Their Mission
Gardenio wants to get a new generation of gardeners engaged and informed in an innovative way that requires both digital and analog experiences.
They provide a subscription box service of small potted plants to get beginner gardeners going and growing along the process.
The plants are currently a variety of herbs and spices that can be grown inside or outdoors in spaces large and small.
How It Works
The subscription box provides members with everything they need to get set up - the plants, pot, soil, and a brief care guide.
Additionally, members of this plan have access to Gardenio’s smartphone app to be utilized for getting started guides and any questions/issues that might pop up along the way.
Room for Growth
The main issue is getting beginner gardeners comfortable and confident enough to begin growing plants on their own. Gardenio is currently available only in the Austin market, which is becoming a more urban and dense city every year.
Space is tight for many people, but Gardenio wants to encourage members that gardening can be done at almost any dwelling, no matter what space limitations might exist.
Our Solution
After conducting user research, creating surveys, and usability testing, we were able to get an idea of what features within a gardening app would be of the most value to the average user.
From this, we developed three key features:
Onboarding to acquaint the user with the purpose of the app as not only a gardening support resource but a friend
Water reminders to help users develop good gardening habits and keep them engaged in the process
Restructuring of the care guides to display the most helpful information immediately, but also allow for a deeper dive
Competitive Analysis
This began with competitive feature analysis, looking at different gardening apps to see what different apps prioritized. While there are some great gardening apps out there, none of them really addressed the needs of beginner gardeners.
Online Survey
We then created a 16 question online survey inquiring about user gardening habits and experience. We shared this on social media and various online gardening forums. We were able to get 118 responses.
As Research Lead, it was my role to synthesize this data into meaningful insights about user behaviors and attitudes. I determined what features were the most and least important based on their age demographic.
Guerilla Research
We also did guerilla research by going to various gardening centers to see what were the most difficult/frustrating aspects of gardening for beginner gardeners.
We interviewed both employees and customers to get different perspectives on these questions.
We learned from employees that the most common questions were regarding soil and climate-specific situations.
For customers, many had the false assumption that they didn't have enough space for a garden. Additionally, they weren't sure about the watering frequency for each plant, especially due to the oppressive Texas heat.
Personas
We crafted personas based on both our survey results data and also our garden center user research. Both have their own unique lifestyle habits and circumstances that affect how and why they would interact with the app.
Wireframes
After our personas were crafted and preliminary research conducted, it was time to get to the drawing board!
We produced lo-fidelity wireframes of the home page and watering reminder/guide, which survey results showed was the most important feature for Gardenios target age range of 25-35
We began tweaking the design and user flow based on usability tests conducted with the prototype based on our wireframes. The watering guide was re-structured and a watering reminder feature was also included on the home page, amongst other elements.
Prototype
After many iterations made based on usability testing trends, we created a fully-working prototype of the new Gardenio app. This is the final product that was presented to the Gardenio team, an app walkthrough video can be viewed below:
Next Steps
There were a lot of features we were able to design, develop, and refine based on user testing and feedback. However, going forward, as a team we would like to see the following developed:
Data visualization for the watering page to include a visual schedule of when to water each plant
Developing community pages and exploring how they tie into the greater narrative of the app
More integration of the story of gardening into the overall app experience