Plants & Pets

My Role

UX designer

Duration

January – March 2022

Plants & Pets is plant identification application prototype made in Figma. This project was part of the User Experience (UX) Design and Management course, and the objective of the project was to create best possible user experience by collecting user data to identify user groups and their needs and by testing the prototype with users to see if the solution meets the determined UX goals.

Plants & Pets mobile application would help users to identify plants, get basic information about how to take care of it and get to know if the plant is poisonous to pets like cats or dogs and how to proceed if pet eats poisonous plant.

Objective

This project was part of the User Experience (UX) Design and Management course. The objective of the project was to learn the process of creating best possible user experience by collecting user data to identify user groups and their needs and by testing the prototype with users to see if the solution meets the determined UX goals. There was overall 7 weeks to create Figma prototype from the idea and test it with the users. The topic of the project was open, and I decided to make the project about pet focused plant identification application.

The idea for this kind of application came from the fact that I own a dog myself, and many times when getting a new plant either by buying it myself or getting one as gift, one of the first questions as pet owner is that is this plant poisonous to my pet. And second one is how do I manage to keep this plant alive? How often I should water it and how much? Does it need a lot of sunlight or is shady place better? And then if you don’t have anyone to ask you need to go search help from Google. And sometimes especially with the plants you get as gift you might not even know the name of the plant. On that point the Google search might get quite hard.

I know that there is some plant identification application and gardening apps already but as far as I know, you won’t get any information about if the plant is pet safe or not. Many of the have the “chat with experts” feature and that way you might get info about if the plant is safe for pets or not, but why not to put that info right on page where you get all the other basic information about the plants? So, this app would have some similarities with other plant identification application but in addition it would make picking up the plants easier for worried pet owner who might not have place for poisonous plants in their home.

User data collection and analysis for UX design

Here I am going to describe the user data collection methods and the insights gained through the data collection

Interviews

As the method to collect user data for design phase I chose interview. The interview was conducted as a telephone interview and at the beginning of the interview some personal information (age, education, etc.) was asked, followed by 8 interview questions. However, at the very beginning of the interview, the interviewees were explained what the application is about and what functions have been planned for the application so far. The purpose was to find out if the application was useful, in which situations and places the application would be used, what features are desired/needed from the application, what is important to the user when using phone applications (e.g. Ease, speed, etc.)

Predefined interview questions:

Do you have plants / do you grow plants, or do you have a plant-related hobby (eg gardening etc.)? Or any other interest in plants?

Do you have pets? If yes, what?
Do you think the app would be useful?
Would you use that app?
Do you have any acquaintances/friends who might use that app? Do they have pets? If yes, what?
In what situations and / or places would you use (or where would your acquaintance/friends use) this application?
What do you think you should be able to do with the app?
- Are the main functions mentioned above, ok? is there anything unnecessary? Is there something missing?
- What else would you want / need /wish from the application?
What is important to you when you use mobile application (for example, easiness, fastness, easy to understand, fun to use, good look/layout etc)
Free word: Is there anything else you would like to say about the application idea?

Intended users and user groups

Main users are the dog or cat owners who has either plant related hobby or have some plants in their house
The application is useful also to non-pet-owners since it will give useful information about plants

Main user tasks

User can find information about plants by using name search or photo search. Application will tell basic information about the plant. User can also save the plants on their “plant book” where they can always easily check the information of those plants. Plants can also be deleted from the plant book.

Typical user environments

According to interviews the users would use the application at the store while buying new plants, on their hobbies if there were any plants they would like to identify and at least one of the interviewees would be using the application at their workplace at the garden department of the shop. So according to the interviews, typical user environments would be stores, hobbies and workplace.

User experience

When asking, what is important to interviewees while using the mobile application, the main expectations were related to fast and easy usage. For example, when using this kind of application at the store, it would be good if getting information about the plant would be fast and there wouldn’t be any unnecessary steps while searching the plant. In addition, the users wish that the applications would be easy to learn and understand and it would look clear and nice. One of the interviewees also assumes that application like this would be helpful.

