PolliGarden

Inspiration

The idea derived from Liqi’s research on pollinator gardening and the struggles of gardeners in adopting the practice into mainstream. Pollinators are essential for food production and creating our natural landscapes. I found the idea refreshing to use design & technology to inspire for more biodiversity within Toronto.

Problem

Anecdotally, we knew of the challenges that people have as beginner gardeners. The overwhelming feeling of learning something new and the struggle of keeping houseplants alive. Thus, we wanted to find a way to introduce the practice to more people to create more green spaces for pollinators.

Solution

A mobile app that connected beginner gardeners to seed resources, mentorship, and local events.

A welcome with open arms

Upon our onboarding, users are can discover their hardiness zone to receive personalized and localized guidance.

Garden planner

Provides blueprints that allows users to visualize and test potential garden configurations with localized plant recommendations.

Seed sourcing

Connect users to the plants they need through seed trades/giveaways, easily introducing them to the gardening community within the city.

Plant Database

With access to a broad database, users have access to information such as specific planting instructions/conditions to enable their knowledge of pollinator gardening.

Get involved

Connect users to nearby events or volunteer opportunities in public gardens (pollinator-specific or otherwise) and encourage real-life mentorship.

We followed the Double Diamond model to guide our design process, alternating between diverging and converging thoughts as we moved through the 4 stages.

Preliminary research

We pulled information from formal sources (eg; websites for environmental organizations) as well as informal sources (eg; blogs and Facebook groups). This was so we could understand both the scientific and community sides of pollinator gardening. All the information was then stored on our Notion database so we could refer to it throughout the project.

Competitor analysis matrix

We analyzed strengths and weaknesses from top 4 contenders in the market.

The primary reason for lack of adoption in many of these apps were that none of them offered personalized guidance beyond the overwhelming amount of textual information. The learning was completely based on reading vast paragraphs and had little companionship to teach them through practice, leaving the gardeners to decipher on their own as to what is relevant information and what's not.

From our desk research, we were able to identify two distinct user groups on the spectrum of gardening experience.

We developed two surveys with to target both of our user groups via Google Forms. To garner responses from both ends of the spectrum, we promoted the surveys through various avenues (eg; emails of PollinateTO grant recipients, Facebook groups, student discords, personal Instagram stories). In total, we received 99 anonymous responses.

The results from the survey were grouped by theme which helped to identify the reoccurring impediments to people’s gardening journey.

However:
Sorting through the results from our survey, we realized we lacked a strong narrative that could tie all the themes together. We had quantifiable obstacles to starting a garden but we didn’t understand the deeper why behind our user's actions. ‍

Interviews

Once we identified the gaps in our research from our affinity map, we sought to answer them through 1:1 talks with select respondents of our surveys. In total, we interviewed 5 people (2 beginners and 3 experts).

01 — Learning through mentors

A reoccurring theme that came up was being introduced to gardening by family members or mentor-figures. This led us to assume that people are more likely to develop an interest and commitment to gardening if they’ve been exposed to an expert and learn through oral tradition.

02 — Educational and material support from the community

Gardeners recalled that through participating in seed-trading, sharing of knowledge, diagnosing problems from expert within the community (most commonly via Facebook groups), they were able to quickly progress in their own learning.

03 — Culture of giving back

As gardeners move from beginner to experienced, they start to take on a mentorship role to support new beginners. Expert gardeners reported willingness and joy in being able to share the lessons they've earned to beginner gardeners to reciprocate back into the community.

From our insights, we realized that the normal progression from beginner to expert gardener relies on knowledge built over time and self-studying. But what if there was a way to build rapport and mentorship from day 1 by highlighting the resources available across the community?

In order to clarify the needs and pain points of our users, we used personas to represent individuals from both user groups.

While our primary group was the beginner group, it was important to account for the needs of the expert gardeners (group B) as they evolve with more experience.

A journey map was used to empathize the steps our users take to start their garden in order to identify opportunities where our solution can support their process.

From our journey map, we were able to come up with the following requirements for the solution.

Accounting for delivery time, a priority matrix was used to highlight what was the most essential. This helped us evaluate what was required for the minimum viable product against features that could be implemented for the future.

Finally, we created user flows to string the entire experience together.

For visual and interaction design, different options were tested and iterated through using lo-fi wireframes to ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience moving between the screens.

The style guide was created to evoke warmth. We want the app to be educational and helpful to beginners and experienced gardeners alike.

I created a design system from the style guide to create scalable & interactive components within Figma. (WIP)

Below are the hi-fi mocks I assembled using the design system. (WIP)

Collaborating with another designer

This is the first time I worked intensively with another designer for a passion project. As Liqi and I have complimentary skills to each other, we were able to create and build ideas off of each other with ease.

However it wasn’t always sunshine. We ran into tricky situations regularly in our design process. To counter this, we asked challenging questions towards each other’s designs and assumptions. We openly communicated our thoughts and struggles to unblock each other without judgement. In the end, we were able to weave our ideas harmoniously together to ensure proper integration of all the flows within our common system.

We are not our users

To develop this project further, we are exploring usability testing with target users to ensure that the designs that live inside our head are scalable and usable to more people.