AFTERGROW
A Bonsai Companion App
Jul – Sept 2020
Studio Project
Individual
Keywords
Studio Project
Individual
Keywords
Journey
Growth
Immersive
Accessible
Bonsai
Bonsai tree cultivation are a slowly dying, underappreciated form of art.
These trees often carry down stories and histories from hundreds of years ago. A loss in one bonsai would mean a major loss of cultures. However, bonsai cultivation is often seen as intimidating due to their unforgiving nature. It’s signifance are also undervalued and underappreciated. Thus, we have to ensure that these treasures of art are more accessible to the general audience so that Bonsai can see to live in the future years.
Aftergrow is an app that aims to make bonsai cultivation more immersive, mentally-relaxing and accessible to the general crowd. Playing around with the idea of ‘journey’, Aftergrow promotes bonsai cultivation as a hobby that encourages growth as a human being. It showcases how a journey of bonsai is similiar to journeys of human growth, and how our own unique experiences and story are etched into the branches of our bonsai.
These trees often carry down stories and histories from hundreds of years ago. A loss in one bonsai would mean a major loss of cultures. However, bonsai cultivation is often seen as intimidating due to their unforgiving nature. It’s signifance are also undervalued and underappreciated. Thus, we have to ensure that these treasures of art are more accessible to the general audience so that Bonsai can see to live in the future years.
Aftergrow is an app that aims to make bonsai cultivation more immersive, mentally-relaxing and accessible to the general crowd. Playing around with the idea of ‘journey’, Aftergrow promotes bonsai cultivation as a hobby that encourages growth as a human being. It showcases how a journey of bonsai is similiar to journeys of human growth, and how our own unique experiences and story are etched into the branches of our bonsai.
Showreel
Logo
Illustrations
Each of the characters and the world they inhabit represents the various teachings and value in Bonsai cultivation. These worlds and characters act as a mascot and accompaniment to the journey of the users.
Mobile App
Boarding
The main deliverable and selling point of Aftergrow is its intuitive and dynamic mobile app.
The boarding page helps to set up the app for the user based on their preferences, making it more personal and leading them into the features of the app slowly. This makes the process of using the app less jarring and more user-friendly.
The boarding page also sets up the tone of the app — human, personal, empathetic and sentimental.
Journal Side
Reminders, goal-setting
Journal entries
Adding to your collection
The Aftergrow app features two sides. One of them is the ‘Journal’ side where users can set goals, write journal entries and remind themselves of tasks related to cultivating their bonsai. Users can add as many bonsais they have in their collection to their app, each with its own details and growth process.
The main feature has to be its intuitive nature. Every bonsai’s entry, goal and tasks are documented and stored to be used in the other side of the app—the ‘Venture’ side.
Venture Side
Social Feed
Connecting, Inspirations and Guidance to a community
The ‘Venture’ side of Aftergrow is an interactive space that documents and retells the story of the user’s bonsai based on their growth. The app also relates many of the bonsai’s growth into teachings and values that the users can learn to apply into their own daily lives. Users can view the history of their bonsai and the current progress they have made thus far, in hopes of encouraging them to continue on this meaningful journey.
‘Venture’ also includes a community aspect where people can share the growth of their bonsai or seek guidance within a tight-knit circle. Users can showcase the automated collage of information from the app’s ‘Journal’ side easily to the community.
This side of the app is fully landscape to provide a more immersive experience.
Advertising Website
The website presents the various values and learnings that bonsai teaches us. These values are also characterised by the various characters that appears in the app. Moreover, the website also shows the key features of the app. Ultimately, this site aims to promote picking bonsai cultivation first, before the app.
This is a fictional project done for school.