Shake My Leaves: Interactive Plant Pot

Group project

My role: I participated in the whole design process, but the tasks I performed on my own were: creating the digital prototype using Java Script, Handtrack.js API, HTML and CSS; 3D modelling, 3D printing and assembling the physical prototype; directing, recording and editing video prototypes.

Tools: Miro, Visual Studio Code, GitHub, Solidworks 3D CAD, Prusa Slicer, Prusa i3 3D-printer, Arduino, Arduino IDE, Johnny-Five, Canva, InShot

This is a group work within Interaction Design program at Malmö University. We were aiming to follow a whole design process, starting from research, defining problems and design opportunities, through ideation, iterations and development. We ended up with a physical prototype of a product, which aims to enable communication between plants and their owners.

Challenge

Problems people have regarding their home plants:

Forgetting to water and failing to water to the right level
Feeling bad about not being able to care for their plants in a good way
Plants are passive and can therefore be neglected
People use plants for decoration and to give their home a warmer feeling. It is therefore important that visual aspect is respected

Design idea

Give a plant a tangible way of communicating its needs, so it will strengthen the connection between a plant and a person.

Ideas for communication:

Referring to senses - light, motion, sound, scent
Avoiding alarming, irritating and unnatural communication and solutions you can already find on the market
Respecting home environment

"Shake my leaves"

An inner pot that will make it possible for a plant to communicate the soil moisture level by movement. The communication can be started by a person or by a plant. When a plant is being watered and the soil reaches the right soil moisture, it will give feedback.

By strengthening the communication, an owner might feel more connected to their plants and provide better care for them. Due to that, users are meant to feel better about themselves as plant owners.

Person starting an interaction

To check on how the plant is doing, the person starts the interaction by waving their hand.

Plant replying

As a feedback, a plant shows its state regarding its water needs, using two different optional movements.

Feedback when watering

While a user is watering a plant, it will make a short shaking motion to show that it has gotten enough water.

Plant starting an interaction

The plant starts an interaction by moving itself to alert a user that it urgently needs water.

Conclusions

Strengths:

An alternative solution to the problem, which most of plant owners face: forgetting to water their plants
Using movement is a subtle way to communicate and it works for communication
Since it is an inner pot, the outer pot may be of user's choice so its look does not compete with style of an interior
Unless in critical state, a plant will only call for attention when someone is close by, which makes it more playful and interesting to check on one's plants and at the same time, less overwhelming for a user

What we need to know more about:

Overall design of the inner pot
Sensors’ placement and settings
Will it succeed to strengthen the communication?
How is it to live with it?
How does the learning curve proceed?
Will it make people feel better about themselves as plant owners?

Authors:

Anna Korczak

Carlo Sicanica

Patrycja Stepien

Sanna Lindholm