About Virtual Growth

Virtual Growth is an intelligent plant pot and app designed to enhance the home working experience in compact spaces, aiming to minimize stress from blurred work-life boundaries. It inspires users to establish a balanced routine outside work by efficiently growing plants, fostering a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Unlike existing products, Virtual Growth promotes active user engagement throughout the planting journey, creating a supportive community and reducing stress levels.

From Concepts to MVP

In this interaction design project, we worked in a small team of five dedicated members. We adopted the Lean UX design method, which allowed us to actively participate in every stage of the project, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement. Our goal was to develop a minimum viable product (MVP) that we could iteratively refine based on user feedback and testing.

Lean UX in Our Design Process

Lean UX is a user-centric approach that emphasizes collaborative design, rapid experimentation, and validated learning. This method helped us streamline our design process and focus on creating real value for our users.

Collaborative Design

• Every team member actively contributed at each stage of the project, from brainstorming sessions to user testing.

• We held regular collaborative workshops to generate ideas and sketch initial concepts, ensuring everyone’s input was valued and considered.

Rapid Experimentation

• During each sprint, we worked on MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to rapidly visualize our concepts and conduct early user testing.

• Feedback from these tests was immediately incorporated into our designs, allowing us to iterate quickly and effectively.

Validated Learning

• Throughout the sprints, we continuously tested our prototypes with users, gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback.

• We used this feedback to validate our design choices and pivot when necessary, ensuring our solutions were grounded in real user insights.

Work From Home

At the beginning of the project, we examined the work-from-home situation to understand people's experiences. We identified both benefits and challenges: flexibility, convenience, and a comfortable environment are clear advantages. However, blurred boundaries between work and personal life and feelings of isolation are significant drawbacks.

Blurred Boundaries

Working from home often leads to difficulties in separating work hours from personal time. This can result in longer workdays, reduced downtime, and increased stress due to the lack of a clear distinction between work and home life.

Social Isolation

Remote work can lead to feelings of social isolation due to a lack of face-to-face interaction with colleagues. This can affect team dynamics, creativity, and overall job satisfaction, as employees miss out on informal conversations and social engagement.

Working from home can sometimes lead to a lack of structured activities or things to do outside of work, contributing to a sense of monotony and reduced motivation. The absence of a dynamic office environment may lead to feelings of boredom or a lack of stimulation during breaks.

Lack of Activities

To better understand the current market landscape and identify opportunities for differentiation, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of existing plant care apps. This analysis explores the strengths and shortcomings of these apps, highlighting how Virtual Growth can stand out by offering a more engaging and interactive plant care experience.

By examining the current offerings in the plant care app market, we aim to position Virtual Growth as a superior alternative that not only helps users grow plants more effectively but also contributes to a healthier and more balanced lifestyle.

In our analysis of existing plant care apps, we identified several common features and notable gaps that informed the design of Virtual Growth.

• Plant Care Reminders

  Most apps offer notifications to remind users when to water, fertilize, and care for their plants.

• Plant Information and Care Guides

  Apps provide detailed information on various plant species, including care instructions and growth tips.

• Plant and Disease Identification

  Many apps use camera functionality to help users identify plant species and diagnose diseases through image recognition technology.

COMMON FEATURES

Identified Gaps

• Lack of User Engagement

  Most existing apps either provide passive tips and information or automate plant care actions through smart pots, resulting in minimal user engagement.

• Lack of Community Support

  There is a noticeable absence of social interaction and community support in most plant care apps.

Enhanced User Engagement

• Humanizing the Product

  By incorporating interactive animations, we make the plants feel more alive and responsive. These animations provide real-time feedback and create a more engaging and emotionally fulfilling experience for the user.

• Manual Caring Tasks

  We encourage user participation through optional manual tasks. This hands-on approach allows users to feel more involved in the plant care process.

Community Support

To enhance the user experience, we included a community feature in our design. This allows users to interact with fellow plant enthusiasts, exchange knowledge, and support each other in their plant care journey, fostering a sense of community and shared learning.

In developing Virtual Growth, we included common features found in many plant care apps, such as educational information for plants, comprehensive care guides, and timely care reminders. However, what sets Virtual Growth apart are two main factors:

After conducting our market analysis and refining the project scope, we revisited our initial user assumption and developed a detailed user persona named Yating Chang to better understand our target audience.

Yating is a single professional who lives in a compact apartment and works from home. She is passionate about incorporating greenery into her living space to enhance her environment and reduce stress. Yating values convenience, aesthetics, and seamless technology integration in her daily life. She seeks an intelligent system that enhances both her work-from-home and gardening experience with real-time insights into her plant's growth, personalized care reminders, and educational resources for plant cultivation.

Creating Yating Chang as a persona ensures that our MVP is tailored to meet the needs and preferences of users like her, increasing the likelihood of engagement and satisfaction with the Virtual Growth product.

Sprint 3

After going through the stages of the previous sprints, we refined our design direction and concluded three main features we would like to focus on for Virtual Growth:

1. Getting Information

2. Caretaking

3. Caretaking Feedback

In this sprint, we developed our mid-fidelity prototype, which incorporates these features to demonstrate how Virtual Growth will function and provide value to our users.

Onboarding Process

Identifying Plant & Site

Description screens to help the new user understand the idea of our application features and guide the user through the setup process of Virtual Growth, starting with a connection between the pot and an app. Create an account to store user data and suggest suitable plants according to user room type, weather and preference. Humanise the experience.

Getting Information

My Plant

This is a section that contains the user's plant details and related information based on the species and space of its existing. Users can also use this section to get information on specific plants they select to grow in the pot, such as how to maintain the plant or deal with a particular disease.

