Plantastic
Plantastic is a platform for people who like plants but don’t know how to make them thrive. Users can take a Test to find plants that match their lifestyle and get care tips.
This was my final course project for the Microcopy and UX Writing Course.
Service
Content Design
Year
2019
My Role
Plantastic is a personal project we developed from scratch together with Alfonso Mendoza and Patricia Villarino.
I am the Content Designer and this is what I did:
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Conduct all the necessary research
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Design Plantastic’s voice and tone
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Create user journeys
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Build components and features
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Write the copy for the app
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Test and optimize copy
Research & Findings
With the growing demand for indoor plants that have swept through the mainstream in recent years, we believed there was a community of new gardeners we could help. How? Creating a Test to find out which plants match their lifestyle. Because it is as easy as that.
During our research, I focused on detecting users’ pain points, learning tips from the experts, and understanding the plant’s app ecosystem as well as our users.
Competitor Analysis
SWOT Analysis of gardening apps with different features and target audiences concluding that, if we focus on user needs rather than on plants’ features, we have no direct competitor.
Smart Plants, the most interesting one, uses a simple and clear language and has a Care Calendar. One can easily chat with experts and search plants through the home-areas library
Happy Plant makes watering plants fun with great UI/UX. It simply reminds users when it’s time to water and lets them create time-lapse videos. But that’s it, so they’ll have a lot of churns.
Right Plants, Gardenize, and many more apps are full of technical information and difficult to browse. The design is poor and not usable.
Conversation Mining
To learn commonly used words from Reddit groups, articles on “millennials plants hype”, greenfluencers’ blogs, and #Plantstagram hashtag on Instagram.
Survey
We shared a form with our target audience from around the world and got 135 answers that gave us a bigger picture of people’s relationships with plants.
Key findings:
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Our main user is: Female 18 to 45
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People love the decorative function of plants
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52'6% consider they are bad with plants, still almost half of them have lots of plants!
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74% would appreciate getting care help, mainly with watering (76’4%)
Expert interview
I interviewed an agronomist with over 30 years of experience who gave us great hints to create the Test and, best of all, proved our assumption to be true:
“Understanding where the plant will be is crucial: if it goes indoors or outdoors, how much light will it have, if it has room to grow or if it is very hot ... When you find the right plant for that spot, it will grow almost alone."
Personas
With all the gathered information we got a deeper understanding of our users, which helped me build three personas to guide our vision and designs. Let me introduce them to you.
Plantastic’s Personality
Research showed we had to focus on user needs and inspire them (as lifestyle content does) to become both useful and fun. Following these insights, I designed a unique voice and personality for Plantastic.
Be enthusiastic, believe in the joy plants bring to our lives.
DO
Be plainspoken, prioritize, and challenge users.
DO
Be playful and friendly. Celebrate achievements.
DO
DON'T
Sound like a cheerleader or a bunch of hippies.
DON'T
Use jargon or overexplain concepts.
DON'T
Take ourselves too seriously neither sound childish.
My Writing
Onboarding
Scenario
The user downloaded the app and wants to confirm if it’s worth signing up for.
Problem: The user is skeptical about the platform and whether or not it will meet their needs.
User goal: Understand how Plantastic works.
Business goal: Introduce the user to the platform and convince them of its value.
Style notes
Use empowering and clear language.
Result: No plants yet
Result: has plants
Sign up
Scenario
The user took the test and needs to sign up to see the results.
Problem: The user is frustrated because they didn’t expect this wall.
User goal: See the results of the test as quick as possible.
Business goal: Save this user’s profile.
Style notes
Go straight to the point. Make it sound like it’s the last step of the test.
Test Results & Modal Box
Scenario
The user took the test, signed up and is ready to see the results.
Problem: User is eager and we can’t disappoint them.
User goal: See their plant-matches.
Business goal: Convince them to buy.
Style notes
Amaze user and drive action.
Shopping Cart
Scenario
The user likes our suggestions and is ready to buy.
Problem: User must choose size and pot design and price may change.
User goal: Do a fast and secure trade, no surprises.
Business goal: Build trust with the customer.
Style notes
Be clear and confident.
