Lif: A Cardboard Prototype
An IoT device that promotes a happy, healthy house plant
Here’s a situation many of us know all too well: you go to the plant store and come home with one, two, or even three new plants. You are ecstatic to have this greenery in your home! A month passes, and all of your plants have wilted and dried up. What happened? If only you knew what went wrong, so you can properly take care of your next plant. Well, look no further because Lif is here to support your green thumb.
Let’s first understand the process of how Lif came to be.
Design of Lif
Tasked with crafting a design that would somehow help plants, I generated many possible designs that could uplift plant health.
These generative sketches facilitated deeper thinking about how plants would interact with technology and how humans would play a role in using the IoT device. Despite having eleven design directions, I eventually narrowed my scope to design six, which would become the foundation for Lif.
This design is a leaf-shaped device with a prong that can be stuck into the soil of any plant. Using an external mobile application, the user may customize the leaf to look like the plant it is connected to. The Lif mobile application will be accessible to all users: receiving and giving haptic, visual, and audio input/output. This allows the device to blend in with the plant and also fits into a human’s schema of plants. This interaction promotes an organic relationship between the plant and human. The IoT leaf alerts the human when the plant needs water, sun, or food. The human may also check the plant’s vitals by pressing on the Lif interface. Lif may also stay in a single plant or be moved between different plants.
I chose to move forward with this particular design because it is desirable and viable for both plants and humans. This design is desired because of its relatively non-invasive way to detect plant health and viable due to its flexibility between plants. However, I am interested to know if this device is feasible for both plant and human users.
What’s in a name?
The name Lif was chosen to sound like “leaf” without actually being a leaf. The spelling variation was chosen due to the device’s purpose of aiding in healthy plant life.
Prototype of Lif
Moving forward with the Lif design, I crafted a prototype of the IoT device using scrap cardboard, a paperclip, and tape. I cut out a piece of cardboard in the shape of a leaf and fastened a paperclip to the leaf's base using tape. The paperclip acts as the prong that gets inserted into the plant’s soil.
These materials together enabled me to test the device on plant and human users. Additionally, I used different color sticky notes to denote Lif’s customization capabilities.
This prototype can be stuck into the plant’s soil and can change post-it colors depending on the plant. Though, this prototype cannot actually detect plant health. Additionally, the alert and customization features must be manipulated by the designer. Despite the prototype’s constraints, the scale and materials aid in further understanding the design's feasibility.
Analysis of Lif Prototype
Though the plants I tested Lif on could not verbally communicate how they feel about the device, I gathered insights about how Lif may contribute or detract from plants’ health. The prototype was successful in being implanted into multiple species of house plants. The paper clip helped achieve this result. However, cardboard might be the wrong material to use in place of the Lif interface. The cardboard was not leaf-like and was much heavier than all of the other leaves on the plant. Long term, this might affect the plant’s health and tug at the roots, thus stopping nutrients from reaching the leaves.
In iterating my prototype, I would like to create a new analog prototype using a different design. There are many ways to monitor plant health, and there may be another better, sleeker design to be ideated. I would continue with generative sketches and then choose another design from that process. Additionally, I would need to learn more botanical specifics of how the device may detect plant health needs.
In summary, both plant and human users confirmed the viability and desirability in the ways I described earlier. I would say that there is moderate feasibility for the Lif design. I believe it would be possible to develop, though I am unsure whether the resources used would overshadow what this plant would ultimately provide for its users. Prototyping Lif facilitated my understanding of UX prototyping techniques while also allowing me to explore a new, fascinating user group!
