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PlantPal
UX Certificate Coursework / 2024
UX Research
Wireframing
Prototyping
UX Foundation Project
Where I learned the language of UX.
The Project
PlantPal is a plant care companion app I designed as part of my UX certification, my first end-to-end UX project after transitioning from architecture. The problem was self-selected: new plant owners often struggle to keep their plants alive, not because they don't care, but because the guidance available online is fragmented, generic, and rarely tied to what they actually have on their windowsill.
I chose to include this project in my portfolio not because it's my strongest work, but because it's the foundation everything else is built on.
PlantPal is where I learned the vocabulary of UX (personas, journey maps, wireframes, usability testing) and where I first practiced translating my architectural instinct for user movement into digital flows.
The Process
I ran the project through a full double-diamond process: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. Along the way, I built two personas grounded in interviews with beginner and experienced plant owners, mapped their journeys to identify where care information broke down, and used How-Might-We statements to focus scope before ideating features. Wireframes progressed from low-fi sketches to mid-fi mockups to high-fidelity screens in Figma, tested with users at each stage.
The most useful thing I learned in this project wasn't a method, it was the discipline of not skipping steps. I came in wanting to jump to high-fi screens immediately. The certification forced me to sit in the research and the wireframing longer than felt comfortable. Every project since has benefited from that patience.
Final Prototype
What This Project Gave Me
A working vocabulary.
Persona, journey map, information architecture, heuristic evaluation, before PlantPal these were words. After PlantPal they were tools I could reach for.
A translation layer.
I already knew how to design for how people move through space. PlantPal was where I learned to design for how people move through a screen. The methods were new; the underlying instinct of designing around user behavior was familiar.
A baseline for everything after.
Every project in this portfolio owes something to PlantPal. LSR's information architecture, Balance's accessibility work, BCC Exhibit's user research, all of them were possible because I ran a full end-to-end UX process here first, when the stakes were low and the learning was the point.
This project isn't in my portfolio to prove I can design a plant care app. It's here because it's the foundation.
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