Trellis:

In November of 2020, I designed a mobile app for gardening called Trellis. I was interested in tackling a project that could draw upon the convenience and affordability of consumer technology to encourage people to engage in off-screen activities that increase well-being, connectedness, and ecological awareness. I designed Trellis to help simplify gardening for new and experienced gardeners alike.

Through competitor research, I found that users were indeed overwhelmed by all the planning and research it takes to maintain a garden. It seemed they were interested in a product that could plan their garden chores for them based on what plants they were growing and where they were located, but that also allowed them the flexibility to edit their information to truly reflect the variation that occurs in a natural process like gardening.

Expanding upon my research, I began ideating potential users and features. I began conducting informal interviews with members of my local community garden, as well as with professionals in related fields like ecology and farming. I then created a few sample user profiles to collate and personify the interests and needs that had come up through my competitor research and interviews.

With these users in mind, I decided on three main features I wanted to be a part of my design:
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■ A searchable plant database that allows users to find and save information and care recommendations for the plants in their garden
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■ A custom, app-generated list of daily garden chores based on the plants in a user's garden
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■ An easy-to-read calendar that allows users to look over the months ahead and move chores around according to their schedules 

I took an iterative approach to mapping and wireframing Trellis. I started with a sitemap that listed just the content and interactions I envisioned on each screen, then spent a few minutes translating it to a paper prototype, which I quickly flipped through to catch any missing features, impossible interactions, or early pain points. After this I began my wireframing process in Figma, designing on a soft 8pt grid and making frequent trips to my sketchbook to iterate solutions for important screens or tricky interactions.

Using Figma’s prototyping tool, I set up an early stage user test to gather valuable information without having to spend time coding a fully functional prototype. I focused on gathering qualitative data, both to avoid over-determining my results so early in the process, and to leverage my small user sample size (5) into meaningful feedback. As I watched my users complete their testing flows, I asked open-ended questions and then performed a thematic analysis of their feedback and performance. From here I was able to identify the top three pain points in my prototype, and create solutions for them in my next iteration.

With these issues addressed, I began to define a visual direction for Trellis. Inspired by simple 1970s illustrations of vegetables (like those on the cover of Mollie Katzen’s beloved Moosewood Cookbook) and the flat and friendly illustration design of health apps like Headspace, I created a series of custom illustrations to capture some of the nostalgia of gardening while still keeping in step with contemporary digital illustration trends. The end result is an interface that is both grounding and playful, just like the act of gardening itself.