NODE: Make Houseplant Care Simple & Delightful

NODE:

the part of a plant stem from which one or more leaves emerge, often forming a slight swelling or knob.

// a point at which pathways intersect or branch; a central or connecting point.

Key Features:

  • Care sheets for all of your plants, organized however works for you, whether by genus, lighting, age, or who needs to be watered next.

  • Customizable index that evolves with your collection — start with “my windowsill”, grow all the way up to “my jungle”

  • Easy identification tool modeled after conversational assistance you would get from a plant-loving friend

  • Illustrated blog posts guiding you through everything that might confuse or interest you about houseplants — What does bright filtered light look like in my house? Why are variegated plants so expensive? How should I prep for dry winter months?

  • Periodical plant memories — check out your plant’s glow-up from last month or last year!

  • Personalized, easy to understand troubleshooting for any issues you notice with your plant(s)

  • Recommended plants to get next based on your favorites or your easiest to keep thriving

Process

I. Defining the Problem

Many people feel lost and intimidated when it comes to houseplants.

Even seasoned houseplant owners can have trouble organizing watering days, remembering when they last repotted or fertilized. I have a bad memory and find myself googling over and over again the same plants for care instructions because I’ve forgotten them. I’ve tried writing out lists, but I either lose them or have trouble editing them. I’ve tried plant apps, but many of them are glorified identification apps that have little to no focus on organizing virtual data about your collection and no reason to keep the app long-term. Even their identification features are almost always inaccurate; there are just so many subtle differences between very different species of houseplant and those differences can mean totally different care instructions, different rarity and different needs.

II. Building Credibility

I immersed myself in Facebook groups of varying sizes of houseplant enthusiasts, from local groups of under 1,000 members up to global groups of 100k+. I observed the variety of problems that people seemed to be having, the piecemeal solutions, and the ways that people most loved to share their collections.

Two questions were asked multiple times a day, every single day: What kind of plant do I have? and Help!!! What’s wrong with my plant?. While other apps rely heavily on inaccurate photo identification to attempt to solve these two questions, NODE utilizes a questionnaire method to talk the user through the issue in a way similar to how a human would.

III. Verifying Assumptions

I now had a great resource – a ton of users-in-waiting who need a solution to their plant problems. I talked to a lot of people, and then I tested my designs on a lot of people, and then I talked to them some more.

At first, I mostly talked to these people in my groups, people who have established collections and just need better tools to organize, but I realized that I was probably missing out on a huge group of people that I had in mind at the beginning – people intimidated by getting into houseplants, because they don’t want to kill them, or they won’t know what to do if they see that there’s something wrong with their plant. 

So I found people who I know fit into that category and I tweaked the designs I had to make the app feel more inviting to them. 

I designed a user path where the user has no idea what plant they bought and needs to work through identifying it; since I know that those camera apps don’t work, I created a click-through series of screens that focuses on leaf shapes and markings, using terms and images that feel accessible to people who don’t know plants – no big latin words.

IV. NEXT STEPS

I’ve had the privilege of working on this project with my partner Mellody Strahan, a product manager who helped me define my process and keep the user experience at the forefront of my decision-making. Check out more of her work here!

The work I’ve completed here was done in about 8 weeks, juggled between other projects and work. Had I had more time and a budget, I would’ve loved to do some more research into categorizing plants from a non-plant knower standpoint, building out blog posts and illustrations, and taking a deeper dive into branding. I used Adobe XD for this project but would love to exercise my abilities in Figma next time as well.

I’m interested in making this concept a reality! If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or would like to connect, feel free to fill out my booking form and/or reach out on LinkedIn!