ROOT!

Personal reflection, visioning exercises, and discussions with audiences ranging from aspiring plant parents to expert home gardeners established that an approachable interface that provided encouragement would put the intended user at ease.

A survey of the competitive landscape established that options to locate resources to follow up on the app’s suggested care solutions were a unique value-add, and provided opportunities to embed users in local gardening and plant care communities.

Simplicity was set as the top priority for ROOT!, to let the user focus on caring for the plant without added distractions. We opted to immerse the user in the main process right from the home page— take a picture, then let the app do what it does.

The tone of the content is intended to be factual but encouraging, in order to convey factual, practical advice while remaining helpful and friendly. Language access an clear symbology were a priority for this design, to ensure that users of all backgrounds could get the most out of their experience.

Usability feedback was collected via moderated café studies and the solicitation of direct input from peer designers. Key performance indicators such as drop-off rates, a system usability scale, and net promoter scores were contemplated but not employed due to the informal nature of the research design.

The main learnings that emerged were related to ease of use. First, that creating redundant navigation methods would allow diverse audiences to navigate the app with ease. Complementarily, the main user flow was streamlined and centered to create an easier-to-follow user experience.

My most important personal takeaway from the project had to do with keeping things simple. Beyond what became indicated in user testing, the design process emphasized the value of refining the concept by narrowing the scope of the design as much as possible. ROOT! now solves one core problem well, with lots of avenues to expand services down the road.

The competitive audit was also an enjoyable, high-value exercise for me. Not only did it help ground the core features that give ROOT! its edge, it also helped me develop a product-based framing to complement my experience as a researcher and manager for international non-profit programs.