Red Clay and Plants
A plant care platform built for millennial plant parents — connecting customers with the products, guidance, and community they needed to keep their indoor plants alive.
Millennials were buying plants. Most of them were killing plants.
COVID-19 sparked a surge in millennial plant ownership — but Red Clay and Plants wasn't converting that enthusiasm into loyal customers. Research showed that nearly 70% of millennial plant parents struggled to keep their plants alive, and confidence in plant care was a major barrier to repeat purchases. Customers weren't just buying plants. They were looking for reassurance that they wouldn't fail. The product needed to sell plants and build the confidence to keep them alive.
What I owned
- End-to-end UX from research to high-fidelity design
- User research — surveys, interviews, and behavioral research
- Persona development and customer journey mapping
- Information architecture and user flow design
- Mid and high-fidelity prototyping across web and mobile
- Usability testing and iteration
Research revealed that plant care anxiety was the real barrier, not plant selection. Customers weren't unsure what to buy — they were unsure they could keep it alive once they got it home. The product needed to do more than sell plants. It needed to build customer confidence at every step, from purchase through ongoing care, or the sale would be the last interaction we ever had with them.
Three decisions that defined the experience
Care guidance built into the post-purchase experience
Plant care anxiety didn't disappear after checkout — it often increased once the plant arrived home. We designed ongoing care guidance directly into the product experience, not buried in a separate help center. Customers got contextual care reminders and troubleshooting support exactly when they needed it.
Personalized plant matching over open browsing
Early research showed customers felt overwhelmed browsing an open catalog without knowing which plants matched their lifestyle, light conditions, or experience level. We designed a guided discovery flow that matched customers to plants suited to their specific environment and care capacity — reducing decision fatigue and increasing purchase confidence.
Community as a retention mechanism
Research surfaced that plant parents wanted connection with other plant owners, not just a transactional relationship with a retailer. We designed community touchpoints into the experience — shared milestones, peer troubleshooting, and social proof — turning a one-time purchase into an ongoing relationship.
What shipped and what it changed
The redesigned experience moved customers from uncertain first-time buyers to confident, returning plant owners. Usability testing on the final high-fidelity prototype showed significant improvements in task success, error reduction, and completion speed compared to the original experience — validating that solving for confidence, not just commerce, was the right direction.
If we had another quarter
I would have pushed further into the community features — what we shipped proved the concept, but a full social layer with user-generated content and peer mentorship could have driven even stronger retention. I'd also have explored deeper personalization in the care guidance system, using a customer's actual plant collection and care history to proactively surface the right advice at the right time, rather than general care content.