Gardenio: Mobile App Idea

Collaboration with Gardenio


Summary:
Gardenio strives to empower people to grow their own food. Plants, soil, and pots are delivered to customer's front door. Gardenio currently provides care guides for plants and is trying to push their own community for gardeners to trade tips and novices to gain experience. The design aims to provide an adequate solution to help novice gardeners, while creating an experience for shopping and taking care of plants.

Full Presentation

Team: -

My Role: Research and design

Duration: Sep 2019 - Dec 2019

Timeline:

Client Kickoff

The 3 biggest takeaways from the client kickoff with Gardenio's CEO:

  • Want to attract people (younger generation) to become life-long gardeners by making it easy for them to get into gardening
  • Build a community for expert gardeners to support novice gardeners
  • Provide great experience to gardening



The Challenge:

How might we design a community that can attract expert gardeners?


Competitive Analysis

I started off with competitive analysis to understand how other competitors resolve their customer's problem.

Story Map

Along with competitive analysis, I created a story map to identify Gardenio's opportunities, which are:

  • Engaging - Hands-on plant care
  • Interesting - Unique harvest experience
  • Satisfying - Users can eat what they've grown

Business Model Canvas

I then had a question...is the focus on building a community or is it on supporting novice gardeners?

I came to a conclusion that Gardenio wants to support novice gardeners but don't have the funds to hired experts. A community can solve this problem since everyone can help each other out. Thus, I proceeded to create a Business Model Canvas to clarify how the community would work. How to attract "expert" gardeners is the problem I want to tackle.




Prototype

Translating insights into tangible ideas.

Shopping

Plant Care

Community



Key Features

Ease of getting into gardening

By recommending plants for beginners based on their gardening level and geographical location.

Simple plant care and get to know your plant better

By giving gardener nofications of the weather conditions and watering cycles. In addition, displays information about plant care, harvesting, and possible recipes.

Attracting experts and solving user's problems

Gardenio can attract "experts" by collaborating with nurseries. Giving them "verified" status and a chance to promote themselves through their username, which will include the company name. Regular people can gain the status by leveling up through answering other people's questions.

Further Recommendations

In addition to the prototype, Gardenio can consider...

  • Opening a physical store, as it would be easier to bring the community together
  • The store in turn can hold events such as workshops, talks, etc.
  • Collaborate with local schools. Schools can teach children about gardening, Gardenio can gain orders and reputation

Thoughts

What I can do better

In this project, I prioritized trying to solve the client's problem. If there were more time, I would conduct more research on the customer's side, which would include gardeners, nurseries, etc.

What I've learned

This is my first time incorporating animations into my design. It can make the prototype seem more interactive and engaging.