Home Fresh is a start up digital platform for city dwelling plant parents. It is specifically designed to assist and encourage people to grow their own food from home.

Problem

Most people do not understand the concept of free food and there is not a lot of platforms that encourages city dwellers to grow their own food with the intention to eat healthy and reduce money spent on buying food. Many of the factors behind food costs are: geopolitical events, global demand, exchange rates, government policy, diseases and crop yield, energy costs, availability of natural resources for agriculture, food speculation, changes in the use of soil and weather events directly affect food prices.

Project Goals

The aim is to develop a tool that assists with the admin of gardening by providing reminders, sending alerts about seasons and when to plant crops, also advising on when to feed or tend your plants. Whether you have a small garden or balcony, Home Fresh is there to be a helping hand. Home Fresh also allows you to connect to a community of local city food growers near you. Community gardening allows the journey to be more fun and fulfilling. Being able to connect, share, engage other to join, and trading food with your community for low prices is what the app is all about.

Tools

Nonku Sefolo

Why

Statistics show that an alarming 15% (2,6 million) have inadequate access to food whilst a shocking 6% (1,1 Million) have severe inadequate access to food.

Over reliance on external sources for food leads to being vulnerable to disruption in the supply chain, such as economic crises, transportation issues, and natural disasters. Growing your own food allows you to have great control over the quality and safety of your product. Store-bought food may come from various sources, and you may not always know the origins or processing methods. This can make it challenging to make informed choices about the food you are consuming.

Role

UX, UI Designer

UX Research

October 2023 - January 2024

Business opportunities

This app has a wide range of potential beneficiaries. Small transportation businesses can benefit from it, and local trade exchange is encouraged, promoting the growth of small businesses. The app also supports the production of goods on a large scale. This benefits local shops that can offer fresh supplies that do not require long-distance transportation. Additionally, worm farmers, compost makers, and plant nursery businesses are among the many beneficiaries of this product.

Research

Conducting a Competitor Analysis for Gardening App

To guide my research, I started by analyzing the competition and examining the existing gardening apps. This allowed me to determine whether similar products already exist and identify ways to improve them, especially those tailored to urban residents.

1. PLant Parent app
   

Plant parent is an app designed as a plant care guide for over 7000 plants species. It has auto-diagnose with just a quick photo and plant parents can set unlimited care reminders for watering and fertilizing.

Strength

• Offers consultation with botanists for personalized help.
• Plant diagnose without limit.
• Informs you of the temperature in your location. This helps in cases of frosting (potential harm to your plants).
• Encourages indoor and outdoor planting, categorizing them on the “My Plant” feature (organization).
• Plant diagnose identifies whole plant, leaves, stems, flower, fruit, and pests. To see if there is potential danger to your plant.
• Access to information and articles with the free version.
• Getting reminders for your plants with the free version, only when you log into the app.
• The ui looks and feels fresh and easy to use.
  

threats

• Users could potentially not interact with the app because it does not give certainty that other people are using the app.
• There is only 2 free consultations with a botanist, this may not be enough for certain plant parents (from different climates).
  

Weakness

• Most of the app feature and functionality do know work when the app is offline.
• To access some of the feature offered requires a subscription to be paid.
• Free version does not give you home screen alerts and reminders.
• You can not search and see the progress of other plant parents.
  

opportunities

• Adding a feature that allows the users of the app to connect and communicate. This will an additional assistance to the botanists since there will be a community of plant growers ready to share advice.
• Advertising and marketing of products might allow the app to make money.
• Searching and seeing the progress of others using the app may be encouraging and uplifting to ones journey of being a plant parent.
  

2. Smart Plant app

Smart Plant is an app that provides access to plant library and plant care calendar to better care for your plants. Others features include plant identification and chats with experts.

Strength

Weakness

• Barcode scanner to identify the plant and information about it.
• Looks and feels fresh and easy to use,
• There is information ready and available to consume related to all types of plans.
  

