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Developing a product visualizing a plant's need for watering

Bratt, Tor LU (2019) MMKM10 20182
Innovation
Abstract
Urbanization in the world has during the past 60 years accelerated, resulting in
people living in more densely populated areas and spending a majority of their lives indoors. Another ongoing trend in many countries is an increase in mental health issues, where urbanization could be a contributing factor. Studies have shown that closeness to nature increases our well-being. One way to achieve this indoors is by having indoor plants, or houseplants. However, a common issue with having houseplants in your home is that most of them need to be watered regularly to thrive. Living a stressful life, having no interest or lacking knowledge about houseplants easily makes you forget to water them, causing them to wilt or keeping you from having them... (More)
Urbanization in the world has during the past 60 years accelerated, resulting in
people living in more densely populated areas and spending a majority of their lives indoors. Another ongoing trend in many countries is an increase in mental health issues, where urbanization could be a contributing factor. Studies have shown that closeness to nature increases our well-being. One way to achieve this indoors is by having indoor plants, or houseplants. However, a common issue with having houseplants in your home is that most of them need to be watered regularly to thrive. Living a stressful life, having no interest or lacking knowledge about houseplants easily makes you forget to water them, causing them to wilt or keeping you from having them in the first place. This master thesis has the purpose of developing a product that that eases the nursing of houseplants, to encourage people to have more plants in their homes. The design process started off by researching the cause of the problem, what solutions and aids that are available today and what target group that is in most need of the product. Based on this, the kind of solution that the thesis would focus on could be decided - Using light to increase the feedback received from a plant of its need for watering. Through the use of a persona and a design brief, a clear description of the task was then formed. The development process started off by testing and evaluating the technical components needed for the solution. By making simple prototypes, user studies could be made to gain insights on how the feedback could be communicated in the best way. This eventually resulted in a concept for a product that was made into a final, functioning prototype. The final concept is a type of lamp that through a moisture sensor visualizes a plant’s need for watering. By placing the sensor into the soil of a plant pot, the lamp uses a red and green color scale to communicate the plant’s access to water. The lamp is also programmed to turn on automatically when the soil becomes too dry, notifying the user when watering is due. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Urbaniseringen i världen har de senaste 60 åren accelererat, och folk bor numera allt tätare och spenderar större delen av livet inomhus. Samtidigt pågår en trend av ökad psykisk ohälsa i många länder, där urbaniseringen kan vara en påverkande faktor. Studier visar att närhet till natur gör oss mer välmående. Ett sätt att uppnå detta inomhus är att ha inomhusväxter. Dock är ett problem med att ha inomhusväxter att de kräver underhåll för att må bra. Lever man ett stressigt liv, har dålig kunskap eller saknar intresse är det lätt att glömma att ta hand om växter i sitt hem vilket kan leda till att de dör eller att man räds från att ha dem. Detta examensarbete har som syfte att utveckla en produkt som underlättar underhållet av... (More)
Urbaniseringen i världen har de senaste 60 åren accelererat, och folk bor numera allt tätare och spenderar större delen av livet inomhus. Samtidigt pågår en trend av ökad psykisk ohälsa i många länder, där urbaniseringen kan vara en påverkande faktor. Studier visar att närhet till natur gör oss mer välmående. Ett sätt att uppnå detta inomhus är att ha inomhusväxter. Dock är ett problem med att ha inomhusväxter att de kräver underhåll för att må bra. Lever man ett stressigt liv, har dålig kunskap eller saknar intresse är det lätt att glömma att ta hand om växter i sitt hem vilket kan leda till att de dör eller att man räds från att ha dem. Detta examensarbete har som syfte att utveckla en produkt som underlättar underhållet av inomhusväxter, för att på så sätt uppmuntra folk att ha fler växter i hemmet. Designprocessen startade med att undersöka varför problemet uppstår, vilka hjälpmedel som finns idag samt vilken målgrupp som är i störst behov produkten. Utifrån detta valdes sedan vilken typ av lösning som arbetet skulle rikta in sig på - Att med hjälp av ljus förbättra den feedback som ges av en växts behov av vattning. Genom bland annat en persona och en designbrief kunde sedan en tydlig beskrivning på uppgiften utformas.
Utvecklingsprocessen började med att testa och utvärdera de tekniska komponenter
som behövdes. Genom skapandet av enklare prototyper kunde sedan användartester
utföras för att få insikter i hur man på bästa sätt kan kommunicera vattningsbehovet för växter. Detta resulterade slutligen i ett koncept på en produkt, och tillverkningen av en fungerande prototyp. Det slutgiltiga konceptet är en typ av lampa som med hjälp av en fuktsensor visualiserar en växts behov av vattning. Genom att placera sensorn i jorden på en kruka ger lampan med hjälp av en röd-grön färgskala användaren feedback på en växts tillgång till vatten. Lampan är även programmerad till att aktiveras automatiskt när fuktnivån blir för låg, för att underrätta användaren om att vattning behövs. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Bratt, Tor LU
supervisor
organization
course
MMKM10 20182
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Digital watering reminder, smart lamp, mood light, nursing of houseplants, product design, concept development
language
English
id
8969028
date added to LUP
2019-02-05 16:04:42
date last changed
2019-02-05 16:04:42
@misc{8969028,
  abstract     = {{Urbanization in the world has during the past 60 years accelerated, resulting in
people living in more densely populated areas and spending a majority of their lives indoors. Another ongoing trend in many countries is an increase in mental health issues, where urbanization could be a contributing factor. Studies have shown that closeness to nature increases our well-being. One way to achieve this indoors is by having indoor plants, or houseplants. However, a common issue with having houseplants in your home is that most of them need to be watered regularly to thrive. Living a stressful life, having no interest or lacking knowledge about houseplants easily makes you forget to water them, causing them to wilt or keeping you from having them in the first place. This master thesis has the purpose of developing a product that that eases the nursing of houseplants, to encourage people to have more plants in their homes. The design process started off by researching the cause of the problem, what solutions and aids that are available today and what target group that is in most need of the product. Based on this, the kind of solution that the thesis would focus on could be decided - Using light to increase the feedback received from a plant of its need for watering. Through the use of a persona and a design brief, a clear description of the task was then formed. The development process started off by testing and evaluating the technical components needed for the solution. By making simple prototypes, user studies could be made to gain insights on how the feedback could be communicated in the best way. This eventually resulted in a concept for a product that was made into a final, functioning prototype. The final concept is a type of lamp that through a moisture sensor visualizes a plant’s need for watering. By placing the sensor into the soil of a plant pot, the lamp uses a red and green color scale to communicate the plant’s access to water. The lamp is also programmed to turn on automatically when the soil becomes too dry, notifying the user when watering is due.}},
  author       = {{Bratt, Tor}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Developing a product visualizing a plant's need for watering}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}