Bloom Prototype
Bloom Prototype
UX Case Study Overview
How can we support plant owners to thrive with their plants?
As a UX designer, I took on the challenge of connecting struggling plant owners to plant experts. The entire UX process spanned nine months from user research to developer hand-offs.
Purpose and Context
This was a personal project grown from my interests in plant care and as part of my UX Immersion course at Careerfoundry. This project highlights my research and design skills.
User Research
Initially, I had an idea for the app being a tool for plant owners to better care for their green pets. however, to empathize better with my potential clients, I conducted user research. My goals for research included to discover what motivated users to seek an app, what plant-care friction points users experienced, and what features user needed.
Using affinity mapping, I listened to the recordings of my interviewees and sorted their responses into Tasks, Feelings, Influences, Pain Points, and Overall Goals.
The Takeaway
In summary, users prioritize concise, easily accessible, and relevant information for plant care, recognizing its positive impact on wellness, while stressing the need for improved accessibility and consideration of financial aspects.
Competitive Analysis
The main key features of other plant apps that I could apply to this project were:
Simple, straightforward navigation
Accessible information
Options to seek expert help
From competitive analysis, and user research, I composed three “How might we?” questions:
How might we create a way for plant owners to receive help with caring for their plants?
How might we assist plant caretakers to keep track of their plant care?
How might we simplify and optimize plant care information so it is easily digestible by anyone of any level of plant care experience?
How Might We?
Problem and Solution
The Problem
Young professionals need a way to care for their plants while leading busy lives.
The Solution
To design a mobile app that smoothly connects with busy professionals and plant lovers to establish plant care routines and succinct advice.
Craft a portal to connect with a plant expert who can give users advice for plant care.
Create a home base where users can log, track, and set reminders for plant care.
Innovate a way for users to search for concise information about a plant and care tips.
The Story Begins
Meet Joyanna and Suraj. They are the proto-perosnas of the unique plant caretakers I interviewed for user research. From the research, I composed three user journeys, and three user stories and user flows
Users need help from an expert on more advanced care.
Users need a way to track their care schedule while leading busy lives.
User Flows
User Stories
Users need away to search information easily and quickly.
Card sorting and refining
After making my Proto Personas’ user flows, I now drafted a possible sitemap for the app. In order to confirm if the site map was clear, I conducted a card sort with 5 participants. Card sorting results helped me to better organize the sitemap.
Site map before card sorting.
Cart sort with feedback from 5 participants.
Site map after card sorting. Some screen names proved to be similar so they were changed to be more specific. Expert was expanded to include more options, and search and explore had overlap.
Wire Framing and Prototyping
Initially I sketched paper wireframes. I had three flows: Contact an expert, search for a plant, and a “my plants” database that includes all the users’ plants. Here is the “contact an expert” flow.
Usability Testing
Once I created the mid-fidelity wireframes with interactions, it was time to test out the design. The goal of usability testing was to test my hypothesis for each user story.
Hypotheses:
The user can book an expert through the app.
The user can search for information about a plant.
The user can save and track care for their plant.
Schedule: 6/14/2023 - 6/16/2023
Test duration: 10-20 minutes
Participants: Hana, Stephanie, Sijiya, Kim
Equipment: Lookback on Macbook Pro, iPhone 14
Scenario Tasks
To test each hypothesis, I asked participants up to complete four scenarios tasks and recorded their reactions and comments. I wanted to observe and record how participants navigated the app, and what friction points they would experience. Here are two of them:
Task 1: You’re caring for a plant, and you want to learn about a new plant you recently obtained. Using Nurture, find a page that tells you all about your new plant.
Task 2: You’re finding that one of your plants is sick or needs extra attention. You find out you can ask an expert for help with your plant. Use nurture to book an appointment with an expert who can help you with your plant.
Analysis: Affinity Mapping and Rainbow Spreadsheet
A good friend of mine once told me , “It takes time.” I was in despair over how long it was taking to become a designer. As simple as their statement was, I knew they were correct. Just like my designer journey, it took time and careful analyzing to make sense of the plethora of data I had gleaned from my test participants. It was worth it.
Here are some insights gained from analysis tools like affinity mapping and rainbow spreadsheet.
Words matter: Participants needed more specific language for CTA buttons such as, “Book an Appointment”.
To cancel or not: A cancel button would appear immediately after a user booked an appointment with a plant expert. This proved to be confusing to most participants.
The questionnaire that clients fill out to help experts understand plant inquiries needed to be more open ended.
Methodology: From Lookback, I was able to transcribe my interviewees responses. I performed an affinity mapping to sort and organize their feedback into groups. From the groups, I then further analyzed the feedback into a rainbow spreadsheet which helped me visualize what the most pressing issues were with my midfidelity wireframes.
Midfidelity Wireframe for Usability Testing
Latest design
Updates:
“Schedule” was renamed to “Book an Appointment”
Confirmation of booking added as a pop-up notification of confirming.
Hamburger menu eliminated from messaging feature.
Overall cosmetics improved and made to be consistent, using M3 guidelines.
Components were improved to include variables.
The name “Nurture” was changed to “Bloom” to indicate a new iteration and beginning.
My next step is to keep iterating on my current prototype and conduct another usability test with potential users. I will edit my prototype flow so it is more efficient. For instance, clients shouldn’t have to enter their credit card information every time they book an expert appointment, so I will add a “Save card” check box to make checkout faster. I will also make colors more uniform.
Concluding Thoughts
Main Takeaway
The Bloom Plant App project aimed to create a user-friendly web app for plant care, incorporating expert guidance and reminders. Through research and testing, it prioritized accessible and concise information, iteratively improving the prototype based on user feedback to better serve busy plant parents.