Cass Harding
Cass Harding

GREENHAUS

— CHANNEL

Native App


— ROLE

UI/UX Designer


— DURATION

3 months


— YEAR

2024


Greenhaus is an AI‑powered mobile application designed to support and guide novice plant enthusiasts. By combining essential care features, tailored tools, and a built‑in community element, Greenhaus delivers an engaging, user‑friendly, and interactive experience from the very first use.


This was a personal passion project.

The Mission

My mission with Greenhaus was to identify the highest‑value features, understand real‑world user scenarios, and create a more holistic, user‑friendly alternative. The goal was to bring all essential tools together in a single experience that feels intuitive, supportive, and genuinely delightful to use.

The User Problem

“I know nothing about plants.”


Many novice plant owners can relate to this sentiment.


A lack of general plant knowledge emerged as the primary user challenge, and it didn’t stop there. This uncertainty created a secondary obstacle: users struggled to decide which plant to purchase in the first place. Without guidance, the experience felt overwhelming from the very start, highlighting the need for clearer information, tailored recommendations, and a more supportive introduction to plant care.

The Solution

The solution was to design a mobile application that is educational, credible, and genuinely useful for beginner plant enthusiasts.


Greenhaus brings together a suite of high‑value tools into one cohesive experience, including digital plant identification, care‑diagnosis assistance, guided shopping support, and easy‑to‑navigate educational resources. A built‑in social community helps users learn from others, share their journey, and feel supported. Together, these features create an all‑in‑one, approachable resource that empowers users with the knowledge and confidence they need to grow thriving plants.

Research & Analysis

User Interviews & Empathy Mapping

To ground the project in real user needs, I began by defining clear interview goals.


My aim was to uncover existing frustrations or pain points they face when caring for their houseplants, and to surface common challenges, needs, or desires that could meaningfully improve their experience.


I analyzed the responses and looked for recurring themes across participants. To consolidate these insights into a single, holistic view, I created an aggregated empathy map.

Personas

Based on insights gathered from the interviews and the aggregated empathy map, I developed two personas to represent key user segments.


Rita:

Represents the introverted, novice user who has little plant knowledge but a strong desire to learn and cultivate her skills. She values simplicity, guidance, and reassurance as she builds confidence on her plant‑care journey.


Brad:

Reflects the extroverted, more experienced user who is curious, engaged, and motivated by credible information. He prefers reliable, evidence‑based insights and enjoys exploring tools that deepen his understanding of the world around him.

Journey Mapping

I mapped out the key experiences each persona would encounter while trying to achieve their plant‑care goals.


This process allowed me to visualize their motivations, actions, emotions, and pain points across the journey.


I identified meaningful opportunities for improvement and began forming a structured checklist to guide ideation and solution development.

Ideation

Competitive Audit

After selecting the top competitors, I evaluated each product across several key dimensions, including:

  • - Product offering
  • - Target audience
  • - User experience (UX)
  • - Visual design
  • - Content approach

  • From these insights, I compiled a list of high‑value features that could strengthen Greenhaus’ value proposition:
  • - Social sharing features
  • - Plant localization tools
  • - Pre‑purchase guidance and journeys
  • - Curated plant collections
  • - Camera‑based capabilities and diagnostic tools

User Flow

I shifted my focus to understanding how users would move through the product. To do this, I first asked myself a few critical questions:

  • - What actions will users need to take?
  • - What decisions will they need to make?
  • - What screens or touchpoints will they encounter along the way?

Answering these questions required establishing a clear user goal for each priority feature. By mapping these goals to high‑level flows, I was able to visualize the end‑to‑end experience and identify opportunities to simplify interactions, reduce friction, and ensure each feature felt intuitive and purposeful.

Information Architecture

This step was essential in ensuring that the system aligned with real‑world expectations and supported users’ natural mental models. By creating a logical, intuitive hierarchy, I aimed to reduce cognitive load, clarify navigation pathways, and make it easier for users to find what they need without friction.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

For every priority feature, I generated three to five variations to explore different layout structures, interaction patterns, and content arrangements. From there, I identified the strongest elements in each variation and combined them to form a refined, unified direction.


This iterative approach helped narrow down the most viable design path before moving into more detailed mid‑ and high‑fidelity explorations.


Design

Medium Fidelity Prototype

The first step in the design phase involved digitizing the low‑fidelity wireframes to create an interactive mid‑fidelity prototype for early testing. This allowed me to validate core flows, interaction patterns, and layout decisions before investing time in high‑fidelity visuals.


In parallel, I began building an asset library that included iconography, text styles, and reusable component states. Establishing this design foundation early ensured consistency across screens and accelerated the transition into high‑fidelity design later in the process.


Usability Testing

The testing surfaced several key pain points:

  • - Some interactive components were not immediately recognized as clickable
  • - Certain elements didn’t align with users’ mental models
  • - Users were unsure where their images would be stored after using the camera feature
  • - Some language and labels needed to be more descriptive
  • - Menu items required reorganization for easier navigation
  • - A few screens lacked navigation bars, causing confusion about how to move back or forward

Below, you can view the before‑and‑after iterations that highlight how the insights from usability testing directly informed the refined design.



Results

Menu

ID

Blog

Disease

Collections Landing

Collection

High Fidelity Prototype

Style Guide

I created a comprehensive style guide to establish the visual foundation of the interface.


This included: defining the color palette, typography system, button styles, and form‑field components.


My goal was to evoke a natural, calming aesthetic while still incorporating bold accents that bring energy and personality to the experience.


To ensure accessibility, I tested all color combinations against WCAG guidelines and confirmed that, at minimum, they met AA compliance. Establishing these standards early helped maintain visual consistency throughout the design and ensured the UI remained inclusive, legible, and usable for all users


Mockups

The high‑fidelity mockups bring the final visual direction to life and illustrate the core flows of the Greenhaus experience.


The mockups highlight the following key journeys:

  • - Onboarding and home screen
  • - Creating and adding plants to collections
  • - Identifying plants and detecting diseases using the camera tools
  • - Joining groups and posting content within the community
  • - Using the shopping assistant to discover suitable plants
  • - Viewing educational blog posts and articles
  • - Switching between light mode and dark mode for accessibility and personal preference


Click here to view the prototype


Onboarding

Sign up

Home

Collections (empty)

Create collection

Selected collection (empty)

Collection (add options)

Results list (search)

Collections (add options)

Capture (camera)

Analyzing (photo)

Results list

Collection options (plants)

Collections (populated)

Identify (empty)

Capture (camera)

Results list

Results (Information)

Add to collection (drawer)

Add to collections (new collection)

Toast notification

Identify (populated)

Capture (camera)

Disease detected

Disease Overview

Disease Rescue

Identify (populated)

Groups (empty)

Groups (search)

Group Overview

Group Feed

Post

Groups (populated)

Menu

Shopping assistant

Start of questionnaire

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Shopping (results)

Result (information)

Result information (scrolled)

Shopping history

Blog

Blog (scrolled)

Category selected

Article

Profile

Profile Dark Mode

Home Dark Mode

Key takeaways

This project was incredibly rewarding, as it allowed me to apply real‑world learnings directly into the designs, flows, and overall experience. My understanding of spacing, sizing, and navigation patterns has strengthened significantly, and I believe these improvements are clearly reflected in the high‑fidelity mockups.


I also refined my research and ideation skills, enabling me to spend more time gathering and analyzing meaningful data rather than debating which methods to use. This shift not only improved the quality of insights but also helped create a more grounded, user‑centered solution.


Overall, this project reinforced the value of a thoughtful, iterative design process and contributed to my growth as a confident and intentional designer.