Led the design of a 0→1 indoor plant planning application that translates research insights into an interactive visual platform, enabling planners to manage complex greenhouse workflows efficiently, reduce errors, and make faster, smarter decisions.
Problem
Users relied on Excel sheets and legacy systems to manage the complex workflow for plant placements across various greenhouse locations. Lacking an efficient way to visualize and take strategic actions on plant placement.
The result:
Hours of repetitive work.
Constant risk of human errors.
Complex coordination across facilities.
Manual mapping and physical handoffs.
The team was tasked with researching, designing, and developing an internal application to streamline this manual process and bring in data to the internal system, reducing the tedious cycle of guesswork and manual validation.
Outcome
Bringing clarity and confidence to mapping
I designed a greenhouse mapping platform that transformed a manual Excel workflow into an intuitive, visual system. The application enables users to map plant placement across multiple locations within a dynamic grid system that accurately reflects real greenhouse capacity.
The grid became more than just a visual tool; it redefined how users strategize, track, and relocate plant placements across facilities with confidence and the flexibility needed. By digitizing the mapping process, the platform eliminated repetitive work, reduced human error, and enabled teams to focus on insight-driven decisions rather than administrative tasks.
“What once took hours of manual effort now happens in minutes, with greater accuracy and collaboration.”
My Role
Bridging research, design, and collaboration
I led the end-to-end research and design for this 0→1 product, from initial discovery through MVP prototyping.
Responsibilities:
Conducted user interviews, journey mapping, and on-site observations.
Facilitated ideation workshops and design critiques, surfacing a shared vision for the application.
Collaborated with engineers and PMs to align technical feasibility with user needs.
Designed and validated the grid system, navigation model, and interaction flows through usability testing.
My role was to bring clarity to complexity, translating user behavior into product logic, and ensuring every design decision connected back to real workflows.
Design and Research Approach
Understanding the Challenge
We began by observing how planners and statisticians managed plant placement, combining six user interviews with an on-site greenhouse study to map their end-to-end workflow.
In collaboration with a researcher, I visualize users' decision-making process through journey maps, which exposed three systemic issues:
- Disconnected tools: Data scattered across multiple legacy systems, Excel sheets, and SharePoint files.
- Limited real-time visibility: Reliance on manual or physical validation for capacities.
- Inconsistent mapping processes: different teams, different workflows with unique configuration and nomenclature.
These insights shaped the foundation of our MVP direction, focused on unifying the mapping process, creating visibility, and bringing consistency to decision-making.
Co-creating with Users
I led ideation sessions with planners and stakeholders using the Crazy 8s method to quickly visualize a more intuitive, data-driven planning tool quickly. These sessions clarified what users valued most —clarity, trust, and control in decision-making — guiding our first design iteration.
Testing, Refining & Building Clarity
Usability tests uncovered friction in navigation, spatial layout, and terminology. Through iterative refinement, we simplified flows, improved feedback, and built confidence in system recommendations, transforming the process into a cohesive, data-driven workflow that mirrors real operations.
Impact
Redefining how teams plan and collaborate
Reduced manual mapping and strategizing time.
Minimized Data-entry errors and duplicated efforts.
Improved collaboration across user personas.
Built a foundation for future data-driven greenhouse management tools
Increased flexibility catering to diversified user needs.
Reflection
Designing for systems, not screens
This project taught me that even in technical, data-heavy environments, design’s role is to create clarity and confidence. By observing users in their natural context, I learned that spatial thinking, trust, and feedback loops significantly influence usability more than visual polish.
Designing this system reaffirmed my belief that meaningful innovation happens when empathy meets complexity and when design helps people see their work in a new light.