Design problems and design ideas

Based on the interviews the things I need to consider in design phase I needed are the fact that I needed to make the application fast and easy to use as well as easy to learn and understand. This includes that the layout needs to be clear. In addition, I had to try to make the application look nice. That way the application would be pleasant to use at the situations it would be used most aka store, hobbies, and work.

Establishing requirements

Here I am describing the user requirements established and how this was done. In this section I will utilize the collected user data material and design ideas produced in the project.

User profile

Persona

User scenario

Use case

User experience goals for design

Design and prototyping

Brainstorming

During brainstorming I made some sketches based on user scenario and use case made up earlier about how user might use the application. After that I made a random mind map that included anything that came up to my mind while thinking the app. Then I started to think the screens I would need and wrote those down with the functionalities etc they would possibly include.

Conceptual model

First, I made a mind map about what user can do with the application. This helped me to put together all the basic functionalities of the application. The main interaction type of the application is going to be instructing type. Users will be able to press buttons, type in on search engines, select the specific plant from the list of plants etc. The interface type is going to be quite basic, Graphical User Interface (GUI) on mobile devices like Android. Then I made simple activity diagram about how the search activities are going to work on the app.

Creating alternative designs - from sketches to a prototype

First, I made some simple paper prototypes about the application so that it was easy and fast to think alternative layouts. After that I made prototype by using Figma. At this point I already had an idea about what I am going to do but with Figma it is still quite easy to make changes to layout if I get better idea or if I just realize that something won’t work or something is unnecessary. With Figma I tried to make prototype that would be quite close to the actual product. The great thing with Figma is that with it you can fake the functionality of the application so that the user can “actually” test the main functionalities out and that way they will get quite good picture what the application is going to be like.

As an example, about paper prototype process, here is picture about my alternative paper proto designs for main screen/main menu of the application. First, I was thinking about making main menu that just includes icons/buttons to other pages like plant book etc but then I realised that why I wouldn’t just put the plant book on the main page to make the app even more effective. In addition, I think it would look better.

During prototyping I tried to keep in mind that users would like this app to be easy and fast to use so there shouldn’t be too many steps from main menu to receiving the information about the plant. I also tried to keep the app easy to learn and understand and that’s why I tried to use familiar or otherwise clear icons. For example, dclored dog and cat icons to describe if the plant is safe for those pets (green-yellow-orange-red) and Dog and cat icons to describe if the plant is safe for those pets (green-yellow-orange-red) and traffict light system to describe how easy it is to take care of the plant. (Easy – Hard).

Figma prototype - First version ready for testing

Main menu

Name search

Poisonousness info

Main menu

1/6

Usability testing & Evaluation

Test tasks

Task #1: Make a name search for plant and open the best result’s plant info page from the results. Browse info page, like it and go back to main menu

a. Think aloud: what do you think, how you understand different icon/pictures on the pages? Can you tell me if the plant is easy or hard to take care.

Task #2: Make a photo search and this time open the last result from the result page. Look for plant’s poisonousness info for dogs. Go back to main menu. check profile page. Log out.

a. Think aloud: what do you think, how you understand different icon/pictures? Is it easy to find info about plants poisonousness?

Questionnaire

I made google forms questionnaire. The questionnaire included 10 questions that are all listed below. All the users who took part on testing the prototype also answered to this questionnaire. The idea of the questionnaire was to get some data about users’ experience and thoughts about the application’s prototype. I wanted to get information about if the app is easy and fast to use, among other things. In addition, I wanted to give users opportunity to give any other comment about the app.

Questions:

do you find this application useful?
How satisfied are you with the look and feel of the app?
How easy it was to understand how this app works
How satisfied are you with the ease of use of the app?
Did you find completing the tasks with this app simply and fast
Were there features that didn’t work as expected in this prototype? If so, what?
Is there anything that confused/annoyed you? If so, what?
Are there any other things that should be improved?
What things are good in the application?
Free word: Something else that you would like to point out?

