Garden Newbies
In-store Kiosk Offers Personalized Gardening Advice
The Challenge
When a Flagrant designer, Kaylee, looked into starting her own garden, she discovered gardening instruction was oddly hard to find. “Gardening” blogs were personal blogs with a little horticultural content tucked inside. Her local garden center sold so many things it was hard to tell what she needed from what she didn’t. As she talked to others, she saw she was not alone in her frustration. How could she make the gardening world more accessible for the beginner?
Viewing the situation as a poor real-world user experience, Kaylee began researching the things a garden newbie needed to learn:
- What seeds to grow, and why
- Tasks to do in each phase of growing
- Tools needed
-
Growing basics
- Soil/Nutrients (Soil quality, and using organic or chemical fertilizers to improve or maintain nutrients)
- Light (Proper amount of sunlight for healthy plant growth)
- Water (Efficient watering techniques to save time and energy for both plants and growers)
- Planting Time & Region (Plants that thrive in the gardener’s growing zone, and the average frost dates of that region)
The Solution
Based on face-to-face informational interviews she’d conducted, Kaylee created several user personas, user stories, and a Minimum Viable Product chart that all shaped her design decisions.
UI elements in her wireframes included filtering by region, sun/shade, and water; gardening FAQs that gave advice and explained terms in simple language; cart options that allowed users to export their information and order/pick up items from the kiosk; and easy action plans for every step of the gardening process.
Next came in-person user testing. After participants completed a series of tasks, Kaylee gathered valuable feedback that prompted her to make minor design changes.
At the prototype stage, user testing revealed the need for a walkthrough. Mindful of how long a shopper would want to stand at a kiosk, Kaylee updated the final prototype to include a quick tour.
The Result
A friendly store kiosk that can give bite-sized gardening advice to new gardeners and help shoppers locate their items by aisle. But with the ability to translate from kiosk to website, this app can also give aspiring gardeners access to its information from their couches.
