Their plants were fine. It was the apps they gave up on.
The people I spoke to loved their plants. What they didn't love was an app that only ever nagged, never said how much water to give, and turned one missed day into a red “overdue”. It gave them nothing to come back for, so they stopped opening it. I wanted it to feel more like a friend who knows plants: someone who tells you what to do today, and is happy to see you when you come back.
Reminders weren’t the real issue. People wanted to know how much water to give, and they didn’t want to feel like they’d failed after one missed day.
I worked on this alone for 4 months in 2026, from the first interview to testing the prototype.
I spent time in four plant communities on Facebook and Reddit, read over 200 bad app reviews and talked to 10 plant owners. It all pointed to one screen: the daily task card. I tried 7 versions of it to find one that says how much to water and stays kind when you miss a day. Then I built a prototype and tested it with the same people.
With the new card, all 10 people knew what to do without any help. Only 3 managed that with the old one. They also worked it out twice as fast: about 3 seconds instead of 6. It’s still a concept and hasn’t shipped.
Plant apps left people unsure, and one missed day made them quit
I honestly don't know how often I should water my plants. Sometimes I forget, and other times I worry I'm doing too much. I just want something simple that tells me what to do.
Beginner plant owner, interview · Facebook plant group
Go wide, narrow down, then do it again
I followed the Double Diamond. The first diamond was about finding the right problem. The second was about finding the right fix. I talked to people in both.
I read plant groups, app reviews and posts, then talked to ten plant owners about why they gave up on their apps.
Research round 1“Remind people” became “tell them how much, and make sure a missed day never feels like failing.”
Seven task cards, four ideas for fixing the shared goal, and a Home screen without the stories row.
Both cards tested with the same ten people, then the prototype. Every fix went back in front of someone.
Research round 2Before each round, I wrote down what I wanted to find out. First: why do people quit plant apps? Later: can people find answers from each page?
I’m not on Facebook much, but I knew plant groups there were busy. They were a goldmine: people asking for help, sharing wins, and admitting what they’d stopped doing.
The Double Diamond above. It kept me from jumping to screens before I knew what the problem really was.
3 Facebook groups and r/plantcare. 10 interviews, ages 26 to 56, beginners to experts. 200+ one- and two-star app reviews, each sorted by complaint. 60–80 posts about overall struggles.
I held every finding up against the questions from step 1. That’s how the brief changed from reminders to amounts, and to going easy on missed days.
I spread the ten interviews out instead of doing them back to back, so the first few chats didn’t colour how I heard the rest. In the card test, half the people saw A first and half saw B first.
Everyone finished all three task cards, not just one. I wanted it to be consistent. One lucky tap shouldn’t decide a design or become a data
What people told me and what they actually did went into separate notes. Both matter, but they aren’t the same thing.
I did research twice: at the start, and again while testing. There’s nothing from after launch, because the app hasn’t launched.
The brief changed from “remind people to water” to three goals, one for each step in the chain above.
People weren’t sure if they were doing it right.
Two weeks of logging gave them nothing back.
One missed day was enough to make them quit.
Four screens, and the question each one answers
None of these started as a feature idea. If a screen couldn't name the question it answered, it didn't make it in.
Four screens cover all four gaps, and each one traces back to a sentence somebody said. Four screens I had already finished aren't here. A row of friends' story bubbles across the top of home, like Instagram, an account request before you could use anything, a standalone badges page and a weekly featured-plant feed all went, because none of them could name their question.
Three task cards became one that says how much to water
Home, Track and Collection each had their own task card. Side by side they felt like three apps, and none said how much water to give. Seven designs later, one card runs everywhere.
The same ten people I'd interviewed, so they already knew the problem. It tells me A is clearer than B, not that it works for everyone. The 3 of 10 who still mixed up skip and delay sent me to the wording, below.
How the app knows it's ¼ cup
Experts say about ¼ of the pot's volume. The app does the maths. A starting point, not a lab reading, but better than “water well”.
"Delay" keeps the task owed. "Skip" cancels it once.
I kept both names and added one line under “Skip just this time”: “Keep the schedule. Next watering 5 Aug.” Now you can see the difference before you tap. Delay moves the task, skip keeps your usual day.
Version A went into all three surfaces. It carries an amount, so nothing in the app says “water well” again, and that change lives in the component, not in a new feature.
A tester broke my goal system without trying to
In a shared goal, a community plants toward one number. During a usability test, a tester typed 400 into a 500-tree goal and nothing stopped her. I only found it by watching someone else.
Anyone could type any number
I assumed a few bad numbers would get lost among hundreds of honest ones. One phone at home can finish or wreck the goal for everyone on it.
Count the saplings, not the claims
A phone can’t prove a tree went in the ground, but saplings arrive in a crate with a delivery slip. Your count comes from the lead’s tally, so 400 isn’t a number the screen accepts.
Four ideas I brainstormed, and why none made it to a screen
Each one had the same flaw: strangers doing unpaid checking while an honest person waited.
Then the fix buried newcomers in numbers
All that accounting landed on the goal page, so a first-timer met an audit before a Join button. I split the page by what the person is doing and moved the ledger to its own page, How the count works.
A static screen can't be abused, so this only surfaced because someone used the prototype. Each fix went back into testing for the next person to try to break.
