Sprout.
Brief
The design brief we were set was to design a service that builds on older people’s knowledge of urban food growing to support anyone aiming to grow food locally. How can we bring the urban growing community together allowing for the potential of new growers to join the experience.
Problem
The Urban Growing community within Newcastle isn’t as popular and much of a community as they would hope to be. Some people just don’t have the time for gardening because of other commitments or don’t know where to start. How can we overcome this and bring the community together while also reaching out to beginners?
Branding & The Deliverables
The name sprout is a strong logo for our experience because its most relevant and works well with the idea of users being able to grow from a beginner to an experienced urban grower. We wanted to make sure we had an icon that works well with the subscription box concept and the app experience. The idea of having a logo that makes the brand stand out was a no brainer for us because it represents what the product is trying to sell.
Customise your box
Having a strong simplistic but modern user interface was important to our users, this is because they wanted to experience an app which was accessible and valuable to the urban growing community. Concentrating on the colour scheme and branding throughout this project has improved the user experience of the app. By sticking to the urban growing theme has allowed all of the key information easy to read. Below are some solutions in the app which we have designed to solve complex problems urban growers are facing in their area.
Users have the option to gift or buy a subscription box tailored to their needs. If they’re wanting to be a beginner then they can select specific seeds and tools to get them started. Experiences users are also able to customise their box to match their skillset and receive boxes easy month when needed. We thought the subscription box would be a flexible and credible way for urban growers to feel comfortable and manage the speed they want to learn gardening.
Trading & Interacting with nearby Urban Growers
Looking through our gathered user research we noticed the urban community have a passion for trading. Which is an effective friendly way of helping out other growers if they don’t have specific tools etc. This feature within the app allows the community to come together and allowing those who wish to grow food locally. Sprout’s goal is to bring growers together where they can share stories and experiences with each other, which is a great positive way to build the community in the area they live.
Solution
We wanted to create an experience that comes away from social media and allows users to have easier access to key information on urban growing. Key features within the app includes a discussion board where users can learn tips and tricks from other growers, customise subscription box so that it’s suited to the users needs being either beginner or experienced, find other growers in the area and interact with each other through trading or even supporting each other. Sprout is a mobile and box experience that works for all urban growers, where that be someone who is wanting to start or an experienced member looking to trade equipment. Please check out the design document below to see the project from research through to the finalised solutions.
Promotional Video
Take a look at our promotional video which presents how the mobile app experience and the subscription box work together to bring beginners and experienced urban growers together to form a more interactive community. This promotional video explains the full process of the user experience.
Future Developments
After having completed this brief we decided to have a look back through our design document and point out any improvements in the future. We noticed that we should’ve focused a lot more on the user testing of the prototype to make sure that the user was happy with the final outcome. Having more user testing we would’ve been able to develop further and include or tweak any key features where necessary.
Next Project.