01

Community

This feature allows users to communicate and observe each other planters and create community among friends and co-workers through "Tag" and "Post".

Caretaking

My Plant Care

This feature provides users real-time information about their plant's status and a checklist of plant care actions scheduled or suggested for the day. Users can complete tasks and check them off on the to-do list page. Additional modules for the plant to take care of itself through remote action from the application on instance or schedule.

02

My Tasks Reminder

This feature acts as a notification system that provides users with reports on their plant's status and suggests actions to maintain the plant at each stage of its growth. Users can also create plant care tasks manually, and the app will send notifications at the scheduled times.

Caretaking Feedback

VG Smart Pot

Our Plant pot has a sensor to detect various conditions and give the user visual animation or sound feedback via reminders and notifications on the application.

03

Smart Pot Sensor Reactions

VG Smart Pot Mockup

To ensure Virtual Growth meets user needs and provides a seamless experience, we conducted a comprehensive field study with 10 participants aged 25 to 40, all working from home during the study period. This demographic accurately reflects our target user base, ensuring the insights and feedback gathered were relevant and actionable. The study was divided into two parts.

First, we carried out semi-structured interviews with participants to gain a clearer understanding of their work-from-home experiences, daily routines, and challenges. These interviews provided valuable context for understanding how Virtual Growth could fit into their lives and address their needs.

Interview

Usability Testing

In the second part of the study, we conducted usability testing, where participants interacted with the Virtual Growth app and completed four main tasks designed to cover the core features of the product. This hands-on testing allowed us to observe user behavior directly and identify both successful elements and areas needing improvement.

Testing Goals and Tasks

The primary goal of the usability testing was to evaluate the functionality of our three core features: getting information, plant caring, and plant caring feedback. To achieve this, participants were asked to complete the following tasks:

1. Complete the onboarding process

2. Learn how to take care of the plant

3. Engaging with the Community

4. Check the reminder and complete the daily task

Through these tasks, we aimed to gather comprehensive feedback to refine Virtual Growth and enhance the overall user experience.

Post-Study Affinity Diagram

onboarding process

Issues:

• Users were unable to identify the plant, which prevents them from entering the correct plant name into the search bar.

• Users cannot skip the onboarding process.

Recommendations:

• Implement a plant detection feature using the camera to accurately identify plants.

• Make it optional to connect to the plant pot during onboarding, allowing users to do it later if preferred.

01

Issues:

• Users felt overwhelmed due to excessive text.

02

learn about the plants

Recommendations:

• Shorten some information text or change the layout to improve readability.

• Ensure a seamless transition from "My Plant" to "Plant Care."

• Introduce alternative ways to present information, such as videos, icons, and images.

03

engage with the community

Issues:

• Users are confused by visual elements like "tags" and are curious about community trends.

Recommendations:

• Enhance descriptions for visual elements and clarify the purpose and significance of "tags."

• Introduce a feature that highlights community trends.

04

check the daily tasks reminder

Issues:

• Users are unable to freely add, remove, and edit tasks.

• The flow from checking reminders to completing tasks through the plant care function is not effective, lacking direct access.

Recommendations:

• Allow routine setup or resetting of existing cards.

• Improve the flow by providing direct access from the reminder to the plant care page, streamlining the process of completing tasks.

How can we improve it?

Based on our comprehensive field study, we identified several key issues that users encountered while interacting with Virtual Growth. To enhance the user experience and functionality of the app, we have outlined specific recommendations addressing these issues. Here are the primary concerns and suggested improvements for each feature.

Sprint 4

Color Scheme

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#E1EEE6

PRIMARY

SECONDRY

TEXT

#374A59

#8D8D8D

SUBTEXT

#E1BC5D

#FE7D7D

Typography

Icongraphy

Design Assets

Virtual Growth

Brand Guidline

After thorough analysis, user research, and multiple iterations, we are proud to present the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of Virtual Growth. This MVP encapsulates our core features and innovations, designed to enhance the plant care experience for users working from home. Our journey involved refining our ideas based on user feedback and ensuring our product meets their needs effectively. Here is a detailed look at how we brought our vision to life.

ONBOARDING

Identifying Plants & Sites

Our onboarding page is designed to introduce new users to the exciting features of the application and seamlessly guide them through the setup process.

HOME PAGE

Daily Tasks & Trending Topics

The home page serves as the central hub of all daily gardening needs, featuring daily plant-caring tasks and trending community topics.

• Stay on track with the plant care routine

• Receive automated caring tasks from the smart plant pot based on real-time sensor readings.

• Engage with the community by exploring and participating in trending topics.

On the plant caring page, users can conveniently monitor and take care of their plants.

• Get real-time updates on each plant's status.

• Take remote caretaking actions that connect directly to the plant pot.

• Receive humanized visual feedback on the plant pot and plant caring page when a caring action is completed.

PLANT CARE

Monitor, Care, and Interact

In this section, the users can access detailed information about the plants, including their species and the specific conditions required for their growth.

• Access general knowledge about each plant

• Learn how to properly care for each plant by following comprehensive guidelines.

• Discover caretaking tips for tasks such as repotting, fertilization, and seasonal care.

MY PLANT

Plant Details and Care Guides

Our community page is a thriving hub where users can come together, communicate, observe, and build connections.

• Explore posts that match personal interests.

• Create posts to share the unique planting journey.

• Engage with the community, share advice, and connect with fellow planters through comments and interactions.

COMMUNITY

Connect, Share, and Explore