Still open: everything now rests on the session lead's screen: handing saplings out, taking them back, closing the count. That's what I'd build next and test with real leads.
A missed day costs nothing, and the record only goes up
People asked for “motivation” but couldn't say what would motivate them, so I went to the research. One rule came out of it.
If a reward can be taken away, it works as a punishment too.
Streaks pause, never reset
The count waits for you.
The card says what today adds
“Today makes 6” sits above the task.
No ranking against strangers
Only inside a shared goal, off by default.
No surprise rewards
A surprise has to sometimes not pay out, so it punishes too.
The same card on track, paused, and brand new
It shows all three states, then runs mark done, delay and remove. Each one confirms in words what changed.
Show what the user did, not what the app guesses
- 1Score out, counts in. “47 waterings, last 8 days ago” is a fact you can check.
- 2A weekly water chart. A gap is named in plain words, never graded.
- 3Tabs gone. One page to scroll, so nothing hides behind a tap.
It falls when you prune, it's a guess on a page of facts, and checking it means measuring the plant anyway. The photo journal took its place.
If I can't answer “how do you know that”, it doesn't go on the screen.
Nothing can be taken off you. Missing a day costs nothing, and every number on the plant page is something you logged yourself.
I cut two things that were not useful
A stories row and a sign-up flow. Both were finished, both looked good, both answered the wrong question first.
Home gave its best strip to other people
When you open the app, you really want to know one thing: what does my plant need today? My first Home screen made friends’ stories the first thing you saw, which distracted from the real action and the reason for the page.
Stories were fun, but they pulled your eyes away from your own plants. They’re also hard to keep kind and easy to misuse, so they didn’t really belong here. The social side didn’t disappear, though. It moved into small moments around the app, like asking a friend who grows the same plant.
Recommendations are just more stuff to scroll through, and nobody opens Home hoping for more stuff. The toolkit puts the things you actually reach for right there instead.
The account ask comes last, after the app has been useful
People open a plant app when something has already gone wrong, which is a bad moment to ask for an email. A guest now gets a care plan in two taps first.
The business needs accounts. The user needs help first.
So the app helps you first and only asks for an account once you want to stay.
Everything I promised is free. You only pay once your collection grows.
The upgrade prompt only appears when you add a 6th plant.
What social looks like once it stops being a feed
Social came back around the plants themselves. From any plant page you see which friends grow the same species, and the photo and species travel with the message, so the chat already has a subject.
Home answers “what does my plant need?” before “what are my friends doing?”, and the app proves it's useful before it asks for anything back.
Four small calls that keep the app clear and honest
One green was doing four jobs
“Add fertiliser” sat next to “toxic to your cat”. Now a safety warning can never look like a care tip, which is why late is written in words and feeding is brown.
Options open in a sheet, not a menu
It lands in the same place every time and has room for a second line, so each option says what it will do before you pick it.
Set up in the first minute
Every answer changes how the app behaves, and each one can be tried before it is accepted.
Six sizes, four steps, one typeface
Where it leaks: screens drawn before the library still carry off-scale values. Auditing them back is on the list.
I drew the mascot myself, by hand, in Illustrator
The rabbit hugging a sprout is the app’s logo. No template, no stock art and no AI. I built it shape by shape with the pen tool. It’s meant to feel like the rest of the app: a friend who’s happy to see you, not a reminder that tells you off.
#343A2E#FCE9E1#E49A98#6AA338#A27548#FCCB5E- One outline for everything. Every shape shares the same dark stroke with round ends, so nothing looks sharp.
- Flat shading, no gradients. It stays clear when it shrinks down to an app icon.
From Figma to code, without a redline
Developers don’t need hand-typed sizes anymore. The files carry those. What they need is the behaviour.
Screens, components and colour tokens. This is the source file.
I imported the Figma file and rebuilt the screens as working prototypes. These are what people tested.
Claude Design exports a handoff bundle: components, tokens, layout and assets. A developer reviews the code it writes.
The app hasn’t shipped, so step 03 hasn’t run on a real codebase yet.
WaterSnake plant
¼ cup≈ 50 ml
1h 30mleft
| State | Line colour | Line above the task | Button |
|---|---|---|---|
| On track | #3E8030 | “You’ve watered this plant for 5 weeks. Today makes 6.” | Mark done |
| Paused | #545451 | “Paused at 5 weeks. Water today to carry on from 6.” | Mark done |
| New | #3E8030 | “First watering for this plant. Today makes 1.” | Mark done |
| Done | #265C22 | “Six weeks in a row. Today counted.” | Done |
State is never shown by colour alone. Every state has its own words, and paused has its own icon.
One two-week test would tell me if this works
Nothing here has shipped, so there's no real usage data yet. This is the first study I'd run: the same people use the app for two weeks and skip one day on purpose.
Every other screen, and the question it answers
What this project taught me
I didn’t expect YourNature to be this hard, or to take this much of my time. Career coaches say to pick a project that stretches you but stays within your level. At the start, this one was beyond mine.
Only after finishing the designs did I see how much it had taught me. It took far more hours than I planned, and I enjoyed them anyway.
Let’s work together
I’m looking for a product design role where I can do both the research and the craft. If that sounds like your team, I’d love to talk.
