Background
For my Capstone 1 project, I was tasked with identifying a problem and creating a solution for it, encompassing every role in the research and design process.
I love plants. In my beginning gardener days, I encountered a lot of failure due to selecting the wrong plants in the wrong seasons. I decided to create an app for people like myself who wish to increase their chances of gardening success by planting the right plants at the right time.
Research
In order to acquire relevant feedback for my garden app research, I emailed a 6-question survey created on Google Forms to 20 individuals I suspected were involved in gardening on some level. From the responses, I selected the five most gardening-interested respondents. I interviewed each respondent on Zoom regarding their personal experiences with gardening and what concerns and interests they had. I recorded the sessions with their permissions and used their feedback to create an affinity map.
Affinity Map
This map allowed me to clearly lay out the most relevant comments from each interviewee. From those comments I was able to extract four themes:
They enjoy spending time outdoors.
They acknowledge that gardening is season-specific.
They consult some sort of external resource to determine planting dates.
They use apps.
Empathy Map
I then created an empathy map in order to better understand the psychological relationship that each respondent had with gardening and plants. This map allowed me to know the users on a deeper level, which better enabled me to customize an app that offers the specifics of what they want/need, without adding fluff or useless features.
Design
Sitemap/User Flow Map/Red Routes Sketches
After compiling the research, I began customizing an app that would meet the gardener’s needs. I began by creating a sitemap followed by a user flow map. Then, I sketched red routes onto paper.
Test
Guerilla Usability Testing
Following the red route sketches, I conducted a guerilla usability test in order to learn more about how the layout and overall structure of the app came across to the average person. I brought my sketches to the Starbucks in my university’s library and asked random students to look at them and give feedback. They were able to understand that it was a gardening-related app. Useful feedback received included that the bottom bar looked bare with only two symbols in it.
Design
Low-fidelity Wireframes/Wireflow/High-Fidelity Prototype
Taking the feedback from the usability test, I made some changes and created low-fidelity wireframes, a wireflow, and then a high-fidelity prototype of red routes.
Test
In-person Interviews
After creating a prototype of the red routes, I conducted additional usability testing with individuals familiar with gardening. A few issues were revealed including inconsistent labeling, visibility issues with a back arrow, and confusion regarding accessibility to the entire alphabet in a carousel bar. Once these issues were addressed, I finished the final high-fidelity prototype.
