Adding a Feature to an Existing App
For this project I needed to add a new feature to an already existing app. My first consideration was to improve the reminders on the NatureID app. The Nature ID has many features that help plant owners identify and care for their house plants. One feature that stood out to me is their ability to identify the plant with a photo and add it to your garden, from there you can input care reminders. The option to have certain reminders for my plants is why I chose this app over others.
To me it seemed like this app had everything that I was looking for, as I absolutely need reminders to water my plants. As I started adding my plants I was looking forward to having the app remind me of the care requirements. When the screen popped up to add in my reminders I was disappointed to see that I still needed to add all the reminders and times to repeat and when I wanted them to. At that point I realized that this app needs a feature that will automatically add the reminders for its users.
Going into my project I knew that there would be challenges. To begin, I knew that when working with a lot of plants that it could be difficult to organized and edit all the reminders. I needed to find a solution that is simple and allows access to everything the user will need. I also knew that there were quite a few competitors that do similar things.
To further understand and problem-solve I began by reviewing competitors. I found Leafsnap, Plantnote, and PictureThis to be Nature ID’s main competitors. All of these apps also have the option to schedule out reminders but the user still needs to input all of the information themselves. Overall, I found that the competitors had similar features yet flaws that make the overall app more difficult to use compared to Nature ID.
Once I found and analyzed the competition I started to create my survey questions to further understand the needs of the users. I had my understanding of the app but needed more information to accurately add a feature. I decided to post this survey on Reddit in a subreddit called r/plants. My goal was to hear from people who have plants and that are familiar with/using a plant app.
From my survey I learned the average age of people who own house plants is between 20–30. Most of the people who completed my survey were from Europe, and worked in some sort of sales.
My survey showed that most people check and us their phone mostly every hour of the day. The most used apps are social media and videos.
I also found that most people decide to download an app based on their own research or a referral from a friend.
I also found that reminder/to-do apps were only used by half the people.
The notifications most important were texts, then after that email and apps. These were most important because they can be quick actions and important for communication.
100% of surveyors owned houseplants and 71% owned over 10 plants.
Overall, they like to care for there plants because it makes them happy and 85% of users have forgotten to care for their houseplants.
Over 85% of surveyors do not keep any track of their plant care schedule, and do not use any plant app for help either.
Even with my surveyors with 5–10+ plants find that sunlight is the most important thing to know when caring for a houseplant, followed but difficulty to care for and watering schedule.
Overall, I think the target for this app would be people who are new to owning plants. People who need to learn and understand a plant routine and are more prone to forgetting their plants enough they die. I also think that there is a large emotional connection to people and their plants, they have a sense of happiness and content when their plants are cared for and grow. This is important information when looking at personas for people who use a plant help app.
Once I collected this data, I was able to create a persona for users of the Nature ID app. I determined that the typical user of this app would be around 25–30, M or F, and live in the U.S. What motivates them to find a plant care app is their fear of their plants dying, and the goal is for them to be happy by caring for their plants and seeing them thrive.
From here I was able to begin prototyping the new automatic reminders for the Nature ID app. I knew that I wanted to keep most of the UX cards and colors similar or the same to what they have already made. So I began wireframing and planning out some of the pages.
This first page is what the users see when they click on the “My Plants” icon. On the left we see what is currently used on the Nature ID app, there are photos of the users plants along with their names and an option to edit each plants reminder. On the right is my design, featuring larger photos of the plants and their names. If you tap on the plant it will take the user to the same set reminder page that the user can get to by tapping on the the large green button.
The next page that I added a feature on is on the reminders page. I decided to create a calendar page that would be easier for the user to see all of their reminders. From my survey I saw that a reminders app was not used often, yet the calendar is used by all users and helps to see all of their plants and what they need to on each day.
After this I created the new feature of the app, the edit all reminders page. The NatureID app currently has it so the user has to edit each individual plant if they want to change or edit their reminder options. With my new feature of auto reminders it allows to users to have minimal steps and interactions to set reminders for their plants.
For the individual reminder page I also added an auto reminder option for the users. The user can pick the option for auto reminders or custom reminders.
Overall, the new auto reminder feature will attract plant owners who do not want to input all of the information of their plants themselves. With the feature for the app to automatically input and notify of your plants needs, it allows for less time spent inputting all the same information that the app just gave you on the previous screen. With this new feature making the app even more efficient it will appeal to more users.
