Plant Growing Kit

How might we create affection for plants during childhood with a plant growing kit to develop environmental consciousness?

project description

This Project was developed as a Design Bachelor thesis.
Many people who grew up in a dense urban environment such as Sao Paulo city in Brazil did not have the opportunity to form a connection with nature, which leads to a higher environmental consciousness.

By focusing on creating this nostalgic connection during childhood in the shape of a toy, this plant growing kit was developed to be fun, easy to grow plants (no frustration) and versatile to fit urban apartments.

*Finalist in the category Design of Social Impact - professional - of the 4th Prêmio Sebrae Minas Design, a national design contest in Brazil.

*Participated of the FAU Forma: designers 2015 exhibition.

*Participated of the FAU FOrma: designers 10 years exhibition.

My role

User Research
User Experience
Product Design
3D Modelling
Prototyping

Tools

Cinema 4D
AutoCAD
Adobe Creative Cloud
Mural.ly

Timeframe

2011- 2014

process

As a first step, this project demanded an extensive research on similar products, urban plant growing techniques, plants species, pedagogy and materials, apart from self experimentation on plant growing. I also performed an in-depth user research, by interviewing children about their connection and preferences related to growing plants at home and parents about their toys preferences and available space at home.

Sustainable design was also part of the research, making sure the project adopts the circular economy in the choice of material and product life cycle design. By analysing the data collected in the research phase I made a detailed project requirements list, classifying them in essential, desirable and nice-to-have.

The following phase was the brainstorming, in which I applied different creativity techniques to create as many ideas as possible, adding up to 119 ideas. The most promising ideas were the refined and/or combined in two more creative iterations. When the basic idea was defined, I proceeded to develop physical models with cardboard and wood to test the volume and usability. The working position was also better developed and defined in this phase.

With the general shape defined, I continued to work on the product in the 3D software to work on the details and try different materials. In addition, to guarantee the best height for the target age group (children from 8 to 12 years old) it was made a volumetric paper model and tested with 14 children of this range.

results

Its primer form as a suitcase holds all the structure and items inside it. The upper support and the legs are stored in a back compartment of the
suitcase and can be easily assembled.
The upper support holds 5 pots with water reservoir and a bird with 3 functions: water can, sprinkler and magnifying glass.
In order to adapt itself to different families and spaces, It can be also used on top of a furniture or fixed on the wall, while the suitcase can be stored in another place as a cabinet.

Below, a lateral view as an "X-ray vision" showing the fitting of the upper support parts inside the back compartment of the suitcase and the upper support parts assembled and fixed with screws.

The kit includes:
5 compact dirt discs,
seeds of 5 different species,
fertilizer,
a scoop,
a report notebook,
a refrigerator magnet for remembering to water,
a watering can (bird's beak),
a sprinkler (bird's hat),
a magnifying glass (bird's tail),
a soil container,
a working area as a removable tray to avoid dirting the house,
a three-parted binder with eight seed containers attached to collect different species seeds and cards showing instructions and curiosities,
5 pots with water reservoir
and 5 seedbed with greenhouse.