| Timeline: 3 months | My Role: Product Designer | Team: 2 Product Managers |

Research Background

In Seattle, plant nurseries play a vital role in restoring and sustaining native ecosystems that have been altered by urbanization. By cultivating climate-adapted plants, these nurseries improve soil quality, support wildlife habitats, and help combat environmental degradation. Many focus on biodiversity and habitat restoration while promoting drought-tolerant native species to conserve water and advance sustainable landscaping.

Beyond providing sustainably grown plants, education, and ecological restoration initiatives, Seattle’s nurseries actively engage in research and collaboration. Their work contributes directly to water conservation, an increasingly important concern in the region.

At the heart of this network are dedicated managers, researchers, and horticulturists who guide decision-making, plant management, and conservation strategies. Researchers work closely with horticulturists to monitor plant species and conditions, fostering innovation and knowledge sharing. Together, they nurture both ecosystems and ideas.

This research explores the experiences, challenges, and best practices of these professionals in plant management, maintenance, and conservation.

Contextual Inquiry

The most powerful movement identities are participatory by design, with visual elements that supporters can adopt, adapt, and make their own. Think of how the simple elegance of the Apple logo became a badge of creative identity, or how Tesla's clean, futuristic aesthetic became synonymous with sustainable innovation.

These brands understand that movement identity isn't just about consistent application—it's about creating visual languages that supporters want to speak. The identity system becomes a toolkit for expression rather than a rigid set of restrictions, enabling authentic grassroots adoption while maintaining brand coherence.

Research Questions 

1. How can we assist nursery managers in optimizing their operations, inventory management, and resource allocation, particularly in the face of unpredictable people management conditions and limited resources? 

2. In what ways can native plant nurseries in Seattle enhance community engagement and support while maintaining sustainable practices? 

3. How can we create a design intervention that combines automatic plant care, task management, and visitor engagement to help nursery staff efficiently manage operations, maintain plant health, and attract more community interest in native plants and conservation efforts? 

For our contextual inquiries, we met with: the UW Department of Biology’s Greenhouse, the UW Environmental Sciences at the Society for Ecological Restoration at UW (“SER-UW”), the SER-UW Plant Nursery Manager, and the Horticulturist at the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden. 

Interview 1: UW Department of Biology’s Greenhouse 

Interview 2: UW Department of Biology’s Greenhouse 

Interview 3: UW Environmental Sciences | The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER-UW) 

Interview 4: SER-UW Plant Nursery Manager

Interview 5: Msk Rare Plant Nursery

Challenge

When gardeners hold the watering hose, their notebooks can get wet, and handover tasks rely solely on memory and verbal communication.

New Design Questions and Prototype Ideas: 

1. How might we create a task management plant diary platform that integrates with the valve and scale irrigation system? 

2. How might we create a digital platform to better showcase the unique seasonal beauty of the plant nursery and attract more local visitors? 

3. How can we design a plant workflow that lets gardeners record plant health with one hand without worrying about the notebook getting wet? 

Point of Design Intervention: Information System Diagram

From this diagram, our points of intervention focus on the most time-consuming actions performed by full-time managers and workers—tasks that are currently low-effort, low-reward. The actions highlighted in orange mark the areas where we aim to implement our prototypes:

• Automatic valve and scale addition to the existing irrigation system

• Website / App to track plant status and record management data

These interventions will reduce the workload of manual watering and improve record-keeping, addressing current gaps in the system.

Solution: Prototyping and Usability Testing

Develop an easy-to-use, customized record tracking app for plant nurseries to showcase their greenhouse status and provide a platform for task handovers.

This platform will store, track, and share plant care information, making it easier to manage tasks remotely. It centralizes plant data, including water, sunlight, and climate needs, and helps with volunteer training and task coordination. By accessing the platform, staff can save time on in-person communication and better manage plant care. Additionally, if possible, it can integrate with irrigation systems to optimize watering and improve efficiency.