In The Weeds: An Invasive Plant Tracking App

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In the Weeds: An Invasive Plant Tracking App

This app design involved creating an app that is not only practical and easy to use, but to fill a niche in the market, which is no small feat considering how many apps exist already. After some research and soul-searching, I realized that while there are numerous apps to help manage house plants, gardens, and watering schedules, there are surprisingly few apps to help hikers and naturalists compile data on when and where invasive flora are seen. Feel free to view my research and initial sketches here.

As a passionate environmentalist myself, this is something that I see a real need for. Of course the scope is almost unfathomably broad, so I chose to contain it to just Missouri and Kansas for the time being. There is a search feature so the app user can look up what plant they are seeing, a map icon to drop pins in order to track where the most invasive species are popping up, and informational fly outs to educate users on exactly what type of invasive plant they are seeing, where the plant originated, and what actions (if any) are recommended.

All of this information can feel rather dry and data-driven, so I chose to design whimsical, folksy elements for my app, with soft colors, an outdoorsy theme to the icons, and textures inspired by my linocut prints of local flora.