‍Native Plant Search

A mobile plant search engine inspired by indigenous plant gardening

Project Goal

Create an application following the ideal UX design cycle

Problem

Identifying and learning about native plants is challenging at all experience levels

Solution

A mobile application for browsing, searching, and learning about plants

Role

UX Researcher and Designer
‍Why native plants?

We are currently experiencing a climate crisis

A significant element of the climate crisis is biodiversity loss. Due to human activity such as land development and pollution, ecosystems have been severely impacted and are rapidly declining. Learning about native plants is beneficial because it serves as a tool to aid us in cultivating an environment other native species can survive within.

The space is ready to be explored

Communities exist online
From facebook groups to reddit forums, there are many places online where people can gather around the topic of native plants.
Information is available everywhere
There are many resources available, including books, YouTube videos, and websites. However, users must invest time to find what they want.
Native gardening is growing traction
From transforming verges into meadows and grass lawns into sustainable fields, people are sharing their excitement for alternative gardening all over social media.
Existing tools to learn about native plants
Audubon
Native Plant Finder
Landscape Alternatives

Geared around attracting native birds to your yard, Audubon provides a great database for users to familiarize with the wildlife each plants will bring into your life.

This search engine is malleable and offers location and various other filters, as well as the option to save items. While this website serves as an extensive database, the information offered for each plant is limited.

While conceptually brilliant, the app leads for more to be desired. An assortment of invasive and native plants are available on the app, but its organization and informational content is lacking.

Connecting to potential users

Surveying, interviewing, analyzing

In order to expand my understanding of the challenges people face in learning about native plants, I asked for people to participate in a survey. The survey results helped contextualize the experience and interest people had in native plants.

42 survey respondents

From the survey participants, I selected and interviewed 5 individuals who had varying levels of exposure to native plants. These interviews became foundational knowledge, as they helped determine what features should be prioritized within the app.

Interview results

Image of affinity map made up of post its. There are larger yellow post its which have small post its of various colors surrounding them. The yellow post its are labeled personal context, community, resources, goals/future, good energy, stressors, and native plant knowledge. Smaller post its have notes from the interviews
How do we help users learn?

Offer easy methods of recognition and comprehension

All of the survey participants expressed an interest in developing their skills in plant recognition, no matter what their current skill level.

Develop intuitive navigation

Intuitive navigation would put us ahead of all of the existing tools to learn about native plants, who's user flows and search features require onboarding.

Creating an integrated learning experience

All plants are native to a locale somewhere - just as they can be invasive to other places. To best way to celebrate native plants is to make it a feature in a general plant browsing experience.
Drafting and Testing

Sketched screens

Low fidelity

Reflecting on testing results; an overall positive response

Generally, test participants were pleased by the application and excited at its potential. This round of testing reassured the application was going in the right direction.
Revising the high fidelity prototype

Drafting a script which addresses the red routes

My first round of usability tests revealed issues in both my prototype and the way I was testing my users. Due to the confusion caused by my test script, I tested a new group of users with an adjusted set of questions.

Responding to user feedback

Users also requested for minor aesthetic adjustments, such as improvements to the plant identification screen.
High fidelity screens

Building an Internal Database

Exploring Design Debt