The Scotts Miracle-Gro company embarked on a major initiative to develop a water-based plant growing system, Miracle-Gro® Twelve™, which successfully passed the Proof-of Concept phase. The Scotts Miracle-Gro team had a fully-tested product and wanted to release it to mass production.
Scotts Miracle-Gro needed to ensemble a team that could support their ambitions of scaling the product in the limited time frame.
The Team needed to create new features and stabilize the firmware before the devices went on sale. Moreover, the client needed to further develop a mobile iOS and Android apps. In terms of UX/UI, Scotts Miracle-Gro turned to Ciklum product design services to assist the user experience wireframes and team to finalize a fantastic user experience.
The team developed enhanced the mobile application with partially reused code from another Scotts Miracle-Gro product.
On the firmware side, the team added several features:
In addition, some key parts of the firmware were modified to improve reliability and prepare the Miracle-Gro ® Twelve ™ for mass production
The Team moved several Database solutions to AWS native PaaS solutions, and applications were redeployed as scalable and fault-tolerant solutions. AWS Cloud became more robust and ready to handle more capacity when demand goes up.
Software testing was executed covering four areas:
The team delivered a fully fledged IoT solution including the device firmware, mass-production support, mobile app development, cloud and infrastructure. The Miracle-Gro Twelve Growing System device currently has very favorable ratings on the respective App Stores.
The partnership enabled the following:
The following key insights about users drove design solutions:
Based on the insights collected, the Team mapped the ideal customer journey, that should include the following:
The setup process included 15 steps. The goal was for users to get clear instructions and not feel overwhelmed.
Hallway testing with peers were conducted to receive feedback on various parts of this flow. The Team had to redesign the flow until it reached a spot where the content and order worked best for users.
One of the key features of the app is the ability to adjust the light mode remotely. In the designs the team received from previous iterations the status of the light mode wasn’t completely evident so a redesign was required to clearly show the current lighting mode and the possible options to choose from. Switching modes is initiated in 1 tap. Changes were made in the order of the content and functions according to the frequency of use.
The visual approach was based on the Scotts Miracle-Gro brandbook. There was no chance to modify the bold yellow, so it was accompanied with a bold black font.
While defining the visuals of the app there was close collaboration with the marketing executive / Product owner to ensure that it reflected the brand’s identity established on the market.
The design was kept flat with the usual visual patterns that mobile users are accustomed to with the exception of some custom touches. Noise was also kept down throughout the app, using muted background colors but adding bright accents on some controls to maintain the upbeat feeling and keep users intrigued and engaged. Several new icons aligned with the brandbook style icons.
The setup process required clear visual instructions. Referencing the original schemes of the devices created clean illustrations to demonstrate each step of the assembly. Life-like illustrations were created in parallel perspective so the device looks the same from different angles and when zoomed in.
To make the assembly process even easier for users instructions were displayed through animations. The challenge was to create short yet informative animations which would be clear for users, so colored pointers were added to focus attention on important details. This combination of illustrated and animated instructions supports a fun and engaging concept for the setup process.
The Scotts Miracle-Gro / Ciklum team developed an app with a smooth, fluid interface and robust functionality