A smart system designed to make gardening experience more engaging for beginners through a mobile application and a connected soil sensor.
Duration
2021, 7 Weeks
2025, 7 Weeks
Team Project
Yeon Ko
Bryana Lee
Project Type
UX/UI
Mobile Application Design
Software
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe After Effect
Home gardening is a hobby that many people enjoy, and in recent years, its popularity has jumped, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During lockdowns, and stay-at-home orders, people started to spend their time taking care of plants to connect with nature, relieve stress, and even secure food supply. However, new gardeners often face challenges understanding each plant’s unique requirements and need guidance on how to properly care for their plants.
Due to the rise in beginner gardeners, our team decided to explore ways to help people form a meaningful, emotional connection with their plants and provide a simplified yet enriching gardening experience that makes plant care easy and enjoyable while ensuring that plants receive the best possible care.
This project began as a 7-week individual UX/UI project, including user research, competitive analysis, journey mapping, information architecture, wire framing, and visual system design. It was later revisited as a team project, where I focused on developing the UI by connecting the mobile application design with the character motion design—created by another team member—and integrating it with the physical sensor concept into a unified system.
UX Research
UI System Design
3D Modeling
Information Architecture
Our mission is to empower beginner gardeners with simple, precise plant care by bringing each plant’s personality to life, making it easy to understand and meet their needs through personalized, real-time guidance for an effortless and enjoyable gardening experience.
A mix of beginner, intermediate, and expert gardeners were interviewed to explore beginner-specific pain points and identify potential user goals that emerge with experience.
Pain Points
Solutions
Setting up the right environment for plants is challenging
Utilize AR environment scan features when adding new plant
Hard to form a meaningful connection with the plant and makes it easy to forget about them
Engage digital animations of personified plant characters and mood-responsive reminders
Don’t have enough information about a specific plant and it is hard to know if it is accurate or not
Provide real time feedback using an AI-powered plant identifier with a reliable database integration
PlantSnap
PlantSnap uses AI to identify plants from photos and provides general care information. However, it lacks real-time, plant-specific guidance, making it difficult for users to understand the unique needs of their individual plants.
Parrot Flower Power
Parrot Flower Power connects to a smart device placed in the plant’s pot for real-time condition checks like moisture, light, and temperature. However, it only provides broad care recommendations, which can limit its support and usefulness for beginners.
Florish
Florish is a mobile application that helps users to track watering, sunlight and fertilizing needs. However, their care instructions are broad and not unique to each plant, making it less effective for beginners to use.
With the user interview insights and competitor analysis, we generated a list of potential features and prioritized them using a MUSCOW chart.
Must Have
animated plant characters
AI-powered plant scan
mood-responsive reminders
reliable plant database
Should Have
AR environment scan
detailed plant descriptions
connected sensor stick
real-time monitoring
Could Have
home screen widget
where to buy
plant recommendation
social sharing
Won't Have
local plant exchange
plant shop
user-generated tips
Q&A forum
After listing out the important features of this application, I created a detailed information architecture to define a clear structure and flow to begin wire framing.
Dedicated Children’s Book Writer
Henry is a freelance children’s book author. Recently, he’s found that caring for plants has become a form of personal growth and relaxation. Living alone, he has turned to gardening as a way to fill his home with life, and getting a sense of companionship.
difficult to figure out exactly why the plant is sick and how to take care of it
challenging to find reliable and detailed information on each plant
keeping track of care routines is hard
worried that he will forget about his plants due to his busy work
need a structured, but flexible care routine to manage his plants alongside his busy work schedule
wants to become an expert
wishes to build a collection of “pet” plants at his house
finds satisfaction in growing plants and seeing them grow properly
form a connection with nature
create a lively home environment by surrounding himself with green plants as a substitute for pets
become knowledgable about plants and gardening
wants to provide personalized care for each of his plants
Browse/Search Plants
Easily lists plants by category or name for users to browse and discover new ones, and allows users to search for an existing plant in real life using photo scan and add it to their saved plant collection.
Category/Name
Photo Scan
Saved Plants
Plant Information
Quickly shows plant care level, size, and warnings at a glance, and provides detailed information about the plant—including a general overview, life cycle, quick care tips, and similar plants—so users can decide whether they want the plant.
Add New Plant
Conveniently scans the plant in its positioned area to identify the exact species and life stage, estimate the available sunlight, and allow users to name their plant and connect it to a sensor stick that monitors real-time sunlight, soil health, and wind conditions.
My Plants
Effortlessly guides users to provide water, sunlight, airflow, and fresh soil as needed, and includes a calendar view that shows the users in advance when each type of care is required for each plant.
Before Water
After Water
My Plants
Visually represents the plant’s condition with animated characters, helping users understand the plant’s needs and provide the right care.
Monstera
Cactus
During the research phase of this project, I learned the importance of creating an intuitive and engaging plant care experience that helps users understand and truly connect with their plants. We achieved this by combining real-time data, visual feedback, and a playful design system, making care tasks both simplified and educational. Moving forward, we aim to further refine our UI to create an even more seamless and playful experience that better communicates plant health.