Opportunities

• The app does not function offline.
• Limited access to some of the feature offered with the free version.
• As a acclaimed library app, you do not get a lot of information in the articles.
• You can not search and see the progress of other plant parents.
  

• The chat that’s available can open conversation with other users, not just the expert advisers.
• It can include articles about people who has used the app and the progress with their plants.
• The current information/articles could give more information and timelines of growing plants.
• For results driven people, there could me something to predict the growth and when to expect plants from your sawing.
  

threats

• The possibility of not a lot of people engaging with the app because it does not provide a feature to be in contact with other users.
• It does not live up to the expectation for it providing extensive information about planting.
• It does not encourage planting apart form giving little information about the type of plant you clicked on.
  

surveys

Surveyed and interviewed potential candidates to identify a way to create an app that will solve real life problems related to gardening. The potential users who were surveyed were a mixture of food growers and those who are interested in the venture.

user persona

Nonku Sefolo

Banking | 31 years old | South African (Johannesburg)

Bio

Motivation

A full-time working wife, and mother who also happens to be a dedicated gardener, cultivating the majority, if not all, of her fresh produce. She skillfully manages her social media blog to inspire urban residents to cultivate their own food.

Gardening is therapeutic. Moreover, ​there is immense satisfaction in being ​able to harvest your own fruits and ​vegetables, knowing that you played a ​part in their journey from seed to plate. It ​truly is a therapeutic and fulfilling ​experience that anyone can enjoy. It also ​helps to eat healthy.

Pain Points

Gardening can be an expensive if one does not know how to be economical and able to reuse containers and seeds.

It also can bet time consuming

It is realistic to grow ​your own food in the city, ​but realistic comes with ​parameters. You need to ​grow things that you like, ​things that you Are ​actually going to eat.

-Nonku

MAletsatsi Mohapi

Environmental Scientist | MSc. in Agriculture (UFS) | 28 years old | South African (Johannesburg)

Bio

Motivation

Maletsatsi, the soil scientist who's all ​about making dirt work for you! With a ​love for plants and a knack for ​understanding soil, Maletsatsi here to ​help you grow your best garden yet. ​Whether it's tips for healthy soil or tricks ​to boost your veggies, she's got the dirt ​on it all. Let's get our hands dirty and ​watch those plants flourish!

Plants not only provide us with clean air by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, but they also add beauty and tranquility to our surroundings. Imagine the joy of stepping outside and picking fresh herbs or vegetables from your own garden, even if you have just a small balcony or windowsill to work with. The connection to nature that comes from growing your own food can be truly rewarding and fulfilling. Plus, there's something special about knowing exactly where your food comes from and the care that went into cultivating it. Let's embrace the magic of plants and cultivate our own green spaces, no matter how small they may be.

Pain Points

Tsatsi shared that as a environmental scientist, it become hard to maintain plant because her job requires her to travel. Growing food needs time and attention.

Empathy Mapping

Says

Thinks

Nonku Sefolo

Does

Feels

Summary

The design focus should revolve around the urban city dwellers' lifestyle. Emphasis being on providing easy and convincing methods for urban gardening and those aspiring to grow their own food. By considering to incorporate features like selling locally grown produce and goods, providing information on market events, and fostering connections between people and local food growers in their community. This can be accomplished by incorporating elements that enable individuals to grow and exchange produce while others support the endeavor.

UI Work

Style Guide

Typograph

Colour

Given that this is a gardening app, the design strategy focused on maintaining its aesthetics in line with the colors of the plants. By predominantly using green in the color palette, the app's functionality is enhanced, while incorporating elements from the accent palette adds a lively and vibrant touch to the overall experience.

Main colours

Accent colours

User flow

Drop down bar

Designs

Key moments

The homepage is designed to showcase a marketplace where users can discover items being sold in their community, along with a community of active gardeners within the app. This marketplace presents a business opportunity for gardeners to explore. The application promotes community gardening and the exchange of produce. Not limited to just gardeners, the marketplace caters to individuals interested in the endeavor and those seeking to purchase home grown produce at reduced prices. There is also a library of information and articles written by the users to help as a guide for those who are interested to start growing their own food in small spaces.

