Project Overview

The product:

This Community Garden Mobile App is a regional community garden locator located in the boroughs of New York City. Garden Hub is designed to provide an easy experience for garden lovers who are interested in visiting a local community garden. Whether they pass one on the street, look up surrounding gardens to visit, or want to pop over to their neighborhood garden, this app provides quick communication and fast access if a garden is closed

Project duration:

July 2023 - August 2023

The problem:

Adults who wish to visit a community garden in New York City but find that the garden they are visiting is closed for access

The goal:

Design a mobile app for New York City community garden users that provides an easy and quick solution to find a garden and quickly communicate with the garden's admin to access it

My role:

UX Designer designing a mobile app for community garden users from conception to delivery

Responsibilities:

Conducting research, competitive audit, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs

Pain points:

1. Access

-Users wants to enjoy a community garden but usually find the garden is closed for access

2. Communication

-Users have a difficult time figuring out who to talk to when they want to request a garden to be opened

SITE MAP:

WIREFRAME SKETCHES:

LOW- FIDELITY PROTOTYPE:

Using the completed set of digital wireframes, I created a low-fidelity prototype. The primary user flow I connected is locating a garden, scanning the QR code to connect to the specific garden information, and requesting for the garden to be opened, so the prototype could be used in a usability study.

Community garden lo-fi prototype

USABILITY STUDY FINDINGS:

ROUND ONE

1. Navigational flow needs to be cleaned up for smoother transitions
2. Provide QR code in hamburger menu
3. Increase size of borough navigation menu

ROUND TWO

1. Include Home icon in main navigation menu
2. Remove "back to top" option on garden and community page

HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE:

The final high-fidelity prototype presented cleaner user flows for locating a community garden and requesting that garden be opened by the garden admin

Community Garden Hi-Fi Prototype

TAKE AWAYS:

The mobile app helps users feel comfortable to know that they can connect with their surrounding community and feel comfortable to know that they can gain access to enjoy their community gardens whenever possible.

While deciding the community garden mobile app, I learned that the user's needs are completely different than my own. Conducting usability studies helped contribute real changes that better suited the user.