Kuun
It is a well-known fact that surrounding yourself with nature improves your health. Especifically, spending time outside can lower blood pressure and reduce stress.
improve cognitive function and mental health, mood, and emotional well-being.
​
This project was requested by a small business-owner in Monterrey, México, who started a business selling plants to help people improve their health and manage their stress.
An AI admirer, she proposed an experiment using AI-generated images and was very pleased with the results.
Role
UX/UI Design, UX Research, Gardener :P
Tools
Figma, Photoshop, Miro
AI experiment request
This was a project created for a small business in Monterrey, México, for a woman in her mid-thirties, who loves technology and is fascinated with AI. She owns a small store that sells succulents and other plants, and accessories related to plants. Her store has acquired a lot of popularity in recent years by word of mouth, and she is now expanding. She requested that we worked together on an experiment and use AI-generated images in the design of her website, and evaluate the results at the end. This was the first AI-assisted project we worked on.
The issue identified
People:
-
Are used to fast, convenient, online transactions, browsing online for products, reading reviews, and choosing products from an online catalog.
-
Don't have time to spend time in nature.
-
Don't have time to go and buy plants.
-
Don't know about plant care.
-
Are getting more and more stressed.
The solution
Create an e-commerce website to advertise and sell the plants and plant-related products in the owner's business, along with explanations to care for the plants, recommendations of where they should be placed, how often they should be watered, etc.
Research
We conducted user research to better understand the needs of the people around Karina's business. We surveyed 87 people, around half that attend the events and festivals where she usually sells her products, and the other half, people from her neighborhood, which are her immediate customers. First, we needed to know if they associated the benefits of being around nature with reducing stress (spoiler: about one third did not). Then, their general buying habits and their thoughts and knowledge on plants. The questions asked were:
​
-
What do you do to reduce stress?
-
Do you keep plants at home?
-
If so, where do you buy them?
-
Where do you usually buy products?
-
Do you know how to look after a plant?
​
We gathered the answers to these and follow-up questions that arose from their responses.
Insights
We found that about one third of the people interviewed did not know the health benefits of having plants at home. Most of them mentioned that they would buy a plant or two in the next few weeks now that they are aware of this.
Of the people we talked to, around half do have at least one plant at home that they look after, or at least water once in a while.
​
Around half mentioned that they did not buy their plants: some were given to them as gifts, and some were bought by other family members.
When asked the people who hadn't bought them, where they thought they could buy plants, the most common answer was Home Depot, followed by viveros (the Spanish word for an outdoor store where plants are kept to be sold), and 2 people mentioned online websites.
​
Most people admitted they don't know how to look after plants too well and would like a type of easily-accessible type of guide when buying one. Some said they don't buy plants because they are afraid of killing them.
​
Oh, and most people ended up admitting they watch TV, play video games, or eat to reduce stress (some mentioned they go out to walk in parks but when asked more about it, they realized they never really do it and changed their answer).
AI-generated sketches
Part of this experiment included understanding the best way to communicate with the AI to transmit our ideas and needs correctly to create the images. We used the AI to create some sketches and obtain ideas for the general layout. It provided some interesting images, and even though Miss Karina enjoyed the outcomes, in the end, we decided to create our own version.
Ideas and sketches
After the AI-generated sketches, we created our own, using the client's ideas and our own, and the general style of her brand.
Users
We asked ourselves, What is the user trying to accomplish here?
The answer: to acquire a plant in the most effortless way, and at the same time receive all necessary information to maintain it.
The client's already existing group of customers and target market was:
-
Health-oriented
-
Tech saavy
-
25-35 years old
-
Spends time outdoors
-
Goes to markets to buy hand-made crafts or healthy food
Generating the images with AI
Even though we did not end up using the layout generated with AI, we did create all the images of the plants and decorations with it. These were some of the ones we used.
Wireframing
We created a layout of the page's interface to place all the elements in their respective positions. This was a fun part because the client wanted to participate, so we decided that for the first iteration we would print and cut out each of the elements, already knowing the general sizes of each based on their weight, and play with the positions physically, until we decided the correct layout. We then created the illustrations.
Style guide
We defined the colors, images, fonts, sizes, and buttons that we would use for the entire project.
The general colors had already been decided when the brand was created, so we established pantones for each.
The original brand used black for certain elements, but we modified it to reduce eye strain from the disparity with the white background with 100% color brightness.
The End Product
Our client requested a website for her products, with the idea of having an app in the future, so for now, we created the website both for desktop and mobile, and these were the final results before the project was paused (mobile shown in prototype above).
Final prototype
This is the final prototype for the idea that was pitched to the client. All of the plants in this design were created using AI-generated images. The design was approved.
Unfortunately, the project was paused by the client indefinitely, so the pages that were completed were the landing page, the plants to select, and the accessories and products page, shown here.