Budly
A social app designed to connect houseplant enthusiasts.
For this assessment, I designed an app around my passion for houseplants. The platform includes a feed, explore page, user profiles, photo sharing, and messaging — creating a space where both beginners and experienced plant lovers can grow their hobby, connect with like-minded people, and exchange tips.
Duration: 12 Weeks
Type: University Assignment
Scope: Research, ideation, user testing, and prototyping in Figma.
Phase 1 – Research: Understanding User Needs in Plant Shopping
General statement used as foundation for research
Root cause analysis to identify the underlying user problem.
Problem statement derived from root cause analysis.
Solution: A social media app designed to connect users through their shared passion for houseplants.
A small target group survey conducted to uncover user needs and pain points in plant shopping and care.
One pain point identified in the survey was the high cost of houseplants. Providing plant care advice could help users maximise the value of their purchases.
Key user needs identified through the survey.
Persona: Liv is a beginner plant enthusiast looking for a relaxing hobby and the confidence that comes from successfully caring for her plants.
Journey map of the persona’s plant experience before the app solution. Liv is unsure what plant she has, finds online information scattered and conflicting, and ultimately her plant dies — leaving her dissatisfied with the purchase.
Conclusion of user research.
Phase 2 – Ideation: Designing the Plant App Experience
Crazy 8’s exercise to brainstorm app ideas.
After brainstorming, I used affinity mapping to group ideas and refine the most promising ones.
I evaluated the ideas using an impact–effort matrix.
Excerpt from a Six Thinking Hats exercise
The three final concepts for the app.
Further evaluating the ideas.
I demonstrated the ideas through a user flow, where the user posts a photo of their plant and later returns to see if others have engaged. This flowchart visualises that journey.
I then created a mid-fidelity prototype of the app. These frames illustrate the same user flow.
Phase 3 – Prototype & User Test
Mid-fidelity: Feed, profile and notifications.
Mid-fidelity: Search, explore and chat.
Mid-fidelity: Create post.
User testing: Overview of the test i conducted.
User Testing: Excerpt from the testing script showing the user tasks. Two main tasks were divided into smaller steps to guide participants and prevent them from feeling overwhelmed.
User Testing: Results from Task One – posting a photo – across all participants.
User Testing: I updated the design to high-fidelity based on feedback. This version simplifies adding a caption to a post and represents one of the updates implemented.
High-fidelity: Feed, profile and notifications.
High-fidelity: Search, explore and chat.
High-fidelity: Create post.
Logo created in Canva.