Introduction

Based on our research and brainstorming processes, we finalized the project choice as the virtual smart garden, focusing on plant lovers as the audience and gardens as the environment.

Chosen Idea - Virtual Smart Garden

• Audience

  Plant lovers

• Context

  • Bring users the joy of collecting plants
  • Allow users to learn biology and knowledge of plants in a fun way

• Concept

  • Scan plants in the real world, then identify this plant
  • Add plants to the virtual garden that simulates the real environment and tend to it daily
  • Learn plant biology knowledge along the way

Things in the Air

1. Who is our target user? e.g. people who own plants, people who don’t own plants, people who have outdoor gardens, people who only own indoor plants.
2. What are their needs and joy?
3. How do they usually interact with plants?

Research Objectives & Methodology

Methodology 1: Survey

Methodology Overview

1. We first sent out surveys to plant lovers to have a general overview of our target user personas and their willingness of tending virtual gardens.
2. We first set up a survey question protocol and used Qualtrics to send out surveys. After that, we used an affinity map to analyze our survey data.

Research Strategy

1. Surveys can get many quantitative data in a short time because we can reach out to as many users as possible through surveys.
2. We want to know what our target users are and people’s willingness of tending virtual gardens

Research Protocol

1. This is quantitative research.
2. We started by writing the survey questions in the Google Doc. Then we set up the survey in the Qualtrics and sent out surveys through emails and social media. Finally, we used Miro board to build affinity map and analyze data.
3. Each participant only needs 7 minutes to finish the survey.
4. We didn’t require specific role for this research method. All of us wrote the survey questions and analyzed data in Miro board.

Logistics

1. This research is conducted totally online.

2. We used Qualtrics to make the survey. We set out surveys through Google Email and Slack.

3. Emails and Qualtrics

   

1. We finally received 80 participants’ data.
2. The data will be collected by Qualtrics. All of our team members can access to this data and together analyze them.