Problem statement

People are put off gardening if their first try results in a dead plant - they conclude they are 'bad at gardening'. But many are set up to fail because they pick the wrong plant for their space. Budding gardeners lack the knowledge of how to choose a plant that will thrive in the space they have.

Proposed solution

An app that guides users through the design process of choosing the right plants for the space they have.

Competitor analysis

There are endless gardening apps on the market. I looked at three in particular: Smart Plant, RHS Grow Your Own, and Gardenize, as these looked the closest to my concept.

All three apps had value, but none of them met the particular need that I seek to meet: to guide users who don't know what to look for through a comprehensive plant choice process.

Smart Plant suggests plants based on location, but particular growing conditions within those locations aren't considered, like light, or size of space.

Gardenize acts as a gardening journal that users fill in themselves: a nice function when you know your stuff, but less relevant to beginners seeking help.

The RHS Grow Your Own app gives users a set of questions on three criteria - how much space, how often to care, and how much experience they have. Yet like Smart Plant, particular conditions within those criteria aren't considered. Users can later find this information in the plant profiles, but if they don't know to look for it, it is an 'unknown unknown'.

I concluded that the detailed onboarding process of Edible Space set it apart from the other apps. There's space for it in the market. What's new and valuable about Edible Space is the way in which gardening advice is made accessible to people who don't know they should be looking for it.

Refining the concept

I had in mind that this app should be targeted at people in their mid twenties to thirties. In my experience, that's often the first time when people start to get curious about gardening. Many users are likely to be in rented accommodation with little garden space. Plants that can move with them are the best option, and container growing is low cost and accessible. Awareness of sustainability is rising, particularly in that demographic: my interviewees were all interested in growing food. I decided to focus the app on growing edible plants in containers.