User Research Interaction Design Prototyping
Usability Testing
Caleigh Holmes
Hannah Murphy
Leah Chen
Soheil Abdmosuavi
Washington Native Plant Society
As the lead designer for this project, my responsibilities included working closely with stakeholders to synthesize user requirements, prioritizing tasks, conduct concept and usability testing as well as leading the visual design and prototyping of the experience.
Societal Problem
Native plants provide vital habitat and food for diverse animal species, from pollinators like bees and butterflies to larger creatures like birds and mammals. They create complex ecosystems that support a web of life and are essential for keeping a sustainable local environment.
However, many plant and outdoor enthusiasts, are not aware of their cultural and ecological significance which not only affect climate but also economic productivity too.
ORGANIZATIONAL PROBLEM
Since 1976, the Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) dedicated its efforts to promote the use of native plants, raise awareness about the ecological significance of native flora, and engage in conservation efforts to protect native plant species and their ecosystems.
To achieve its mission, WNPS hosts various monthly and annual events, to attract environment enthusiasts and new volunteers. Native Plant Sales, WNPS’s most successful event, has been a great resource to encourage people to get to know more about native plants and get involved in their community. Despite these efforts, they have not been seeing an increase in engagement, especially, from the younger generation.
Primary research & insights
We utilized various user methods to get a better sense of people’s relationship with native plants and their environments, as well as understand the pain points that they might have encountered in getting involved in their community and local environment restorations.
Through these two methods, we tried to capture a wide range of participants. We conducted interviews with plant enthusiasts and people who were not really into plants. This helped us get a full picture of people’s thoughts and actions with respect to their environment, community engagement, and native plant preservation.
Users had an interest in supporting native plants, but only a few took any action about it. To get involved in plant restoration efforts, they wanted to be "something else in it" for them whether that be forming social bonds or improving their immediate surrounding.
We utilized the Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) and Mountain to Sound Greenway’s websites to focus on what organizations are doing to promote habitat restoration, the types of events they are running, and what information they provide to users.
The current website has no content strategy making it harder for an environment enthusiast to navigate native plant information. This creates a barrier to information that should be accessible and simple to digest.
We attended a WNPS event, to gain an additional understanding of the volunteer experience and to debunk any assumptions made through our research. The attendees ranged from regular volunteers who were extremely knowledgeable about native plant restoration, and recent Seattle transplants.
We observed an interesting behavior where attendees were more interested than expected in the botany and cultural history of native vs invasive plants. In addition to that, we also noticed a decline in engagement after the event ended and saw the potential to create a more continuing experience beyond the in-person events. Designing for a cyclical journey rather than a linear one, would ensure continuous engagement and encourage individuals to stay connected with like-minded people.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
After incorporating insights based on user research, we crafted a set of design goals that guided our design decisions. We wanted our users to be able to:
Mobile forward
The design should be mobile-friendly, and be accessible
Form social bonds
The design should emphasize a social component and provide opportunities to make new contacts
Support local organizations
The design should focus on giving back to small, localized communities and show real, tangible results
Connect with user's immediate surroundings
The design should connect participants with events within a small geographical radius.
We also created 3 user personas, each representing a key stakeholders. However, we decided to target users who are interested in plants and habitat restoration but have not become active participants in local organizations. We believed creating a positive experience for this group would not only extend their love of plants - from house plants to native plants - but also increase participation in the event as they get more engaged.
ideation
After forming a clear understanding of our stakeholder's needs, we began ideating. Our ideation was done through a combination of design sketches and user flows. With each sketch, we intended to create ideas that would help narrow down the concepts we had in mind. We used sketching as a tool for not only communicating our ideas but also creating a culture of openness to change among team members.
In total, we came up with 20 different ideas. After highlighting each sketch’s strengths and weaknesses, we voted on the most feasible and user-centric ideas. To narrow them down even further, we mapped out the series of steps our users would take to achieve specific goals. After multiple rounds of iteration, we finalized 3 core actions that users would take using our product.
MID-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
After finalizing the user flows, I created mid-fidelity prototypes to conduct concept and usability tests with 3 users. We primarily were looking to validate the design idea, flows, and desired features of the application. Below is an image showing the must-fix issues after conducting the studies.
Value proposition
After revising the solution based on user feedback, we settled on the idea of a mobile-first platform that helped users discover more information about their own and other native plants around their neighborhood, connect with others, and earn redeemable points for tagging their plants as well as attending events. Through this, we would be able to provide value for all stakeholders.
measuring success
To better help establish the value of our product and the features, I came up with these measurable metrics:
• Increase in event sign-ups
• More volunteer participation
• More donations
• Increase in the number of tagged plants
• Increase in time-spent on app
• Number of invitations sent
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