Users couldn't find the Manual Watering feature in the app.

What's B-hyve?

B-hyve is a smart sprinkler timer app that allows you to control or monitor your sprinklers from anywhere in the world with the convenience of your iOS and android smart device. 

The current app's navigation fails users by hiding the Manual Watering feature behind a dual-purpose Home button, making a critical function nearly impossible to discover intuitively. 

Research Phase

At Orbit, we wanted to understand how homeowners were using the B-hyve Manual Watering feature. I conducted usability testing with 10 users with the goal of finding out the following:

1. How do homeowners currently test their zones?

2. Why do homeowners use the Manual Watering feature?

3. What do homeowners like about Manual Watering?

4. Why don't homeowners use the Manual Watering feature located in the bottom navigation?

5. What are users struggling with when using the current Manual Watering feature?

6. How can we improve the Manual Watering experience?

Synthesis & Analysis

During research synthesis and affinity mapping, I identified the following common pain points users experienced with the current app design.

1. Users were unable to locate the Manual Watering feature within the bottom navigation.

2. The bottom navigation caused confusion, as the Home button served dual purposes — navigating to the Home screen and transforming into a Remote icon to access Manual Watering.

3. When asked to run a watering test, 8 out of 10 users navigated to the zone details interface to manually water, bypassing the intended navigation path entirely.

4. Running a zone test after replacing a broken sprinkler head is a critical task — it ensures proper coverage, checks for leaks, and confirms the new head is operating at the correct pressure.

HMW

1. How might we help b-hyve users quickly access the Manual Watering feature

2. How might we help b-hyve users easily locate and run a zone test from within their expected workflow? 

3. How might we redesign the app's navigation so that users can quickly and intuitively access the Manual Watering feature when they need it most?

Design Progress

I designed a series of sketches and presented them to the Product Owner and developers. During the presentation, I facilitated a voting activity, allowing each team member to vote for their favorite design concept. Two clear favorites emerged:

1. Option A proposed placing the Manual Watering feature inside a Floating Action Button (FAB).

2. Option B proposed surfacing the Manual Watering feature directly on the home screen, alongside the existing Rain Delay feature

Usability Test

I design and create prototypes to test with users 10 participants:

To measure the effectiveness of the new design, I asked home owners to tap the 'Manual Watering' button and set the watering runtime to 20 minutes for zone 1. I observed each user and I asked them to think out loud. 

Option A results: 8 out 10 participants could not find the Manual Watering feature at all.

Option B results: 10 out of 10 users were able to find the Manual Watering button/feature but 4 of the 10 users struggled to adjust runtime for each zone. 

“How am I supposed to set a run time?” “Where are my zones? Maybe if I click programs?” “How do I set all my zones?” “Is this my garage lawn timer or or the timer from my second house? “

Since 4 of the 10 users struggled to adjust runtime for each zone in 'option B'. I went back to the team and informed them that our users didn't know how to use the Manual watering interface. 

During that meeting we agreed as a team to persuade Option B and redesign the Manual watering interface.

Usability Results

1. The effectiveness of 'Manual Watering' in Option B was 100%. Utilizing a remote icon with a 'Manual Watering' label underneath made it significantly easier for homeowners to find the feature.

Results

Relocating the Manual Watering feature to the home screen drove a dramatic increase in feature adoption, jumping from nearly unused to full engagement within the first week of launch. Within three months, the improvement in usability translated directly into user satisfaction — lifting the app's rating from 3.1 to 4 stars across both iOS and Android.

Reflection

Reflecting on this project, there are a few areas I believe could be further improved. 

1. The legibility of the Manual Watering label could be enhanced by removing the background image behind it, making it easier to read at a glance. 

2. Using a Floating Action Button (FAB) that combines both the icon and label together would also increase visibility and discoverability. 

3. Finally, establishing greater consistency across the app's iconography would go a long way in creating a more cohesive and polished user experience.