This project was a study for developing user flow to drive a fast turn around prototype. The prototype was to test upper level features (horizontal flow instead of detailed vertical flow).
Developed an idea to address the problem of food waste. One way to reduce fresh food waste is to grow your own food (sustainable).
Plant This is an app that will help individuals lead a sustainable lifestyle; specifically, it is for home-based growing and gardening.
It aims to make a user’s gardening experience easy and enjoyable. Not only is it for the typical gardener, but it is user-friendly for those who don’t have any gardening skills.
Features include:
After sketching, a horizontal feature set was created (through an open card sort).
Personas were developed to represent 3 core users: Expert, Intermediate, Beginner.
Using the scenarios and personas, rough wireframes were created. Through rapid iteration and review, wireframes were finalized and the prototyping process started (using Axure).
Below is a link to the mid-fi prototype. It is hosted through Axure Share.
Plant This PrototypeThe test plan focuses on the core functionality: researching plants, entering data, and finding social inspiration. Both test task flows have the user perform the key interaction loop: researching a plant, adding it to their personal database (My Plants), looking for images, and entering expense data into the app. Plant killer uses a more focused search to find a plant that is hardy enough to survive someone with little to no gardening skills. Green thumb focuses more on plant detail data: researching nutrient schedules, and tracking expenses. Findings will be used to perform another round of iteration on the prototype before transitioning to a hi-fi prototype where the focus will be on micro interactions and the visual layer.
MethodsThe tests were performed in person by the researcher and data was later accumulated, discussed, and analyzed.
Protocol - Informed Consent & TestHello, thank you for meeting with me today. I am working on a team project to create a
horticulture and gardening app called GardenGrower, which mainly focuses on home-based
growing. The purpose of this app is to make the user’s gardening experience easier. This
includes features like resource management, gardening walkthroughs, researching plants,
tracking plant growth data, and connecting with others in the gardening community.
The purpose of conducting this test is for my team to investigate the app’s usability with its
target users. This test will allow us to identify any problems with the app and hopefully figure out
solutions to them. The test will be documented by taking notes and recording. There are no right
or wrong ways to carry out an activity. I just want to observe what you do and hear what you
have to say. It is highly encouraged you speak out loud on your thoughts and describe what
you’re doing as you perform the activities because it will help us analyze our findings. You may
be asked questions before, during, or after performing the activity. This test should take no
longer than 30 minutes.
This activity is voluntary, and you have the right to not demonstrate any activity or answer any
question; you are free to stop the testing at any time for any reason. Please note that your
responses and actions in this test will be confidential and used only for this class assignment.
Your first name will be used to identify you, but if you wish, you can opt to use a pseudonym
rather than your real name. Also, I want to remind you that this is testing the app itself, not you,
the user. It is okay to make mistakes because looking for mistakes is one reason why we are
testing. Lastly, you can’t hurt our feelings in any way if you feel, say, or think negatively about
anything in this test.
That concludes the test. Thank you for your time and for meeting with me. Your help will certainly make the app better. Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Subject 1
Name: Kevin A.
Age: 46
Occupation: Sales Manager
Gender: M
User type: Green Thumb
Other information: Subject has a background in cultivation and maintains a medium to large
home garden (vegetables). After the introduction and consent, he said “This is very exciting. I
have been thinking about how great it would be to track my spending and details around my
backyard”
Subject 2
Name: Mark
Age: 27
Occupation: Pediatric ICU Nurse
Gender: M
User type: Plant killer
Other information: Subject has no gardening background but is interested in learning how to
plant his own garden in his backyard. He thought it was interesting that there will be an app to
help out newbies like him and also help those who already do gardening like his mother. He is
tech-savvy and familiar with using apps, computers/laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
Subject 3
Name: Sophie
Age: 26
Occupation: Consultant
Gender: F
User type: Green Thumb
Other information: Subject has some experience in gardening for two years, she is used to
recording her gardening notes as memo with her iphone, after she went through the tasks, she
thought that this app made gardening a simpler but more colorful thing in her life since it’s very
handy to record anything about her plants as well as to search for information she needs
anytime.
Kevin A succeeded in completing all three tasks in 2 minutes and 18 seconds. The instructions
were provided in a written format with breaks denoted where the researcher provided required
prompts from the script. There was confusion surrounding the camera button at the top right
corner of the screen (which is currently disabled and not part of our test task flows). When
selecting a fertilizer schedule, he expressed a desire for more information on each schedule, or
another layout that provides more details for advanced users. He had difficulty reading some
elements of text on the device, resulting in questions surrounding a feature to allow users to
adjust the font size.
Mark was successful in completing the three tasks given in 4 minutes due to his curious nature
of exploring something new. It probably would have taken less than that if he was not exploring
the app on his own while the test was being conducted. The subject was surprised by the
appearance of the prototype at first because he has not experienced something like this before.
For the first task, he noted that there was no trait for sunlight, which in the task he was asked to
“look for a plant that needs partial light, easy care, and does not get too big”. He also
questioned the “too big” part because there was no trait for size on the Search By Plant Details
Page. He had no problem with the second task. Lastly, in the third task, he easily identified and
went to the Community Page, but then asked if “Trending Media” was what he was supposed to
click on and see.
Sophie completed 3 tasks within 3 minutes or so. When she successfully added a local area
plant to her plants, the box which said “has been added to your My Plant, do you want to view
My Plant or return” popped out, there were 2 things she concerned, one is that she thought
there should be an info box which reconfirms if a user is going to add a plant to her plant list, the
other one is that she was confused with the word ”My Plant”, when she clicked view MyPlant
button, she expected to see the specific list of her plants added, not My Plant page, because
that can be easily achieved just by directly clicking the button MyPlant below. About the task 2,
she thought it can be accessed in My Plant page since that kind of page is what she thought to
be used to manage all personal stuff, but finally we finished it in growing - plant detail page, so
this process may need to be refined.
Users are exploratory. Kevin A spent another minute and fifteen seconds exploring the app prototype after completing the test task flow. The app needs more features and more accurate content representations. The next iteration will need to address the visual layer, test users were not familiar with software prototypes and were distracted by the current simplified style. Through the testing we found that users wanted to see detailed pages on plants prior to deciding if they would add them to their personal database (My Plants). The flow needs to be adjusted to allow users to quickly find plant detail pages that offer a birds eye view and an option for more detailed data. These flows will have to be developed using sketchboard. A common observation was that the feedback was mostly positive. Most test users felt the app lacked depth, but was promising and exciting.