Evaluation of prototype in the design team (pilot test)

During the pilot test I did test tasks mentioned earlier and tried to think what could be improved and if it is easy and fast enough to complete those tasks. However, it was quite hard because at this point I am quite blind to my own work and it was hard to objectively think if the app is easy/hard to use and if it is easy to understand how to use the app. One thing I started to think is that if my way to mark if the plant is easy to take care is clear enough. I think it is quite clear but does actual user find it clear? So, I decided to change the icon from simple traffic light circles to green/orange/red plant watering icon.

Otherwise, I found the usage of the app’s prototype quite easy, and it was fast to complete the tasks. Of course, it is good to keep in mind that I am already familiar with the app so my experience with the app is not valid meter about the usability of this design. In addition, it is hard for me to see the mistakes I have made. So, the actual user test is necessary.

Evaluation of prototype in user testing

On the Evaluation of prototype there was three participants in user testing. All of them were young adults (Females, 18-23 years old) and two of them owned pet of some kind. All of them also had at least house plants to take care of. The user testing with three participants took around 1 hour.

The user testing was carried out remotely so that participants received a link to the Figma prototype, and they talked to me on the phone throughout the testing telling me what they are doing and thinking aloud the whole time. I also asked them to tell me if they can find information about the plant’s poisonousness to pets easily and if they can find the info about how easy it is to take care of the plant. The tests proceeded with each participant similarly. I called them on the time we agreed couple days before the test day and then I sent them the link to the prototype. Then I told them what they should do with the app and what they should tell me (the questions about pet poisonousness and care taking). Then they started doing the test task #1 and #2. The whole time they told me what they do and think, and they also answered to my questions.

After testing the prototype, I sent them the link to the questionnaire. All three participants answered to the questionnaire.

User experience findings from user evaluation

Test users seemed quite satisfied while using the app and they found it easy and fast to use. However, there was some confusing moments. For example, the icon/pic that was supposed to describe how easy/hard it is to take care about the plant wasn’t too clear. When asking if the participants can tell how easy it is to take care about the plant, almost all of them were confused at first and it took some time for them to figure it out. So that is one issue to fix because I would like to make it clearer.

Gladly, all of them found it quite easy and clear to find out if plant is safe or poisonous to pets. They also liked that info about plant’s poisonousness to pet is right next to the plant’s name and you can see the info even without opening the plant’s info page. All of them also found easy the more detailed info about plant’s poisonousness to pet by just tapping the pet icon.

All the participants thought that the app would be useful for them. In addition, all the participants found the app’s look and feel satisfying, and they also thought that it was mainly easy to understand how the app works and app was easy to use (On the scale 1-5, answers were 4 and 5). However, during the testing, one participant thought that it would be useful to have short tutorial when using the app first time so that it would be even more easy to start using the app and the purpose of the app would be even more clear.

Main issues to fix:

How easy it is to take care about the plant → Clearer icon or other way to bring it out
Short tutorial about the use of app.
- Maybe not in this prototype? But it might be useful feature to have on actual app.

Final design

During the user testing the main issue that came up was how to illustrate how easy/hard it is to take care of the plant. The icons weren’t clear enough for the users that took part to the testing, so I had to figure out clearer way to tell users if the plant is easy or hard to take care of. At the end I decided that textual description is clearest way to bring it up so instead of colour code and icons now there will be just text that says if the plant is easy, medium, or hard to take care. This solution should make it clearer. Everything else I kept same because test users didn’t find any other issues to fix and they seemed satisfied with the app’s prototype.

You can test out the prototype below.

How well the solution meets the defined user experience goals?

The goals with this application were that it is first of all easy and fast to use. Users should find it easy to understand how the application works and the app should not cause any frustration for user when they are using the app (app should not be slow or difficult to use). App should also look nice and clear, so it is enjoyable and satisfying to use. The app should also be useful in other words it should be helpful on the situations it is needed. According to the user test that has been made, the solution meets most of the defined user experience goals. Test user found it easy and fast to complete tasks and the app did not cause any frustration on that aspect during the test usage. The look of the app is mostly clear, and users found it enjoyable and quite satisfying to use. However, there was problems with some icons (How easy/hard the plant is to take care of), and that caused some frustration for users. Anyhow, this issue is hopefully fixed now. All the test users found the app useful aka helpful. They thought that they would get help from this app whenever there is need to find information about plants.