Community engage

App users can interact with sellers by clicking on their profiles displayed on the home page. They can request to connect as friends and receive updates on activities and produce sales in their community and beyond. The goal is to establish a network of local growers in urban areas to provide fresh produce to the community.

There is no requirement to sell produce; users can opt to share produce without ​charge. The message aims to raise awareness of often overlooked small acts ​like gardening. By creating a network of gardeners willing to trade or share ​produce, food can be made accessible to all.

Key moments

The library page strives to serve as an informative guide for individuals interested in cultivating food in limited spaces.

Whether it's a small urban apartment or a small backyard, the library page is there to help make most of space. From container gardening tips to vertical growing techniques, the aim is to provide a wealth of knowledge to help create a little green oasis.

Features

On the library page, there is a list of items currently displayed. The goal is to expand this list as more users engage with the app and enhance their gardening skills. This app aims to inspire users on their gardening journey, helping them not only cultivate their own food but also share valuable insights with their community and local growers. The feature provides guidance on planting and harvest seasons, detailing what can be grown and when. Considering the significant impact of weather, seasons, time, and space, as well as light, air, water, and soil on plant health and growth, the priority is to offer precise and beneficial information to gardeners.

Key moments

The search page gives you a chance to build your community or join an established one. It features a list of plant growers and their locations, allowing you to connect with individuals based on either their location or their plants. Additionally, this page provides information on market venues, seed swap venues and dates, as well as various events organized by the Home Fresh community.

Features

The search bar provides the option to search by name, location, article, plant type, and more. This feature facilitates easy access to the desired information or individual. The main purpose of this page is to foster connections with people and established communities. Additional information, such as articles, can be found on people's profiles or the homepage. Furthermore, the app prompts you to input your location, ensuring that when you navigate to the search page, you will receive suggested individuals in your community and discover local events.

Key moments

The app strives to showcase a modern and trendy aesthetic. This feather symbolizes the freshness and current theme integrated into its functionality as a gardening app. Additional features that improve the shopping experience have been included, along with a cart to seamlessly guide you to your selected items, making shopping easier and helping you track your purchases.

Features

The app will showcase a collection of images to represent the available offerings, primarily for the app's aesthetics and coherence. When users click on the item, they will see a more realistic product image since they will be buying or selling a product. Providing a realistic image helps manage expectations effectively. Additionally, the sidebar features categories based on the available items, allowing users to browse by item or category.

Key moments

The personal profile feature enables users to monitor their gardening progress and development. It includes a collection of articles authored by the user, details of the plants they are cultivating, a community of friends for engagement, and a record of sales and shared produce.

Features

Beside the user, the app tracks the user's progress, enhancing the user's app credentials. By analyzing user engagement and preferred plants, the app can determine if you are an expert, a specialist in a specific plant, or both. This information is showcased on your profile for others to view. In community projects, having leaders is crucial, and the app aims to highlight those who are most active. This approach also facilitates the organization of market trade events where users can purchase produce from each other physically.

User testing

Marketplace Page

User feedback

A user mentioned that while the marketplace page on the app looks visually appealing, it might be deceptive as the displayed images could hide the true representation of the items for sale. The user raised concerns about discrepancies between the appealing images and the actual products. Additionally, the user appreciated the profile page for accurately showcasing the items being grown.

Profile Page

Several concerns have been raised regarding adding location information. While many users are eager to interact with the app, some feel uneasy about disclosing their residential location. This could potentially lead to various safety and security issues.

Response

To address safety concerns, we considered giving the users the choice to identify with a community or remain anonymous without sharing their precise address. Allowing flexibility in location details can enhance user comfort and the app supports this approach.

Another helpful feature is the option to control who can view specific information on your profile, providing a sense of security by choosing your close connections.

Engaging without disclosing your location can be achieved by participating in local market events, keeping interactions within a familiar setting.