PaytonAugusta

Sprouted Press Release

Keeps indoor plants and herbs thriving with a regulated schedule.

Sprouted helps plant owners keep their home plants at peak quality year-round. Sprouted
keeps track of your plant’s needs in relation to location, weather/seasons, and owners schedule. It allows any plant owner to maintain a routine and develop an understanding of their specific
plant’s needs. Along with a detailed description on characteristics, origins, and life-cycle, it will
recommend the appropriate watering schedule, proper soil for peak growth, and sunlight
requirements to keep each plant thriving. Sprouted will help the user create routines to properly
care for each plant’s specific needs. Sprouted will also allow users to connect with other plant
owners by creating a platform where they can share photos and ask each other questions to create an inclusive learning environment.

Current applications are geared towards gardening and horticulture, rather than small scale-house plants. A challenge plant owners face is not having the specific knowledge of purchased or gifted houseplants or how to properly care for them. Different plants require different kinds of attention. When owning a variety of houseplants, it gets difficult to retain specific plant care information. Even doing thorough research, most forget to water their plants when necessary. But care for a plant goes far beyond a watering schedule.

Our solution to this problem was to create a platform that provides specific knowledge of the kind of houseplants you have and then allows the user to set up a routine to properly take care of them. It is vital to understand the needs of your plants to elongate their lifespan. Sprouted will not only provide reminders to water your plants, it will also be an information hub of how to take care of each specific plant efficiently. For example, Bonsai Trees are routinely clipped to maintain proper growth, and are one of the few houseplants that require a layer of moss on the top of the potted soil. Sprouted will give a detailed account of the Bonsai Tree, allowing the user understand its necessities/recommended care, and will help the user set up proper routines to attend to its specific needs.

“Sprouted cares about the needs of your houseplants. We endlessly encounter people who over or under water their houseplants and do not provide the specific needs for their plants. Whatever the reason may be, here at Sprouted, we want to ensure that your plants are being provided with top-quality care. We want to give plant owners the opportunity to learn and in the
end remind themselves to water their own plants. With Sprouted, we hope plant owners are able
to maintain thriving plants in their homes!” – Emily Hartford, CEO of Sprouted

To get started, download the application, set up a user profile and actively find your plants by using the provided search engine. If you do not know your plant’s name, take a picture of it and upload it. We will let you know what it is in record time. After finding your plant(s), let us know your location to finish your plant profile! To start with the basics, let us know the last time you watered your plant(s) in the provided ‘Calendar’ and also what time of day works best for you to water them. Sprouted will accordingly remind you when to water your plant(s); if you remembered to water your plant(s) check ‘Watered’ and if you forgot, check the ‘I forgot’ and Sprouted will adjust the time. There are other routines that can be set up according to each plant’s needs, so feel free to learn more about your plant and add those additional routines if applicable in your plant profile. If you have any questions about your plant or if you want to show your success and beauty of them, check out the Sprouted forum and upload a thread.

“Sprouted really helped me develop my green thumb. I’ve always been interested in houseplants, but I could never manage to keep them alive. Once I downloaded Sprouted, it became easier day by day and I would now consider caring for my plants a passion.” – Cora Stevens, Accountant/Sprouted Customer.

Download Sprouted, available exclusively on Android. Start caring for your plants the right way.

Blog 1 + Interactive Media

What is Interactive Media? It is simply any device or service that caters to a human’s touch. It is the tool that makes your life easier. Before I was in this class, I wasn’t really sure what interactive media was. I really only knew the term UXUI. While I still have some way to go, I feel like I have somewhat of a better understanding of what it is.

Something I find interesting about Interactive Media is its increasing popularity and knowledge. I think that comes with our ever-emerging knowledge in technology. We’ve reached a point where we have created so much revolutionary technology and technological devices that now is the time to focus on its accessibility and making an experience out of it. A point where we can expand the design of how a device works. That’s where Interactive Media comes in. Interactive Media
is all about the user, it’s the user experience and the user interface that really matters. It’s about making the user comfortable to achieve what they need to do in the most simple and error-free way. Before this class I never really thought about how I use a device and what goes into making a website or app for example. I didn’t think about the ‘hamburger menu’ or the amount of clicks
or swipes it took to get to where I needed to go. But now that I am somewhat knowledgeable in the topic, I find myself thinking about how everything works. Whether it be a website or an app.

I also find it interesting how accessible it is to find the software to test out the user experience and user interface; for example, Marvel. We used Marvel in class one day just to see how it worked, it was so easy to use. You could also preview your app in a way and go through it like you were a user, which is helpful for the developer to understand what works and what doesn’t. It was also interesting how we could send these prototypes out and see how people were using the app.
On our side, red dots would pop up where the testers were clicking. It gives you really good insight into what is working and what is not working. I am sure there are other software systems like this that do the same thing and probably more, but this is the only one we’ve explored so far. I am excited to see what other software’s we use to experiment with our projects.

With all of that said I am very excited to see what else we learn as a class about Interactive Media. Because like I said before I still have a lot to learn about Interactive Media and what that all entails. I am very curious to learn more and really understand the thought processes that go into designing a website and or app. And also the thought processes that go into designing for a user in mind and making sure they have the best experience they can.

Marshmallow Challenge 8.19

This challenge is specific to design thinking individuals. It tests your ability to plan and prioritize, like you would for a project. In your group you are only allowed 10 spaghetti noodles, one marshmallow, 1 yard of string, and 1 yard of tape. The task is to build the tallest free-standing structure with only the supplies provided.

Although my group did not succeed we learned a lot about how to properly plan and what to prioritize. We all worked really well together and if we would have properly prioritized we may have been in the running.