of mine and it was a great opportunity to expand my knowledge. My biggest takeaway was the importance of user testing. The subjects highlighted issues that my design biases had overlooked. I appreciated their input and was pleased with the final results.
Designing two distinct journeys was a new experience for me. It was surprisingly easy. Both journeys are visually similar which make them easy to navigate. I also found the competitive audit easier than anticipated. The audit steered me in the right direction to develop a user flow.
Lastly, I enjoyed creating the color palette for HouseCall. While researching houseplants for the logo I learned that humans prefer green and magenta plants. I chose the inch plant for inspiration and used it as a starting point for the color palette.
In the future I would love to do a third round of testing. I really enjoyed conducting the interviews and was impressed by the same issues being highlighted across multiple participants.