- Initial screen asks to choose flora, I was unfamiliar with the term flora (which was confusing to me)

- No tutorial for first time users, all it says is “Touch to identify”

- Chose the related “organ” (also an unfamiliar term, but the options helped me realize what they are asking for)

- I selected “Flower”, found Hippeastrum on the first try and asked to search the world flora flora instead of Canada.

- The information page was a little confusing as the headings were icons. 

- It provided the wiki page which was helpful in identifying information about the plant but it was not the most credible source of information.

 

- Mini intro on the app (helped get me familiar with the app)

- Tutorial provided to guide the user on how to upload and search my plant.

- The correct name Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) appeared as the 5^th option. 

- Provides useful info that is easily viewable on mobile with multiple tabs, that can be easily closed and reopened.

 

- Provided steps to sign-up and also collected info on my gardening experience (wonder if this makes a difference in my experience with the app..)

- Simple app design, clear view of all the features of the app

- Although no tutorial it provided clear instructions on how to upload picture to the site and also had advice on taking a good picture

- Found Hippeastrum as the first option, but it had the option to narrow the search by “plant category” used simple terminology that I was able to understand

- Provided a brief yet informative overview of the plant and simple instructions

 

- Mini intro on the app (helped get me familiar with the app)

- No tutorial but the camera button was placed in the center with the words “Observe” which was the same term used in the initial intro.

- Was confused on what to click after uploading as it seemed as though I had to save, but I found the “What did you see?” button that had view suggestions. 

- The first suggestion got Hippeastrum and it provided more info only after clicking the “i” button, if I clicked on the flower name it took me back to the details page which was initially frustrating.

 

All platforms helped me figure out the plant I was observing and all apps figured out the plant as the first option except for PlantSnap which displayed it as the 5^th tab. However, PlantSnap had the better user experience in my opinion as it assisted first time users with the mini tutorial that could have been skipped by more experienced users. Then the information was provided in a mobile friendly format, with tabs that I could swipe through to access more information if I was interested. However, I was only able to find an interesting fact on the plant using the PlantNet app, I was amazed to know that alkaloids in this plants bulb has properties to fight against malaria caused by P. falciparum!

Thanks,
Vithu 

Likewise to Jamie, I was discouraged by GardenAnswers asking me to create a profile, but for the sake of testing, I went ahead, and hoped the effort was worthwhile. It was usable and the steps to guide you through the set up were helpful. I was disappointed by the search results though- it provided me with a list of different plants by their latin names, and required me to click into each one to find the common name. I was confused by the immediate option to narrow my search - this reduced my confidence that it had accurately identified my plant. While the first result was accurate, I didn’t care for the experience and the overall lack of information it provided. 

iNaturalist was confusing to me. It wasn’t immediately obvious how to identify a plant, and when I realized that I would need to wait for someone in the community to identify my plant, it was a big stroke against the app. While it is a cool app for learning about flora and fauna in your area, it wasn’t useful for quick and effective plant identification. 

PlantSnap gave me the most confident plant identification of my Chinese Evergreen. While the app was intuitive to use, I appreciated the mini tutorial to create an equal opportunity experience for all levels of tech users. Unfortunately, this app didn’t provide much information beyond a couple sentences about its origin and a half filled in taxonomy. I also found mislead by the icons at the bottom regarding watering, feeding, etc. I presumed these would give me specific tips about this plant in particular, but they were general tidbits of information. 

PlantNet was the most intuitive to use from the start, with their giant ‘Identify’ button but it was not overly confident that my plant was a match. it gave me a 43% match to the proper identification. Had I been using this on an unknown plant, it isn’t very trustworthy. It did provide significant information and images, but I would have preferred more concise information within the app instead of Wikipedia and going out to other plant websites. 

Overall, 3 of the 4 apps identified my plant, but I was only confident that PlantSnap would be credible in unknown situations, which is when apps like this are most used. None of these apps were overly useful in providing concise information about the plant or giving me easy to follow care instructions. On the positive side, all 4 were relatively easy to use with little to no time required to learn how to navigate and use them.