Vegetable Gardening for novice gardeners

Vegetable Gardening for novice gardenersIxD master degree project is looking into the ways to support and motivate amateur gardener and as such to inspire healthier nutritional choices.

Degree work by Maria Zenkevich, interaction design master student

Tutored by Kent Lindberg, designer at Interactive Institute Umeå

e-mail: [email protected] log-book: http://emerald-seed.tumblr.com

Umeå Institute of Design

2013

2 Degree Project by Maria Zenkevich

Contents

Title page & contact info

Contents BriefResearch areaDesign values & Target audienceRelevance rationaleInitial comparative analysisMethods & Project timelineDeliverables

p. 2p. 4p. 6p. 7p. 8

p. 10p. 16p.17

3Vegetable Gardening for novice gardeners


Brief

Gardening is nearly the best thing an individual can do to improve all aspects of personal and social live.1 Yet, at an amateur level today, it is barely supported.As a novice gardener you often feel forced to switch to full-time farming or simply to abandon this complex and time-consuming task.

This degree project aims are:• to make gardening less overwhelming and more

engaging for novice gardeners,• to educate and get novice gardeners familiar with

the new botanical medium and the process,• to make gardening a more present and valuable

everyday activity.


Planting a garden is one of the most powerful things an individual can do to reduce personal carbon footprint...

...and to reduce your sense of self dependence.

1.MICHAEL POLLANArticle Why Bother?The New York TimesApril 20, 2008

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There are a few gardening contexts and knowledge areas I will be investigating in my research.

Research area

gardeners individuals, families and their children, their friends, ex-tended family & neighbors, co-workers, local community, farmers governmentlocal government, food & nutrition authorities

gardening establishmentsagricultural education establishments, farmer’s market, community garden organisers and participants

knowledgegardening processes, steps and procedures, medicinal and nutritional values, gardening rituals & “words of wisdom“, history plants, phytologist, legal & economical perspectives, alternative medicine as a carrier of tradi-tional knowledge etc.

learning techniqueslearning curve, expectation management, etc.


Design values

Target audience

It’s easier to talk about a final design in terms of what it is not going to be. And it is not going to be a smart-pot, as a static alert system. Currently undefined, the final design should respond to the two following values.

1) It should make gardening simpler by providing deep understanding of the underlying processes as well as of their implications, rather then a simple alert. 2) It should be flexible and respect different gardening contexts used today, be it a pot, a greenhouse or an outside community garden.

The target user is an urban citizen who has little or no land as well as little or no experience in gardening. However, the start enthusiasm and interest in planting is required from a target user for the designed experience to be useful and fun.

Not a smart-pot!

Learning curve Time


Relevance rationale

Despite many negative forecasts, we find a lot of enthusiasm around gardening today. There is a huge increase in small farms and organic agriculture.1 Alongside we find many interesting projects and a lot of effort put into finding a successful gardening system, product or service.

The following inspiring examples (Initial comparative analysis - p.10) can shed light on the aspects of gardening that need to be reinforced, redesigned or simply linked to streamline the gardening process.


Just a few years ago, consumers’ fears about pesticides were trivialized and organic agriculture was dismissed as impossible at large scale.

1.AMORY STARRLocal Food: A Social Movement? [p.1]2010 SAGE Publications

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1. Windowfarm

Windowfarms began as an experiment developing environmental solutions through open source collaboration and has evolved into a social enterprise, a successful business that organically fulfills a mission toward healthier people and a healthier planet.

TED talk by Britta Riley A garden in my apartment:

http://www.ted.com/talks/britta_riley_a_garden_in_my_apartment.html

Windowfarm store:

http://www.windowfarms.com

3. Propaganda gardening

A group of activists are invading the city space with vegetable gardens in a little British town Todmorden. The movement starts to grow to other cities where more and more people can find the benefits of a city garden.

Ted talk by Pam WarhurstHow we can eat our landscapes:

http://www.ted.com/talks/pam_warhurst_how_we_can_eat_our_landscapes.html

2. R&D-I-Y

Open source collaboration platform where participants from all over the world share their insights on a hydroponic windowfarm. Project illustrates a great way to develop, test and apply complex and very practical ideas.

