House Plant Shop
House Plant Shop
House Plant Shop
Heuristic Evaluation
A Design Critique of
UX, UI challenges
Date: Oct. 2024
Date: March, 2025
Shopping for plants has never been easier. House Plant Shop offers a huge selection at their online store (https://houseplantshop.com/) to choose from, ranging from pre-potted plants to air plants that don't even need soil. This evaluation report assesses the usability of House Plant Shop's website to ensure that customers can purchase plants easily. A heuristic evaluation of House Plant Shop conducted by three UX experts from Pratt Institute using Jakob Nielsen's Ten Usability Heuristics. The evaluation focused on the journey of a buyer searching for a housewarming gift plant with specific requirements.
Shopping for plants has never been easier. House Plant Shop offers a huge selection at their online store (https://houseplantshop.com/) to choose from, ranging from pre-potted plants to air plants that don't even need soil. This evaluation report assesses the usability of House Plant Shop's website to ensure that customers can purchase plants easily. A heuristic evaluation of House Plant Shop conducted by three UX experts from Pratt Institute using Jakob Nielsen's Ten Usability Heuristics. The evaluation focused on the journey of a buyer searching for a housewarming gift plant with specific requirements.
Task
Task
You are a graduate student searching for a plant as a housewarming gif t for your friend's party on February 28th. Your friend lives in a spacious apartment with their golden retriever and has large south-facing windows. During a recent conversation, they expressed interest in plants with air-purifying capabilities. Your budget is $80.
You are a graduate student searching for a plant as a housewarming gif t for your friend's party on February 28th. Your friend lives in a spacious apartment with their golden retriever and has large south-facing windows. During a recent conversation, they expressed interest in plants with air-purifying capabilities. Your budget is $80.
Find plants within your $80 budget that would make suitable gifts.
Is the plant pet friendly?
Is the plant compatible with bright, direct sunlight?
How difficult is it to take care of the plant?
Does it have an air purifying property?
Add the selected plant to cart and ensure delivery is available before Feb 28th.
Key Issues Identified
Inconsistent and
overwhelming UX UI
Inconsistent and
overwhelming UX UI
Problem 1: Inconsistent Product Information
Problem 1: Inconsistent Product Information
After selecting filters to find plants, the product detail pages don't consistently display the filtered attributes. Users must remember which filters they applied rather than having confirmation on the product page.
Recommendation 1: A Standardize Tag System
Weak recommendations
and Intrusive Ads
Weak recommendations
and Intrusive Ads
A standardized tag system prominently placed above the item image on the product details page. The tags should be arranged horizontally in a row for maximum visibility and should align with the filtering options used during search and browsing. These design markers can indicate key plant attributes such as pet-friendliness, care level, light requirements, and more, depending on the context. They provide quick confirmation of plant qualities without creating visual clutter. This system maintains consistency between the filtering process and the product detail pages while also addressing any inconsistent or missing information. Ultimately, this approach helps buyers quickly verify plant characteristics, ensuring a more reliable and user-friendly shopping experience
A standardized tag system prominently placed above the item image on the product details page. The tags should be arranged horizontally in a row for maximum visibility and should align with the filtering options used during search and browsing. These design markers can indicate key plant attributes such as pet-friendliness, care level, light requirements, and more, depending on the context. They provide quick confirmation of plant qualities without creating visual clutter. This system maintains consistency between the filtering process and the product detail pages while also addressing any inconsistent or missing information. Ultimately, this approach helps buyers quickly verify plant characteristics, ensuring a more reliable and user-friendly shopping experience
Problem 2: Confusing Filter System
Inconsistent AR lenses
Recommendation
Inconsistent AR lenses
Recommendation
The evaluators identified several issues with the House Plant Shop website's filter options. Users can't select multiple choices within the same subcategory—like “Air-Purifier,” “Easy Care,” and “Pet Friendly”—even though some plants fit all three. Filter categories are also confusingly grouped, with “Low light” and “Bright light” separated on some pages, and overlapping categories like plant size and planter size. Additionally, the filters lack a price range option, making it hard for buyers to narrow their searches.
The evaluators identified several issues with the House Plant Shop website's filter options. Users can't select multiple choices within the same subcategory—like “Air-Purifier,” “Easy Care,” and “Pet Friendly”—even though some plants fit all three. Filter categories are also confusingly grouped, with “Low light” and “Bright light” separated on some pages, and overlapping categories like plant size and planter size. Additionally, the filters lack a price range option, making it hard for buyers to narrow their searches.
Recommendation 2: Reorganized Filter System
Overall Key Issue with
Snapchat are as follows:
Overall Key Issue with
Snapchat are as follows:
Reorganize the filtering system into drop down menus for easy discoverability and keep consistent filter menu throughout the site. To resolve this issue, the filtering system should be changed into dropdown menus, neatly organizing a variety of options in their categories. Categories such as “Plant Size”, “Planter Size” and “Planter” are condensed into one category called “Plant Size”. “Low light” and “Bright light” options placed separately were placed into one category called “Light Condition”. The main improvements would be to allow multiple sections keeping the checkboxes that currently exist in the filter. To resolve the inconsistency between filters in different product information, product pages should be standardized to uniformly showcase the same categories found in the filtering system, using clear visual markers for all filterable characteristics. These changes would reduce confusion among the buyers due to inconsistent information. The intuitive dropdown menu makes plant products more easily discoverable.
Reorganize the filtering system into drop down menus for easy discoverability and keep consistent filter menu throughout the site. To resolve this issue, the filtering system should be changed into dropdown menus, neatly organizing a variety of options in their categories. Categories such as “Plant Size”, “Planter Size” and “Planter” are condensed into one category called “Plant Size”. “Low light” and “Bright light” options placed separately were placed into one category called “Light Condition”. The main improvements would be to allow multiple sections keeping the checkboxes that currently exist in the filter. To resolve the inconsistency between filters in different product information, product pages should be standardized to uniformly showcase the same categories found in the filtering system, using clear visual markers for all filterable characteristics. These changes would reduce confusion among the buyers due to inconsistent information. The intuitive dropdown menu makes plant products more easily discoverable.
Expected Outcome
What I like about Snapchat and
how it could improve?
What I like about Snapchat
and how it could improve?
These changes would:
These changes would:
Reduce cognitive load during the shopping process
Create a more intuitive filtering experience
Ensure consistent information display across the site
Allow customers to make more informed purchase decisions
Find the whole heuristic evaluation report below:
Find the whole heuristic evaluation report below:
© 2025- Shreesa Shrestha
© 2025- Shreesa Shrestha
© 2025- Shreesa Shrestha