UX CASE STUDY: URBAN JUNGLE APP
Urban Jungle app gives indoor gardeners and plant enthusiasts a simplified way to find plant care solutions. It eliminates countless hours of searching, making the maintenance of their plants easier than ever.
THE PROBLEM
Urban gardening and indoor plants have become a widespread trend over the years. The individuals who have become hooked need a way to better maintain the plants in their home because they feel like they never know why their plants are dying and/or how to bring them back to life.
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Currently, this group uses sources such as Google, or home/plant blogs to search for plant care solutions. While these are great resources for finding information, they are also often filled with too much information, leaving the individual feeling lost and overwhelmed with what their next steps should be for tending to their plants.
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INTERVIEWS & SURVEYS
I interviewed 4 different people who love filling their homes with plants, ages 27-35, M/F.
"I find myself having to make several clicks before finding an answer to my plant care problems."
"I typically find answers in blog posts, but they are always buried and often hard to find."
KEY FINDINGS
- Plant enthusiasts tend to lack the knowledge needed in order to keep their plants healthy
- Most people are unsure why their plants keep dying or what they should do to bring them back to life
- When researching solutions, users find themselves making several “clicks” and visiting countless pages before discovering useful answers.
- No clear or immediate answers seem to be available to plant owners
My findings led to the formulation of this question:
How might we create a simplified search method for plant care solutions?
USER NEEDS & WANTS
When it comes to plant care, this group has too many questions and not enough quick solutions. I formulated a user persona to clearly define whom I was designing for.
FRUSTRATIONS:
- Feels like she never knows why her plants are dying or how to bring them back to good health.
- Often thinks she buys low maintenance plants, however, ends up killing them and isn't sure why
- Frustrated at the amount of time it takes to look up plant care solutions
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GOALS/NEEDS:
- Wants to make her apartment feel “jungle-like”
- Needs a simpler / quicker way to find plant care tips and solutions so that she can keep her plants healthy
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
After conducting a thorough competitive analysis, I was able to define a list of features and a user flow that would make Urban Jungle App stand out from others and provide a better experience for users.
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MY SOLUTION
I decided to oversimplify the application - less is more. Since the user ultimately felt overloaded with information and lacking quick solutions, I created an interactive application that would ask them a series of questions about the problem they were experiencing and offer quick suggestions to assist.
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KEY FEATURES
- Plant Care Problem Solver
- Reminders/Notifications
- Plant Profiles
- Progress/Growth Tracker
WIREFRAMES​
THINGS I WOULD CONSIDER IN THE FUTURE
Since I decided to build this application as a Minimal Viable Product, with the highest priority being to find the best way to simplify plant care solutions for the user, I left a few features in the "later bucket":
- A plant library: a place the user could explore different types of plant types and learn a few facts about them. They could sort the library by things such as A-Z, maintenance level, or amount of light needed.
- Local Nursery Map: I found that most plant lovers enjoy visiting and supporting local nurseries. A map would allow them to source nearby nurseries to shop at and explore.
- Inspiration Page: Here the user could look at different plant articles and photos based on the different plant uses such as plants as food, plants as decor, or plants and health.