Research and develop it yourself project’s website:

http://www.rndiy.org

Initial comparative analysis


Professional

Amateur

Time -consuming

Personal

Other points of comparison:

Low Production

Low Engagement

Informative

Rural

Cheap

etc...

1. Windowfarms

5. Click&Grow

6. Farm Hack

2. R&D-I-Y hydroponic vertical farm

7. Garden Registry

8. Botanicalls

9. MinFarm

3. Propaganda gardening in Todmorden

4. Sky Greens in Singapore

Automated

Communal

High-production

High Engagement

Alerting

Urban

Expensive


4. Sky Greens

Ensuring food supply resilience is important to land-scarce countries like Singapore. Sky Greens has shown that it is possible for high-rise vertical farming in urban cities to achieve significant higher yields per unit area of land.

Sky Greens vertical garden in Singapore website:

http://skygreens.appsfly.com/home

5. Click&Grow

Click&Grow is an easy-to-use electronic smart-pot that grows plants without watering and fertilizing. No knowledge about gardening required. Everything is taken care by the smart technology.

Click&Grow website:

http://www.clickandgrow.com

6. Farm Hack

Farm Hack is a farmer-driven community to develop, document and build tools for resilient agriculture. The process is accelerated by connecting farmers with other farmers, engineers, designers, architects and other allies through in-person events on farms or at institutions, and through an online forum.

Farm Hack online community website:

http://www.youngfarmers.org/practical/farm-hack/



Professional

Amateur

Time -consuming

1. Windowfarms

5. Click&Grow

6. Farm Hack


7. Garden Registry

8. Botanicalls

9. MinFarm



Automated


7. Garden Registry

8. Botanicalls

9. MinFarm

An online map and a networking tool created to connect urban gardeners of San Francisco. The website is used to register the existing and potential food production zones within the city limits of San Francisco.

A cheap assemble-it-yourself equivalent of a plant sensor. In this project plants are given the ability to call and text message people to request assistance. People who are unsure of their ability to effectively care for growing things are given visual and aural clues using common human methods of communication.

MinFarm allows people build a virtual farm online that is grown locally, by farmers. A customer can choose whatever veg, fruit, dairy, herbs and livestock, they like, and watch them grow online.

Garden Registry website:

http://gardenregistry.org

Botanicalls website:

http://www.botanicalls.com

MinFarm:

http://www.minfarm.com



Professional

Amateur

Time -consuming

1. Windowfarms

5. Click&Grow

6. Farm Hack


7. Garden Registry

8. Botanicalls

9. MinFarm



Automated


MethodsI will start my process with market research united with user studies. It will provide rich insight on user needs that are not satisfied by gardening products and services today.

Project timelineFebruary March

At the same time, I will be getting expert opinions on professional gardening, gardening education, food supply united with economical and nutritional values comparison.

28 - 01 04 - 08 11 - 15 18 - 22 25 - 01 04 - 08 11 - 15 18 - 22 25 - 29 01 - 05 08 - 12 15 - 19 22 - 26 29 - 03 06 -10 13 - 17 20 - 24

Traveling

Research Ideation& Synthesis

Research & Synthesis

Tutoring Tutoring

Research presentation Ideation presentation

Design, Testing, & start of Prototyping


28 - 01 04 - 08 11 - 15 18 - 22 25 - 01 04 - 08 11 - 15 18 - 22 25 - 29 01 - 05 08 - 12 15 - 19 22 - 26 29 - 03 06 -10 13 - 17 20 - 24

Deliverables:

April May

written report, exhibition poster, a design presentation and a combination of a short video and/or an experiential prototype walking through the main features of the design proposal.

The final concept will be developed in a set of collaborative workshops and brainstorms. Its features and aspects will be tested both with common users and professionals of the field.

Tutoring TutoringTutoring

Design presentation Final report Final presentation

Design, Testing, & start of Prototyping

Report & Prototyping Storytelling & Prototyping

Podium setup

Documents

Vegetable Gardening for novice gardeners