The Challenge
Nowadays reconnection with earth is crucial in order to understand natural processes. Considering this aspect is fundamental since the world’s resources are the raw material of our production system. One of the most worrying insight of our research is that many children believe that vegetables and fruits are grown in supermarkets. In this sense, we believe that technology should have a closer encounter with nature so that people who live in urbanised areas and do not have access to nature, can know and understand how our world works. This will also create awareness in the way we consume and how a sustainable living is the future for growing and developing countries.
Understanding agriculture is one of the basic paths that can reconnect us with nature. Therefore, the project Greenery allows users to learn how to make an urban garden through a digital application. It provides a virtual laboratory where making decisions through interactivity helps to understand in a higher degree the process of life in nature.
Hypothesis
Urban agriculture as an option that can help us think differently and make us consider about our resources consumption though reconnecting with natural processes. This practice can help users comprehend that nature has its own time and processes, it can also be an effective way to enhance urban environmental management.
We wanted to create a product that would help users to understand the natural processes and enjoy it while have fun growing their plants and vegetables.
User Research
According to UN investigations, the greatest asset of the city is the city itself. Therefore, as we previously mentioned, planning and infrastructure as well as social awareness helps to reduce the impact on the planet using resources more effectively.
The first questions to be asked were:
· What if technology, instead of taking us away from nature, helps to generate more empathy towards nature and the way we use its resources?
· What if the process of doing (even virtually) helps to understand things in a higher level and makes a better use of the information?
· How can we motivate people to reflect and consider more about how way of consumerism is affecting our planet?
· What tools are out there that helps users already? What functions and what doesn't?
· What do users find difficult to do while growing urban gardens? What's easy?
The group of user personas that we were targeting were: Experts in urban gardening, college students, people that struggle but were interested in the topic and young people that were just starting.
Insights
Goals
· Provide a complete guide to create urban gardens.
· Obtaining and assimilating information easily through interactivity.
· Learning by having fun through a dynamic application.
· Gaining experience by doing, not only by reading.
· Create a real and immersive experience for the user.
· Reduce lack of motivation by allowing the possibility of making mistakes without losing real plants.
Prototypes
The first prototypes were well received by the users but the application was still lacking the virtual experience that the user wanted. They liked that it had more information and a thorough step by step process on how to grow each plant. We also offered help when there was a plant that was dying or had plague, this was well received but it didn't had the wow factor that the users were expecting, but we still received great feedback that helped us create more prototypes until finally we arrived at the final solution.
UX and UI Design and Implementation
The interactive actions in the application were a valuable proposition, they help in the learning process in a more effective way. We made a practical process of learning, this way, the interest of the user increases, resulting in a real immersive learning experience. Users also found it helpful to see a real-time process and how climate changes affect plants, since a lot depends on the care people provide to the plants, but by far, the camera option to see plant with virtual reality was the one the user loved the most.
What's next?
We believe that technology can be a useful tool that in this case can help the users and the environment, it can improve the way we live and reduce the impact we are making on the planet.
We want to promote the practice of urban agriculture with more success and discourage the ideas that people may have about an urban garden being difficult to grow.
