Wonderful Weeds is a prototype iPhone application by Felicity Meade. Visual Communication Design honours major project.

 

 

 

Wonderful Weeds was a Visual Communication Design Honours major project which initially underwent extensive topical research and the analysis of precedent examples on edible weeds. The research found weeds to be a nutritious, free, sustainable food source, and appeared to be part of an existing foraging trend. Yet while there was plenty of information available on this topic, the precedents lacked portability, easy navigation of information, and/or essential credible plant identification. The project endeavoured to optimize the positive aspects of these precedents and solve their underlying issues.

 

This research and analysis lead to the following central proposition:

 

 Design can effectively be used to inform and educate New Zealanders on the environmentally and financially sustainable practice of finding, identifying and using edible weeds.

 

 

 

An iPhone app was the perfect solution for carrying information around easily while foraging. It also allowed for the chunking of information using icons and drop down information. This system ensured all necessary information was included and easy to navigate.

 

To solve the issue of helping users confidently identify each weed, botanical illustration techniques were adopted to accompany written descriptions. This was an ideal form of illustration for the app, involving detailed, literal, to-scale depictions, and several developmental stages, including budding, flowering and seed dispersal. The app’s botanical illustrations were developed using drypoint printmaking and watercolour. This technique required high levels of time and craft, and the use of brown ink created an old timely quality like that found in early botanical illustrations and books. To develop this style further, large capital letters were intertwined within each weed illustration, providing a modern approach on the initials found in early books. Such an aesthetic is appreciated, sought after and admired in today’s fast paced, mass produced society. It also gives the app a point of difference, and juxtaposes nicely with the digital interface.

 

The app’s recipes section needed to not only provide users with easy recipes but to also encourage creative recipe generation and sharing. This would help users to feel more involved and like they were contributing to the Wonderful Weeds community. An ‘add a recipe’ section was developed, where users could add everything from the recipe name to photographs of their creations. This crowd-sourced material could be rated by a starring system, so that other users could gauge the recipe quality.

 

The food map also gathered crowd-sourced content by allowing users to add locations that could then be rated by others. This starring system was important, as a location with a consistent one or two star rating could then be removed from the map altogether, maintaining its trustworthy nature.

 

Facebook and Twitter pages were created to accompany the app. Here users could ask questions, get support, and post information such as foraging/cooking groups and events. These pages would help to encourage a community spirit and provide any additional support.

 

 

 

The project is presented in the form an interactive PDF, using buttons and text anchors in Adobe InDesign. It successfully mimics how the app would look and function if it were to be developed. The resulting prototype provides all the information an individual needs to find, identify and use edible weeds. User testing on friends and flatmates has proved that the app is simple to navigate and understand. It is perfect to carry around while foraging, trustworthy, and any further user support is provided through social media pages.