Hello, I’m Jeremy DeVos, a UX designer based out of Grand Rapids, MI. I specialize in graphic design and user research.
Eden
Gardening App Project
MY ROLE:
UX DESIGNER
DURATION:
4 WEEKS
Project Overview
Client Needs: I wanted to make an app that would allow users to enhance their gardening experience and find the plants that they needed.
Solution: An app that allows users to find the plants they want, plan their garden layout, track their progress, and receieve up-to-date almanac info for their area.
Client
Myself
Year
6/01/2023
Audience
App users that interested in gardening
Team Mates
Thinkful Support Team
My Contributions
Project Development, User Research, Wireframing, Usability Testing
Impact
1. Created an app that satisfied gardening needs that were not being met by current market offerings
Research Methods Used: Persona Development, Competitive analysis, User Surveys, User Interviews
Research and Analysis
Research Period: 2 Weeks
Competitive Analysis
-
Gardenize App
Strengths: Good branding, low-friction interface
Weaknesses: Can be clunky, need to manually enter lots of data
Oppportunities: Reduce text entry needs and allow for other options
-
Planter App
Strengths: Well ordered info for plants, well designed garden planner with drag and drop interface
Weaknesses: High subscription fees, gaps in plant database, no weather info
Opportunities: Emphasize plant sourcing and reduce costs through merchant parnerships
-
Seed to Spoon
Strengths: Slick UI with good information on the nutritional aspects of the plants users want to grow
Weaknesses: App is geared towards selling products from the company in a way that immpacts usability
Opportunities: Focus on unobtrusive interface and hide monetization from users
Persona Development
Jessica Lawrence
Age 36 - Spa Owner
Matt Davis
Age 26 - Broker
Angela Nelly
age 31 - HR
Persona Development: 3 Different persona ideas showcasing the thoughts, emotions and desires of the kinds of users who would be interested in a gardening app
Key Motivations: Beautifying their lawns, environmental concerns, health and self-sufficiency
Key Frustrations: Finding sources for their plants, weather and pests, cost and labor of keeping a good garden
Pain Points: Time constraints, searching for products, planning burden
Most avid gardeners have a few traits in common. Anyone who is starting a garden will have their own property, time and money to put towards gardening. Gardens need plants, and the plants have to come from somewhere. Users that are working on their garden are concerned with how they can find the plants that they need for their garden. Weather and watering are also chief concerns.
Brand Personality and Style Guide
During the sketching portion of the app creation, I needed to make sure that the app had a strong identity that would give it a memorable profile. I developed a branding system to make sure that the look and style were consistent for users and anyone interested in the app.
User Flows
Working with the design, I created user flows to map out how to best create the best app experience. See the complete flow in more detail here: https://tinyurl.com/yf7adbdy
The logo design for the app went through many revisions. The logo had to be instantly recognizable and also emphasize what the eden app was all about. I settled on the image of a seed as it conveyed the beginning of the creation of a new garden and also served to mark the beginning of the app experience and served as a good anchor to use to return to the home screen of the app.
Logo
Mood Board Creation
I put together a mood board, emphasizing the relaxed and earnest attidtude of setting up your own garden.
Once the research process was completed, I went to work on setting up wireframes and needed to make sketches for what I wanted to accomplish with my app.
Wireframes & Prototypes
After the sketches were completed, I began work on the wireframes. The wireframes required a lot of effort to intially lay out in order to accomodate the many features that I would be adding to the app.
I laid out the pages and features in order to see what would work. I wanted a grid for users to use to plan out their gardens, along with a way to find store selling the plants they needed and on demand weather and almanac info for their area. Finally, the users could create an even calendar to help them with watering schedules.
With the initial wireframes established, I set about making them into a higher fidelity. This is where all of the branding and styles went into play. I found that the wireframe kept growing as I added more and more pages to flesh out the app features.
The prototype phase took a lot of testing and revision. The tests I did revealed issues when it came to the navigation and readability of the text that I had added.
Conclusion
I Was Satisfied with the way that the app turned out. This was my most complex project to date and I put the majority of my effort into prototyping and wireframing to make sure that the project could satisy all of the features that I had added to it.
The Prototype Was Successful since I made sure to start with a low-friction mindset that would allow users to always find their way back to the home screen of the app and avoid dead ends.
Challenges During the Design Phase Accessiblity issues cropped up during the testing phase that led to some editing of the type design. There was a mission creep factor during the wireframing that led to a larger scope than anticipated due to the amount of features that had to be added in.