Research Phase

The Goal-Directed Design process starts in the Research Phase, this is where observation and contextual interviews are used to provide qualitative data about potential users of the product. The main goal of the research phase is to discover usage patterns; this help lay out goals for the outcome of a product. This phase is made up of five sections: Kickoff Meeting, Literature Review, Competitive Audit, Stakeholder Interviews, and User Observations/Interviews.

Through the Kickoff Meeting, stakeholders discuss a new product and its requirements and goals. Since this is a class project, there were no actual stakeholders, instead, we filled out a Kickoff Meeting worksheet provided to us by our professor. We covered important questions such as, “who is the user” and “what features are important”? These will help us discover the app’s demographic and goals to further understand what Watering Day stands for.

In the Literature Review, we gathered documentation to further develop important questions to ask stakeholders. Our team obtained knowledge of the proper care standards for indoor and outdoor plants and applied what we learned to the prototype. We studied the websites of plant owners, understanding their daily practices and finding their strengths and weaknesses, and using that information to better support our user’s needs. We devised twenty questions that covered our plant owners’ current issues with plant care and what they would want through our app. For example, we asked, “when one of your plants dies, what is usually the cause?” and “would you like to connect with other people who grow plants?”

Following that, we had our User Observation/Interviews, which is where we study product-related behaviors in the everyday settings of users, so we could recognize their needs. We summarized each interview and asked about the number of plants they have and what are their current blockades from keeping their plants healthy. The big similarity between them is they did not know the exact cause of death for their plants, whether it had to do with over or under-watering.

Then we finalized by using the data we gained to develop personas, the Modeling Phase will go further into depth of personas.

Research Report

Our team logged all data gathered in the Research Phase into an organized layout. Click the button below to view our Research Phase in greater detail :-)

For our Competitive Audit, we better understand the market of plant apps and if they will satisfy users’ needs. We analyzed current plant apps available on the IOS store so we could recognize the features of the five top admired plants: Vera, Planta, Greg, Blossom, and Nature ID. We found great features within each app, but none of them had a combination of all these features. For instance, one app logged watering schedules, whereas another would specialize in progress photos. We took this data and decided what tools are beneficial and we planned to place the features on Watering Day.

Affinity Mapping

After each interview the team would take bullet points from the notes and place it on a sticky note for our affinity map. We wrote the results from the twenty questions we asked, such as “What skill level do you consider yourself as a plant owner?”. We noticed a pattern in desire of progress photos, helpful mascot Drippy, and personalities for their plants.