Project Brief
The initial goal of the project was to design a tool to help gardeners deal with invasive insects. Later, research revealed that although gardeners were concerned with invasive insects, they were more worried about insects that posed an immediate threat to their garden. This insight broadened the focus on the project to include other insect pests as well as invasives.
research
Surveys
To start I created a survey to help get some baseline information and find potential candidates for interviews. Of the people interviewed, their top garden concerns were insects, pests, Spotted Lanternflies, water, and avoiding pesticides. The top control method they used for insects was handpicking, followed by pesticides and then soap and water.
Interviews
I conducted interviews with 15 gardeners of varying levels of experience. Then I created an affinity cluster to organize the common themes.
Eco-Friendly Pest Control - Gardeners wanted pest control options that didn’t risk harming “good bugs.”
Helping the Whole Ecosystem - Many of the gardeners expressed that they were okay accepting some plant damage if it helped beneficial insects like butterflies.
Telling Good Bugs From Bad - A lot of the gardeners knew that some bugs were beneficial but had difficulty telling them from the harmful ones. Many used the words “friend or foe.”
Integrated Pest Management
One key insight that came out of the interviews was that the Master Gardeners did not have the same problems with insect pests as the other gardeners. They credited this to a system called Integrated Pest Management.
This works by using the existing ecosystem to control pest insects.
ID the Problem Insect (Foe)
Find What Eats It (Friends)
What Plants Attract Them
How might we help gardeners to identify insects, determine if they pose a threat to their garden, and control them in an eco-friendly manner?
Persona
Flora Potts
Beginner Gardener
Goals
Learn if the insects in their garden pose a threat to their plants and whether or not they are part of the ecosystem
Stop harmful insects
Promote beneficial insects
Stay eco-friendly (no pesticides)
Needs
ID the insects in their garden reliably
Keep plants healthy (willing to accept some damage for the sake of beneficial insects)
Keep beneficial insects healthy
Stop invasive insects from taking hold
Challenges
No pesticides
Solution needs to require little effort
Inexperienced gardeners have difficulty telling friend from foe
“Is this bug a friend or a foe?”
Competitive Analysis
Using the goals and needs from the gardener persona, I conducted a competitive analysis of existing products and websites. During the interviews, many of the gardeners mentioned using Google and Facebook groups to fill these needs but they weren’t always the most accurate or effective. Other apps and websites did a better job solving for these goals and needs but none of them took care of everything effectively.
Initial Concept
The app will allow users to scan an unknown insect and learn if it is a Friend or a Foe. If it is a Foe, the app will then give the user suggestions on how to control the Foe using Integrated Pest Management.
Site Map
Before I started wireframing, I created a site map to make sure I was accounting for all of the features I planned on including.
Wireframes & Testing
I went through a few rounds of wireframes and once I got them to a good spot I conducted eight user testing sessions with gardeners to figure out what was working and what was not. The problems that users ran into generally fell into a few categories:
Onboarding
I had set this up as a few screens and broken it up by plant type but most of the users found that confusing so I consolidated it to one page.
A few users didn’t notice the search bar so I moved it closer to the prompt so it would be more visible
Hierarchy
Groups of things kind of blended together on the home screen so users had some difficulty telling things apart.
To fix this I restructured everything and tried to group things together in a way that made better sense.
Icons
On the bug card I included some icons that were meant to be little indicators to let you know some quick facts about the bug.
The icons weren’t very understandable for most of the users so I redesigned them and gave them all titles so that the user could see what they meant.
I did the same for the navigation as well.
Mood Board
Then I moved on to the styling of the app. I created a moodboard to establish the look I was going for. A lot of outdoorsy apps have a ton of green and I wanted to stand out a bit so I picked a honey yellow to be the main color. Style-wise I wanted it to feel clean, friendly, and interesting so users would want to explore the information in the app
Style Guide
I then created the style guide and branding for the app. This included the redesigns of all of the bug icons as well as a new set of icons to help the user learn what conditions the different plants needed to thrive.
FINAL Design
Welcome to Friend or Foe!
The app will prompt you with questions about the conditions in your garden. This will help improve plant suggestions later.
When you spot an unknown bug, scan it with your phone.
Based off of your garden conditions, the app will give you a suggested control method to help fight your Foes.
Start by adding the plants that are in your garden. This will help the app let you know which bugs could pose potential threats to your plants specifically.
The home screen will give you your Foe Preparedness Score. This number will help you to gauge how well you garden does at attracting Friends (helpful bugs) and deterring Foes (harmful bugs.)
The app will tell you if it is a Friend or a Foe and give you suggestions that are specific to your garden.
The control methods focus on attracting Friends to your garden. This makes for healthier plants as well as a healthier ecosystem in your yard!