Onboarding screens for LeafLink for Light and Dark mode

 LeafLink has one mission- to help everyone have a green thumb, but sustainably. Their app allows users to ‘adopt’ propagated plants; reducing the demand for new plants, allowing new plant parents to test the waters without killing the green (leaves and money).

Goals:

  • Emphasising sustainability through the app by filtering results as per the users preferences.

  • Designing a cleaner user journey for listing and adopting a plant.

  • Encouraging the user to personalise their search though setting preferences.

My role:

  • User research- secondary resource analyses, user interviews and surveys.

  • Usability testing

  • Wireframing

  • Prototyping

  • Discover

    Why is the over-consumption of houseplants unsustainable and how can LeafLink be a probable solution?

  • a compass icon to indicate 'exploring'

    Explore

    Mind-mapping concepts for LeafLink and the insights from a preliminary survey to gather insights from potential users.

  • pencil icon to indicate "ideation"

    Ideate

    Sketching wireframes to test out user journeys through the app and designing the low fidelity screens for testing.

  • Testing

    Conducted usability testing with 8 users, having them to perform 3 key tasks.

  • revision icon

    Revision

    With insights from the usability testing and questions, I revised the screens and designed the high-fidelity mockups, for a final round of testing.

 Discover

Roots of LeafLink:

Imagine this: it’s the year 2020. Everything is shut. You need something to distract yourself from all that is happening in the world. What do you do to fill in that emotional void? While everyone has different answers, many people resorted to ‘mass purchasing’ houseplants. While many nurseries and plant stores remained closed, 2020 saw the biggest boom of new online plant stores. Moreover, there was also the rise of a selected few subscription based services like BloomBox, LeafEnvy, etc. Naturally, when lockdowns all over the world were lifted, what happened to these plants? Will they be receiving the same love and attention? May be and may be not. What about people who just have a lot of plants? People who would be moving to new houses, states, countries? And what about people who want to start the plant parent journey? This is where LeafLink comes in. Adopting propagated plants, or even new plants, is a more sustainable option as it not only helps to relax the strain in supply of houseplants, but also allows new and current plant owners to practice and build an emotional connection with their plants before they can commit to more.

 

What makes the overconsumption of houseplants unsustainable:

  • Social media’s obsession with trends which are always short-lived, are unsustainable not only for consumers but also producers. This is especially true for plants, when the new trendy plant overtakes your Instagram feed, fuelling supply, until it is no longer in trend.

  • The carbon footprints from production, to shipping, to transportation are massive! Think about the electricity it would take in greenhouses to maintain proper temperatures. Additionally, think about the fertilisers, water, packaging, transportation… it is an added amount of CO2 emissions in every step, multiplied by the massive demand of houseplants.

  • The water used not by us, but by the oligopoly of houseplant farmers in the US. A concentrated few suppliers of houseplants use about 1.5 million gallons of water to grow massive rows of houseplants

Explore:

 Through social media, I asked 8 potential users who follow #plantparent to see if they’d be interested in sharing their insights about their plant buying habits. Their answers had me mind-mapping potential ways in which LeafLink can create a change and stand-out. Below are what I believe are important insights from the users that inform how LeafLink can create a change:

  • Sustainability? Aren't plants already sustainable?

    A common answer the participants gave was that they thought they were being sustainable because they were investing their money in plants- being synonymous with “environment” and “sustainability”. But sustainability is an umbrella term that encompasses not only consumption but also the behaviour of the producers/companies from where the users are buying plants. As well as questions of additional purchases like pots, and keeping the plant alive are important questions when it comes to the sustainable practices of houseplants that users weren’t informed about.

  • The emotional and visual appeal of houseplants:

    All of the participants declared that buying and owning houseplants aided to their emotional needs. They acted as visual stimulators of calmness and nurture, especially during the pandemic when they couldn’t be around nature as much.

  • Space and knowledge about plants turned out to be the most important factors.

    5/8 participants stay in city centres, where real estate for plants in shared accommodation is an issue. However, 3 participants, who were new to houseplants, stated that they were overwhelmed by information surrounding houseplants and hence had decided not to invest in plants in case they killed them.

The above insights got me asking whether there could be a product or service to help combat the overconsumption. The mind-map below, was how I gathered all my thoughts, which then blossomed into LeafLink:

A mind-map of concepts for LeafLink

 Ideate:

The mind-map gave me seeds of what I can do with LeafLink:

  • It would be an app, a platform for adopting and sharing plants.

  • It would cater to users that are new plant parents and allow the emotional connection with plants to flourish.

  • It could become the first place users go to “adopt, not shop” for plants

From the mind-map above, I worked on LeafLink as an app that allows users to “adopt” plants from plant owners. Below are the wireframes, where I explored potential user journeys as I sketched:

  • onboarding wireframes

    Onboarding wireframe

  • Add listing wireframe

    Add listing wireframe

  • messaging screens

    Messaging wireframes

  • profile and home screens

    Profile and Home wireframes

  • inspiration wireframe

    Inspiration wireframe

I then took to Figma to design the low fidelity wireframes to test out:

  Testing

The 8 participants from the original survey were then invited to test out the low fidelity screens. I had asked them to perform the following 3 tasks:

  1. Set up your profile

  2. Add a new listing for a plant, adjusting the light and water, and giving it appropriate tags

  3. Select a plant you’re interested in and message the user

Over Zoom, as I observed them going through the tasks, I asked them to rate the tasks from 1 to 5, 1 being ‘Very easy’ and 5 being ‘Very difficult’ to perform. I also asked to give me their thoughts about the app in their own words.

Below are the most insightful comments the participants had after this initial usability test:

  • Too many tags

    The tags during the onboarding process were too confusing, as they had no categories that grouped them further.

  • It wasn't intuitive to use

    The steps to take further wasn't intuitive enough according to the usability testing. This got me to do some double takes on copy and to add hints and next steps to allow for more helpful user experience

  • Is it better?

    Is it better?- Asking the users to rate their experience with LeafLink out of 5, the answers were in a range of 3-5. When I asked the users to elaborate, some answered they associate LeafLink with a "second-hand", plant buying and selling app, rather than a "plant adoption" app.

 Revision:

From the insights after the first user testing, I began to revise the screens:

  • Better categorisation of tags and prompts:

    Adding some copy to the onboarding experience- from the labelling of water and light, encouraging phrases during onboarding. The decision to use arrows instead of "next" may be more prompting than words.

  • Next steps:

    This additional screen could prompt users to explore the different options, rather than being to obligated to follow on a single user journey

  • A Green Mode:

    Not as a revision, but as a necessary step to make sure that users who have dark mode on or prefer a darker background due to eye-strains, can still find the app accessible. All the texts meet the AAA colour contrast requirements.

 Final screens:

hi-fi-onbaording.png
dark+mode+mockup1.jpg
hi-fi-onbaording 2.png
dark mode mockup2.png
hi-fi-onbaording 2 (2).png

 A few leaves from my mind:

 

I believe I learnt a lot from this project. This project is something I want to be able to grow. From an UX perspective, I believe there can be more ways in which LeafLink can be the first place plant lovers go to adopt plants. One of the main caveat is that there are places which have wonderful nurseries, but LeafLink addresses the “adopt, not shop”. Supporting small businesses is a must, and hopefully, family-run nurseries can be a part of LeafLink too!

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