Plant App

As a part of my Google UX Design certification, I’ve been working on a design for a fictional plant care app. The goal was to design an app that helps customers diagnose issues with their houseplants. Taking care of plants can be challenging as many problems can arise during their lifetime. I wanted to make it dead simple to diagnose issues

My Role
UX Design + Research

Timeline
Jun. 2026 - Sep. 2026

Skills
User Research
User Interviews
Journey Mapping
Sketching
Wireframing
Screen Flows
Visual Design
Prototyping

Initial Research

I began my research by putting out a survey. It was important to know what kind of relationship a person has with their plant. Something that surprised me was that some people don’t have any plants at all. People chose not to own plants for various reasons like fear of insect infestation. I’ve had this issue in the past, so I totally get that. Plant owners are also frequently frustrated when trying to diagnose problems as advice may be unclear or unfriendly towards beginners.

Pain Points

1. Plant care websites assume you have prior knowledge of how to take care of plants. Some of the technical terminology can be intimidating.

2. Diagnosing problems from photos online can be challenging since a user’s situation may be a unique one.

3. Keeping consistent watering schedules for multiple types of plants can be frustrating and difficult to keep track of.

Informed Decisions

Someone being a plant owner, does not necessarily mean they are a plant expert. People have lives and most of the time it doesn’t revolve around taking care of plants. I made a choice to present information in a simple straightforward way. Because of this, I also made the decision to keep iconography to a minimum.

A usability study revealed that users wanted a confirmation screen during the scanning flow, as well as the ability to scan plants consecutively.

“I love how simple and straightforward this is. The app provides solutions in an easy to understand format.” - User Study Quote

The Outcome

Since this was a fictional app coinciding with the Google UX Certificate, I learned best practices and most importantly, the process to create a product from just an idea. The biggest takeaway for me was all of the research and data analysis that takes place at the start of a project. Practicing these methods have shown me how important these early steps are to creating a product.

Next Steps

I would incorporate a speech to text method of plant analysis where a user could describe their issue instead of taking a photo. This would be useful for people that may not have their plant readily accessible or are using a device that has a broken camera.I would also add in a calendar view to view upcoming tasks so a user can plan ahead. This can help users anticipate any maintenance instead of having it presented the day of.Additionally, I would consider adding additional iconography to give users a quicker way to identify recommended actions in the UI