Flora & Fauna App
A Gardening App
overview
A student project turned passion project, Flora & Fauna helps gardeners plan, track, and share their gardening journey.
Designed for both beginners and experienced gardeners, it combines seasonal guidance with smart planning tools.
PHASE 1
Timeline develop and define:
May 2021- 5 weeks
Team:
4 UX Design students
PHASE 2
Timeline development:
June 2021- 2.5 weeks
Team:
Solo work
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My role:
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UX/UI Designer
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​Workshop Facilitator​
The background
During the COVID-19 pandemic, gardening became a vital source of recovery and relaxation for many Swedes.
However, both beginner and experienced gardeners faced challenges:
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Beginners struggled with the steep learning curve of planning and growing successfully.
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Experienced gardeners found it hard to plan work efficiently and lacked digital tools tailored to their needs.​
the challenge
This was the challenge I set out to explore as part of a four-person student team.
Our mission was to research a specific outdoor hobby in depth and design a solution that addressed real user needs.
We chose allotment and cultivation plot owners, a group whose relationship with nature is both practical and deeply personal.
My role
This project began as a collaborative effort with three classmates, where I was involved in all research and discovery activities.
After the team phase ended, I continued independently, completing the full Double Diamond process, from in-depth research to concept development, prototyping, and usability testing.
digging into the problem
Our research began with an online deep dive into gardening communities on Facebook and association websites. To understand the breadth of needs, we designed and distributed a survey that reached 378 gardeners across Sweden.
The responses revealed a striking divide: beginners wanted clear, accessible guidance, while seasoned gardeners craved efficiency, better planning tools, and ways to record and reflect on their progress.
meeting the target group
Through Touchstone Tours, we spent 1.5 hours each with two gardeners, walking through their plots, hearing their routines, and noting pain points.
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A heuristic evaluation of Gardenice, the most widely used gardening APP among respondents, revealed that it worked well for experts but confused beginners, due to poor onboarding and unclear guidance.
Key insights
In this phase, conducting research and gathering feedback directly from our target group provided us with valuable knowledge.
Key Insights:
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The majority aged 46–65, gardening for relaxation, nature, and self-sufficiency.
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Beginners need clear guidance and learning support.
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Experienced users want efficiency, record-keeping, and planning tools.
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The digital tools used were few and often poorly adapted for novices.
insight into opportunity
(Remote workshops)
From our findings, we framed the challenge:
How might we help allotment owners plan and track their gardening work based on the season, while catering to both beginners and experienced users?
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​Through remote and in-person workshops with gardeners and fellow UX students, one concept emerged: a personalised gardening calendar and community app that grows with the user’s skills.
Continuing Solo
After the team phase ended, I carried the project forward on my own.
I created personas for a beginner and an experienced gardener, then mapped their customer journeys to identify key pain points.
Click to enlarge images
Click to enlarge images
Feature Prioritisation
The workshop gave valuable insight into the users’ preferred features and functions. When I continued the project on my own, I refined the app’s scope using an Impact VS Effort Matrix.
Key features selected were:
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Seasonal reminders based on plant zone
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A garden diary with photo uploads
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Past-year statistics and comparisons​
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​​​Tips tailored to the user’s current plants
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I also created a site map, laying the foundational structure for the APP, and developed a design system
Click to enlarge image
Click to enlarge image
Design system
HEX: #E7ECEA
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These four green shades are the primary colours
Three accent colours
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These six bright colours are used to higlight technical information and are used sparsley
SketchES to Prototype
I started with quick paper sketches to map the app’s main flows, testing them informally with a friend to check navigation.
Once the flow felt solid, I built a mid-fidelity clickable prototype in Figma and tested it with three people, including one gardener, to gather early feedback.
Key findings from Round 1 testing:​
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Several icons had unclear naming.
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The to-do list notification is confusing.
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Notes were better placed within the plant’s information page for easier access.
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The recipe section’s “time” and “skill” fields were unclear and needed separation.
Round 2 usability testing
After refining the design, I conducted Round 2 usability testing with three allotment owners via Google Meet. They were guided through specific tasks while I measured time-to-completion and noted navigation issues in a test protocol.
I finished off the tests with a final SUS Test (System Usability Scale), and the final SUS score was 86, indicating strong usability.
Live- test on my prototyped APP, with a user within our target group
iterations after
usability tests feedback
To-do-list and recipe section
Before- to-do-list
After- to-do-list
Before- recipe section
After- recipe section
Based on the digital workshop with the target group, it was evident that they all wanted a personal app that would fit into their lifestyle and make their gardening work more efficient and easy to track.
Iteration:
The notification information is made clear with a written text instead of only a number.
Another section is added to the to-do-list where the user can add specific assignments other than
to water, fertilize, harvest, and plant.
I thought it would be a fun feature to adjust recipe recommendations by what plants a user has logged.
Iteration:
The information regarding the recipe is simplified. The users were confused with the time indicator and the skill indicator: easy, medium, and hard.
These are now separated.
Search filter
Before- filtered search
After- filtered search
Before- filtered search
After- filtered search
The intention of the app is that it's based on a solid database, containing various plants, flowers, fruits, and berries.
These are all easily searchable by various filters and search functions.
Iteration:
A call to action button is added
to add a plant. Notes and reminders are added to each plants information card.
Iteration:
An extra filter has been added
to inform that a plant is both animal and child friendly.
Plant information
Before- plant info
After- plant info with added notes
After- plant info with added
timeline for plants
Iteration:
The notes section is moved from the profile section to be embedded in each plant profile.
I also changed the name on the above delete-call-to-action button.
Iteration:
The notes are laid out as a timeline, giving the users an easy way of tracking their plants' progress through both notes and photos.
Notifications
Before- notifications/ reminders
After- notifications/ reminders
I started with having the notification and reminders section as an icon in the tab bar. But I decided to move it to the profile section where the users expected it to be placed.
Iteration:
The reminders section has been changed. Instead of the users entering their preferred settings; it is defaulted by the app.
Now the reminders are based on the recommendations made by the app. It tells you when the recommended time is for watering each plant.
The final high-fidelity app
Key Learnings
This project sparked a genuine passion for planning and facilitating workshop sessions.
Engaging directly with end-users gave me a deeper understanding of their needs, while the process reinforced the value of thorough research and truly immersing myself in the target group’s world.
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Insights I carried forward:
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When in doubt, return to the affinity map, let your research guide the way
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Test with your target audience early, iterate often, and embrace quick failures
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Genuine interest in your work is the strongest motivation to keep pushing forward