Project Summary

I will be adding a feature to this app, NatureID. This app identifies, diagnose, gives advice, and reminders. At the moment the user takes a photo of a plant, and the app shows you a picture and name of the plant then gives the user a chart that gives you frequencies of when to do said care tips for said plant, yet makes the user pick frequencies they want to do it. My addition would be to make an option for the app to create automatic reminders for watering, misting, fertilizing, and rotating or the user can still input that information themselves.

The main focus of this project is to create an easy integration and option for the user to choose an automatic reminder option for each care item stated that the plants need. Once the user has taken a photo of their plant on the app and they can look at the “how to care” chart. After the user clicks “add to my yard” the user can add reminders and there will be an extra option to auto populate the reminders and the dates.

Understanding Challenges and Problems

This project came to me as I have many house plants and they all have different watering schedules. This app was advertised on social media and with a quick look at it I decided to purchase it to help me keep track of my watering schedule. After purchasing I realized that with this, I still had a lot of effort on my part to input the care schedule. When I bought the app, I assumed that it would auto input the dates of watering and care and when it did not I immediately thought that this feature should be added. The website needs to be simple yet effective in showcasing local products and services to its users

• The app should be a little “smarter” when it comes to setting reminders and helping the user

• Create a sense of ease when learning and caring about your houseplants

Competitor Analysis

I began this project with looking at NatureID’s competitors. I found Leafsnap, Plantnote, and PictureThis to be Nature ID’s main competitors. All of these apps also have the option to schedule out reminders but the user still needs to input all of the information themselves. Overall, I found that the competitors had similar features yet flaws that make the overall app more difficult to use compared to Nature ID.

Research Findings

Once I found and analyzed the competition I started to create my survey questions to further understand the needs of the users. I had my understanding of the app but needed more information to accurately add a feature. I decided to post this survey on Reddit in a subreddit called r/plants. My goal was to hear from people who have plants and that are familiar with/using a plant app.

From my survey I learned the average age of people who own house plants is between 20–30. Most of the people who completed my survey were from Europe, and worked in some sort of sales.

My survey showed that most people check and us their phone mostly every hour of the day. The most used apps are social media and videos.

I also found that most people decide to download an app based on their own research or a referral from a friend.

I also found that reminder/to-do apps were only used by half the people.

The notifications most important were texts, then after that email and apps. These were most important because they can be quick actions and important for communication.

100% of surveyors owned houseplants and 71% owned over 10 plants.

Overall, they like to care for there plants because it makes them happy and 85% of users have forgotten to care for their houseplants.

Even with my surveyors with 5–10+ plants find that sunlight is the most important thing to know when caring for a houseplant, followed but difficulty to care for and watering schedule.

Overall, I think the target for this app would be people who are new to owning plants. People who need to learn and understand a plant routine and are more prone to forgetting their plants enough they die. I also think that there is a large emotional connection to people and their plants, they have a sense of happiness and content when their plants are cared for and grow. This is important information when looking at personas for people who use a plant help app.

 Persona

Once I collected this data, I was able to create a persona for users of the Nature ID app. I determined that the typical user of this app would be around 25–30, M or F, and live in the U.S. What motivates them to find a plant care app is their fear of their plants dying, and the goal is for them to be happy by caring for their plants and seeing them thrive.

Wireframes

Here are my original simple wireframes for what I imagined the app to look like.

Style Tile 

This style tile was mostly all ready put together as the app already exists. I did put this together as I continued as added new items to my design.

 Usability Testing

When it came time for testing my design I created set tasks for users to complete on my app. I had to users talk out loud about their experience on each page while they completed their tasks.

Once reviewing all the feedback I made an affinity map to find patterns and things I could do to make NatureID a more clear and streamlined process.

Homepage :

• Cards allow for a larger photo of the plants

Reminders:

• Calendar adds the users to view the whole month ahead

• Add a drop down so users can see individual plants

Edit Reminders:

• Easy to view each plant

• Change from radio buttons to toggle

Overall, I found that I needed to make a few items larger for tapping on mobile. I also found that drop downs needed to be added to see more options for the user in the calendar view. Last to make the tappable buttons into toggles and not radio.

Review

Overall, the new auto reminder feature will attract plant owners who do not want to input all of the information of their plants themselves. With the feature for the app to automatically input and notify of your plants needs, it allows for less time spent inputting all the same information that the app just gave you on the previous screen. With this new feature making the app even more efficient it will appeal to more users.