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Creating a Plant Health App With the Arduino
Mobile Design
Overview:
Plant care can feel confusing and technical, especially for people who don’t know how to interpret environmental data. This project uses Arduino sensors to explore how real sensor data can be translated into simple, intuitive feedback to support everyday plant care.
Role:
UX Designer
Prototyper
Tools Used:
Figma
Problem:
Many plant owners struggle to understand when their plants need attention. Existing tools often rely on raw numbers, charts, or manual tracking, which can be overwhelming and easy to ignore.
Protopie
Arduino
I explored trends in empathetic and sustainable home technology and investigated how emotional cues, playfulness, and simple visuals could improve understanding. Early exploration focused on how users interpret live data and how much information is helpful versus overwhelming.
Research & Exploration:
I created two personas in this style to summarize persona information I gathered from the WGSN website.
I created this user flow to help me visualize how my users would interact with my app and get an idea of how well it flowed.
These are the initial low fidelity wireframes for my plant app.
Interaction & Data Strategy:
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Prioritized visual feedback over numerical data to reduce cognitive load
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Explored emotional indicators (facial expressions) to communicate plant health
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Designed for scalability, supporting multiple plants and deeper health views when needed
I created a bunch of different plant variations in Adobe Illustrator and made different facial expressions for them as well.
I added code to the Arduino software so that when the moisture and sun levels reached a certain point, the facial expressions of the plants would change along with the health bar below them.
I then took the thirst and sun variables from the Arduino code and addressed them in ProtoPie so that my prototype would actually change depending on real data from my Arduino sensors.
Testing & Iteration:
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Tested soil moisture and light sensors in real environments
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Iterated on thresholds, animation timing, and responsiveness to feel natural
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Refined navigation and layouts to support multiple plant profiles without confusion
I tested the functionality of my prototype using the soil moisture sensors and light sensor to ensure everything was working as expected
Final Solution:
A mobile plant care app that connects to real time soil moisture and light sensors and translates that data into intuitive visual feedback. Plant health is communicated through animated bars, expressive plant faces, and an overall wellness indicator allowing users to understand their plant’s needs at a glance while still offering deeper insights when desired.
Outcome & Learnings:
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Demonstrated how physical data can be translated into meaningful UX
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Built a responsive, scalable prototype using real sensor input
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Strengthened skills in interaction design, data visualization, and hardware software integration
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