Helio is a modular garden box system with a sensor that tracks moisture, temperature, light and soil nutrition, synced with a mobile app. Helio is a concept project designed to serve urban dwellers with limited space with the capability of expanding. The system can be set to an automatic or manual mode. It provides users with complete data about their garden as well as learning and sharing abilities through a community platform.

What you’re looking at

UI/Prototype, Branding, Marketing Materials, Landing Page, and Process including Customer Journey Mapping and Paper Prototypes

Collaborators: Melodie Trottier, Angela Ciccu (photography)

Helio was designed to provide users with complete data about their garden as well as learning and sharing abilities through a community platform. Above are screens from the Helio dashboard, nutrient panel, blog, photo panel, and camera.

Take a closer look at one of the taskflows via the Marvel prototyping app:
The following shows a final flow based on contextual analysis of earlier prototypes

Taskflow: First Time Sign In, Basic Settings, Water Garden

This is the garden box prototype. It was designed to be completely modular. It is easy to ship and build. Assembly requires no tools. Additionally, the system can accommodate multiple boxes which can be linked together.

Garden boxes come in different sizes and the user has options for different types of boxes such as a warmer climate box, tomato box etc… The standard box comes with a plastic lining, a heating pad, a spigot and hose,  and the Helio sensor.

PROCESS

User Interviews
The following insights are based on interviews with 3 different users

• Everyone interviewed was interested in having a garden.
• They mostly felt that they did not have room for a garden and if they did only a small garden.
• They felt that they did not have enough time to tend to a garden.
• They felt that properly watering and fertilizing a garden would be difficult to do properly and worried they would not be successful gardeners.
• They worried that they would not be able to get the seedlings to survive.
• Generally interested in growing food, e.g. veggies, berries and herbs
• They all were interested in the capabilities of the sensor and app we are designing
• They all felt that they would trust auto-mode

User Survey
46 respondents (average demographics), Age: primarily 44 and under, Gender: 58% female, 40% male, 2% other, Income: $125,000 and under, 58% do not have a garden and 42% do currently have a garden

• 58% Feel they have space for a garden
  
• 36% Have time to garden
• 81% Interest in sensor for water, nutrients and temp
• 79% Interest in sensor controlled by an app
• 78% Comfort with app auto-control for garden

Customer Journey Exercise and Insights
We determined some key features by mapping out a full customer journey from purchase and set up to app operations

• Many potential frustrating steps with the assembly of the garden kit
• A need for clear instruction and ease of assembly
• Many opportunities to meet customer needs depending on their location and interest in varied plants
• A necessity for many options for box design in order to meet different user wants and needs
• A need for a unique identifier for box and app to sync together
• One time sign in for app
• User choice of auto and manual settings
• Recommendations for users based on location
• Include Gardening Tips

Paper Prototypes
See below the initial sketches for both the app screens and the modular garden box