Summary

Sprouts is an AR application that turns your houseplants into virtual pets. Sprouts offers care schedules, advice, and tools to keep your plant pets thriving.

My Role

For this university project, I was a team of one.

The Challenge

Create a playful AR or VR based experience that encourages positive actions towards understanding, engaging or solving a specific area of the climate crisis.

Research & Exploration

When I began this assignment, I had plans to create something that encouraged people to grow their own food. After completing interviews and sending out an online survey, I noticed the majority of my participants lacked interest and confidence in plant care. I saw an opportunity to create a new experience by transforming regular houseplants into virtual pets.

I asked myself:

How might people build curiosity for plant life?
What barriers and challenges prevent people from growing plants?
How might I help people build a sense of empathy towards plant life?

Iphone sitting on pink book on a marble table. On the screen is Sprouts application homepage. My garden, Patricia status happy, Shrek status sad, one task. Subscription Premium, home settings, achievement list.

Key Insights

Facial characteristics build empathy
Aesthetics and mental health are among the top reasons for owning plants
A majority of plant owning millennials & gen z find plant care to be more challenging than expected.
Over watering, under watering and insufficient lighting are the most common problems for plant owners.

Defining Users

I built personas based on common answers I received from survey and interview participants. I focused on gen z and millennials as the target audience.

Defining Experiences

Using journey maps I pinpointed opportunities to build confidence, curiosity and empathy as plant owners.

Goals

Encourage young adults to own more plants.
Empower young adults with the tools and knowledge to keep their plants healthy & thriving.
Inspire young adults to be curious about plant life.

Information Architecture & Wireframes

Using an information architecture map, I arranged a structure to follow for wireframes. Through multiple iterations and feedback I landed on a design to be tested in the prototyping stage.

before and after of sprouts app with updated icons and features including search, light meter and plant doctor.

Before and after of sprouts plant identification feature. Updates include a try again button and images of the identified plant.

Testing & Iterations

Failures / Opportunities

Participants tapped on the plant itself rather than the info button
Participants had difficulties understanding how to add their first plant.
Participants mistook the sun icon (light meter) for a settings icon.

Success

Participants had a desire to change plants emotion to happy without instruction.
Participants successfully used the plant doctor feature without instruction.
Participants had keen interest in plant identification.

Image of sprouts reminders feature - showing two unfinished watering tasks

Care Reminders

Receive reminders for care needs, including watering, fertilizing and repotting.

Implementation

Identification

Use the camera function to identify plants or add them to your care list.

image of sprouts information feature, displaying the care details of an identified plant.

Care Information & Matching

Learn about the history, characteristics and care needs of a plant. Sprouts will also let you know which plants are compatible with your home and lifestyle.

Plant Doctor

Identify problem areas and receive suggested solutions.

Takeaways

Throughout this project I learned how to manage priorities. I had high expectations for what I could accomplish within the given time span and learned to focus on the most impactful features.
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The current prototype focuses more on plant care itself. It includes reminders, scheduling, plant information, tips, and diagnosing problems. If I were to continue this project, I would further explore the personalization and gamification aspect to see how that effects engagement.

Sprouts AR Plant Pets