Sprüt
Ember Johnstone
See it On Campus: Level 2
Visitor Info
Sprüt takes the guesswork out of gardening.
Sprüt is a speculative IOT design concept that combines a smart planter with a companion app so that gardenin can feel like a game. As a fully integrated gardening system, Sprüt makes growing food at home fun and easy.
PRODUCT DEMONSTRATION
Learn more about Sprüt’s integrated gardening system.
Sprüt’s planters in action at The Show demonstrate each phase of the growing cycle from installing the mat, germinating the seeds using the lid, and a successful microgreens harvest.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Sprüt empowers people to fight food insecurity by making vertical indoor farming more accessible to those in urban environments. With the companion app, seedlings can communicate their needs to their caretaker who receives real-time updates from the smart-planter.
KEY COMPONENTS
My Role: UX/UI & Product Design
Project Length: Sept 2022 — May 2023
Tools Used: Figma, Miro, Notion, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, Rhino3D, Tinkerine Cloud, Procreate, Canva
Methods Used: Sketching, mapping, personas, storyboarding, paper prototypes, clickable prototypes, clay and wire prototypes, wizard of oz, user interviews, market research, card sorting, brand identity, rendering, 3D printing, video prototyping, wireframing, information architecture & gardening.
PROBLEM SPACE
At the current rate of global warming, food yields will decline up to 30% by 2050. Growing food at home can reduce dependence on grocery stores, especially during times of shortages, inflation, or disruptions. While the popularity of gardening among young people facing food insecurity has skyrocketed, there are a few barriers in place preventing people from growing their own lunch.
Many people living in urban areas, which are especially at risk of food insecurity, may not have enough space in their homes or yards to garden effectively. What’s more, learning how to properly care for plants requires a massive learning curve. Figuring out when to water the garden, how much sunlight it needs, and how to harvest the plants at the right time can make the idea of starting a garden seem overwhelming.
OPPORTUNITY
Sprüt was designed to empower people living in food deserts in times of increasing food insecurity to grow a sustainable source of fresh microgreens to help supplement their diets. Microgreens are ready to eat as quick as 2 weeks after planting, and contain 40% more nutrients than fully-grown produce. By learning how to properly care for an indoor garden, individuals can gain greater self-sufficiency and supplement their diet with healthy home-grown produce.
What makes Sprüt stand out is that it makes growing a garden feel like caring for a digital pet. Through the app, users can interact with their planter and receive feedback on how their plants are doing at each step of the growing journey, winning accomplishment badges for each crop that makes its way to lunch.
“Growing food is an act of resistance.”
– Karen Washington, food justice activist
DESIGN COMPONENTS
The mobile app pairs with the smart planter to make sure each harvest is supported through their lifecycle from seed to plate.
Design evolution: mobile app
THE COMPANION APP:
- Supports each new gardener through the process of setting up their new microgreens planter, with simple instructions and a clear onboarding process.
- Gives an overview of available microgreen types to grow, along with helpful information to help support their choice of which seed to plant.
- Turns the tedious steps involved with growing microgreens into an easy to follow game.
- Tracks the progress of each harvest cycle, alerting the gardener when their seeds need to be watered, moved into the sun, harvested, or if they need a bit of extra love.
Design evolution: smart planter
THE SMART PLANTER KIT
- Hangs vertically on the wall with zero footprint, supporting the home garden while framing it like a picture to make growing food feasible in small spaces.
- Includes sensors that communicate the plant’s needs to the user via the companion app *
- Includes replaceable and renewable hemp grow mats that are fully compostable.
- Made of recycled PLA, it supports thousands of potential harvests – cutting out the need for plastic containers from the grocery store while also reducing the need for up to 7000 km of food-mile transportation from harvest to destination.
*The planter is still in the prototyping stage. It is designed to work with moisture sensors to update the user on their plants’ watering needs, and light sensors to work with embedded grow lights to make sure the crop gets enough light.
“The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway.”
Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
ROOM TO GROW:
Since this was a project tackled entirely by myself and the skills I have in my toolbelt, in terms of market readiness – Sprüt is still a seedling. Bringing the design from where it is now to a fully integrated working product will take a village.
At this stage, it is a speculative design with prototypes for the visual design, behavioral flows, the industrial design of the planter, and the brand identity. Before it can launch, it will need to be developed in other areas with the help of a team of engineers, horticulture experts, and other professionals.
By sharing my design journey and the experiences uncovered through testing Sprüt’s prototypes, I hope to inspire others to think creatively about how we can create a more sustainable food system.
REFLECTION:
Sprüt was born from the frustration I felt when my summer patio garden shriveled to dust. Despite years of study and a permaculture design certificate under my belt, I do not have a green thumb.
Learning how to expand my practice of empathizing with users to encompass plants was fascinating. Balancing the design process of the companion app, the smart-planter, and the way that the microgreens would thrive between them challenged me to redesign the way I approach prototyping and user testing for digital and physical spaces simultaneously. I have spent most of my career designing products to keep people hooked on their screen, so encouraging gardeners to engage with the natural phenomena outside of their phone was refreshing. As the demand and technology for IOT starts to flood the market, I am grateful for the lessons and challenges Sprüt brought into my design practice and excited for the potential to design more interactions that can deepen our connection with the outside world.
Any questions or ideas to help bring Sprüt to life? Send me an email.
