Problem Statement

It can be difficult for people growing indoor houseplants to get personalized help for their specific houseplant issues. Most information on-line is too generic to be helpful, leaving houseplant owners to solve problems through trial and error. It can also be difficult to know what information to trust on-line. With that in mind my main challenge was to create a trustworthy place where people can find expert advice for their houseplants.

What do indoor houseplant owners need help with on their journey to successfully growing their plants?

What features might users want to use on an app providing expert advice on houseplants?

How and When would users best communicate with an expert through an app?

Where do they currently go to find information on houseplant care and inspiration?

Survey

After defining the main research goals, I created a survey with Google Forms to send out to a wide range of potential users. I felt that a survey would provide a lot of data to help direct design decisions and learn about potential Plantly users in a quick, efficient, and inexpensive way because it is easier for people to fill out a quick survey than do an interview. I could also get data that included edge cases.

My survey consisted of:

• Age Range: 25 - 65 years old

• 70% Women, 30% Men

• Most participants owned indoor houseplants.

• 84% preferred a message feature to a call feature. But there was interested in a video chat option if problem was more complex.

• Issues with bugs, disease, lighting, and not knowing what plants were best for their space were primary plant related problems.

• 100% wanted a plant care database with information for quick reference.

• 89.5% use Google for houseplant care advice. 57.9% ask friends and family.

• 63.2% said the biggest concern with on-line advice was that it is too generic and not specific to individual needs.

• 100% like to build trust with an app before paying and creating an account.

User Interviews

Along with a survey I also conducted user interviews. These interviews provided me with the chance to get more in-depth information from the users and ask follow up question to figure out why they felt the way they did. Studies have shown that you can get the bulk of information you need by interviewing 5 people so I focussed on 5 target users. All interviews were done over video chat and were 30 and 45 minutes.

Who are the interviewees?

• 5 women between 25 - 38 years old.

• Own indoor houseplants and care a lot about keeping them healthy.

• Comfortable using mobile apps and the internet to gather information.

• 100% wanted to be able to message an expert for flexibility. They liked being able to send a message anytime and not have to plan time for a call. Some also felt awkward about video chatting with a stranger.

• 90% wanted the option to video call if their problem was more complex and felt that a human face over video would build trust.

• 90% of people’s biggest problems with owning house plants were bugs, disease, lighting, and not knowing what plants were best for their space.

• 100% use Google to try and solve problems right now and they all struggle with how broad and non specific the advice was to their particular needs.

• 100% thought they would use the following features: plant database with care information, articles on plant care/inspiration, and online classes on plant care.

I noticed 3 direct competitors in My research: Bloomscape, The Sill, and Plant Hero.

All of them had clean and functional responsive web apps but there were areas in which they differed. For example, Bloomscape and The Sill were primarily focussed on the business of selling plants but had information about plant care incorporated in their business model. Plant Hero only offered video calls with plant experts. I wanted to incorporate the best features of the three apps into Plantly without selling plants.

Sarah’s Needs:
• A trustworthy place to get for personal advice.
• A place to message an expert anytime of day or night.
• Access to information in a variety of formats to keep her interest.

Sarah’s Motivations:
• Wants a green oasis in her city apartment.
• Wants to impress friends and family with a trendy home.
• Looking for creative outlet.

Sarah’s Pain Points:
• Google is too vague.
• Plants die despite her following directions on package.
• Lost on where to go for personal advice for her plants.

Angie’s Needs:
• A way to learn what plants would work best in her space
• Trustworthy articles on plant care/inspiration.

Angie’s Motivations:
• Wants her kids to value nature and experience growing.
• Wants to bring nature into her home.

Angie’s Pain Points:
• Doesn’t know anyone who is good with houseplants.
• Doesn’t have time to search for information on-line or off.

Phases:

1. Sarah goes to the “Ask an Expert” page to locate the expert bios and message one of them for advice.

2. She messages an expert by clicking the “Ask a Question” button.

3. She receives a message with advice on the Pilea issue and has the ability to correspond back and forth until the issue is resolved.

Objective: Sarah wants to browse a list of houseplant experts and message one for personal advice on helping her sick Pilea plant.

Entry Point: Open App.

Success Criteria: Open message, read and reply if needed.

To learn where users might look for information within categories on Plantly I conducted a hybrid card sorting exercise with 8 participants.

All participants were in the Plantly target market and were all tech savvy. I chose to do a hybrid card sort to see if users would understand the categories I defined but also see if they would suggest categories of their own.

After analyzing the card sort data I created a site map.

Preference Testing

There were a couple screens that I conducted preference tests on to determine which screen layout more users preferred. One test was on the “Ask a Question” screen where I showed these 2 versions to 10 potential users.

Option 1 doesn’t make users choose a topic where the second version installs a drop down menu. 40% of participants preferred Option 1 because there were less steps to complete but 60% preferred Option 2 because there was a clear CTA guiding them through the task and the information was more scan-able. It was also more clear to them that the conversation would only address one topic and they couldn’t ask a variety of questions without using more questions.