Redesign

ReDesign Values

We seek to design an affordable, approachable, and consistently high-yield hydroponic system, specifically addressing the needs of those without access to fresh, health, and filling food (food deserts, dense urban areas, low-income areas).

Our guiding principles include:

• Modularity: increases flexibility to different spaces, lifestyles, diets

• Approachability: inherently educational + magical moments

• Accessibility: economic, physical, knowledge-based, location

• Community: bring people closer together through gardening and act as decentralized community gardens

User Research

User Personas

We created five distinct user personas and found users that fit these personas for interviewing:

1. Non-gardener

2. Casual gardener

3. Experienced hydroponics gardener

4. Tiny Homes community

5. Food desert inhabitant

Goals

• Explore pain points and incentives to garden/garden more

• Understand creation of community and connection to gardening

• Gain technical advice for actual hydroponics system and engineering feasibility

Methodology

We conducted interviews and also sent out surveys to our networks, gardening forums, and other gardening communities with the goal of getting responses from non gardeners to advanced gardeners to understand the

1. Pain points of gardening or getting started with gardening

2. Incentives to garden

Results

Pain points of gardening experience:

• Lack of land and time and skills

• Unideal climate makes it difficult to grow plants

• Maintenance can be time consuming and messy

• Lack of knowledge of…

  • Best ways to garden efficiently

  • Where to start

  • Specific plant needs and how to accommodate for specific climate

Incentives to garden:

• Organic and fresh vegetables

• Saving money on food and additional supplements

• Time and easy instructions

• Happiness from doing it with others and seeing growth/progress

Ideation

Before grounding our designs, we wanted to push the limits and explore more whimsical and magical appearances. Our early explorations included incorporating a tree into the structure, doughnut-shaped gardens, and lots of funky shapes. But we ultimately kept returning to the connection between trees and growth. We were largely inspired by bonsai trees and daisugi, a Japanese foresting technique from the 15th century that grows more wood with less land.

Decisions

Magical Moments

One of our major motivations for this redesign was to create a more approachable appearance. We wanted to move away from the more alien and sleek appearance, and lean into a design that would convey a feeling of growth and magic. We sought to create magical moments that would make the user want to take care of the product and the plants. Think IKEA Effect! We believe that the user will place more value and care on a product that they have a role in creating. For this redesign, these magical moments were the ability to build the tree from the ground up and customize its shape, height, and configuration, the sound design, the educational component in being able to open the window and see the roots grow, and the bonsai shape.

Modular + Customizable

The base of the garden (the trunk) is modular in that additional levels can be attached to the base, with each component having a height of two feet. Similarly, two different leaf sizes and shapes were created with the ability of being able to be slotted in at any point on the trunk.

We believed this was a crucial design decision because it aligned with our values of accessibility and modularity. This decision stemmed from a desire to accommodate different lifestyles, spaces, food preferences, and capacities. The modular nature of the trunk and leaf design allows the garden to be adjusted to fit community needs, as well as produce a higher yield and greater variety of foods as the attachment of more leaves creates more room for further growth and can be situated to fit specific plant needs.

Photovoltaic Solar Panel

Given that one of the drawbacks of the current design is the need to be within range of a power source, we incorporated photovoltaic panels into the top of our design with the hope that this would allow users to have the systems in more places, rather than be limited by electrical access.

Material Design

We chose bamboo for the base as it conveys a sense of approachability and sustainability as opposed to the current white plastic look. For the leaves, we chose aluminum for affordability, weight, and feasibility in hypothetical larger-scale manufacturing, advised by our industry mentor, Hanna.

Passive Design: Nutrient Film + Ebb and Flow

After technical research and advice from an experienced hydroponics gardener, we decided the nutrient film and ebb and flow hydroponic methods were the best suited for the design. More importantly, we decided that we could combine these two techniques to create a passive downward flow of water and nutrients, using the spiral shown below. Water would first move up through a single pipe, flood into the attached leaves (ebb and flow), and then drain into the spiral housing other plants (nutrient film). This in turn fed into our idea for sound design as each drainage has the potential to create a calming sound environment.

Reflection

Successes

• Higher yield and diversity in plants

• Different possible shapes and capacity levels accommodates spaces

• Looks magical! And more approachable

• No reliance on outlet

Failures

• Full capacity is large

• Appearance might not convey affordability even if it does cost less to produce

• Less focus on engineering elements

Next Steps

• Model interior cross-sections of hydroponics

• Explore more leaf shapes and materials

• Create different spiral structure to create sound design

• Create life-size physical prototype

• Connect with systems design and education aspect

On Our Minds

• How can we utilize sound design to add to the experience?

• What is the minimum space this requires?

• How do we make it inherently and physically educational?

• How do we make it feel comforting?

• How do we convey affordability in its design and appearance?

Current Updates

I reached out to the CEO and a designer at Farmstand to discuss my ideas, and maybe this isn’t the most formal way of saying it, but it was an epic conversation! (Not to mention he sent me a Farmstand and I’ve been religiously taking care of it.) It was really insightful to hear his thoughts behind his design and his vision for future Farmstand designs and ways to make the product more affordable and accessible. One of the bits of wisdom he dropped that really stuck with me was “You cannot convert the world with an ugly design.” Very excited to keep improving this design!