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Meet the Designer of the Click & Grow 25
The Click & Grow 25 is set to revolutionize the way we eat. It’s the only indoor plant growing solution to provide a continuous, significant harvest for a healthier diet. It also happens to be the most energy and space efficient among all of its competitors. We caught up with the designer of the Click & Grow 25, Egert Uibo, to get his perspective on this innovative product.
Hi, Egert! Thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Please tell us a bit about your background and what you do here at Click & Grow?
Hi! No problem, the pleasure is all mine! My background is in industrial design. Previously I’ve been working on various consumer electronic products and I joined Click and Grow in February 2020. My main goal is to try to understand our customers better and help shape the future of Click and Grow’s experience.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Click & Grow community?
Having a Smart Garden in your home right now is a novelty. When my friends come over they’re always fascinated by them. Indoor farming is sort of a niche market today that many people still haven’t discovered but I believe I’m part of something that will grow to be a new norm in the near future. We are working on new technologies and devices that will make it very easy and accessible to more and more people. I’d say the thought of reimagining tomorrow's kitchen and consumption of nutritious food is very thrilling. Also, I’m amazed at how many loving customers we have and how the number keeps on growing.
What was your ultimate goal when designing the Click & Grow 25?
It was clear that Click and Grow needed a product between the Smart Garden and Wall Farm. We also did a survey that indicated some of our customers felt disappointed when they couldn’t grow a continuous cycle of food with our Smart Gardens. We wanted to build a device that would be as space and energy efficient as possible while growing the optimal amount of leafy greens. It means there should always be something ready to eat without waiting for plants to be ready. But, with such a compressed solution, we needed to offer flexibility to the user. It was important to offer a method where you can keep track of the plants and also have access to them easily. We wanted to avoid a static field of plants and find ways to split it into smaller portions. The key words were modularity and adaptability. We wanted it to be enough for a single person’s needs but it should also cover the entire family's consumption. This device is a platform that you can multiply later on when you discover that you’d like to consume more greens.
How does designing the Click & Grow 25 compare to other projects you’ve worked on?
Just as I joined the company we entered the lock down phase in Estonia due to Covid and I had to start working from home. So many aspects were affected by it (for example all the meetings had to be virtual) and it took a while to get used to all of this craziness. This whole situation is still surreal to me.
What challenges did you face when working on the Click & Grow 25?
Traditionally, design has been a problem solving discipline where the focus is on the user experience. As indoor gardening is still an emerging market, this experience isn’t that abundant and you can’t expect the customer to know right away what kind of qualities they value. Even if they think they do, you still need to be suspicious about whether those thoughts are true. So, to generate this experience we imagined what this product could be and created different prototypes that we sent to some of our awesome customers. It was important that they obtain accumulative user experience to relate to this product. It took some time as we needed the users to go through many plant growing cycles. In the end we received very rich and valuable feedback that helped shape the Click & Grow 25.
What feedback have you received about the Click & Grow 25 in terms of design and use aspects?
For many users it 'clicked' right away to start using the continuous cycle and they really liked the logic behind it. Also, the fact that it can grow quite a lot of care free food for the entire family was appealing. There were also users who just wanted to grow everything at once so obviously we took this into consideration as well and it’s possible to mix and match according to your needs. Some say they love it even though they’ve only seen pictures and videos of the campaign!
What do you think of the Click & Grow 25 now that it's launched on Kickstarter?
As with any design process, ideas go back and forth and challenges arise and transform into solutions. There were many prototypes along the way, for example with different tray sizes and various amounts of plants in it but I’m happy with the way it turned out. It’s a hassle free device that can produce a significant amount of food for your entire family and hopefully it will help improve a lot of people’s diets, eating habits and nutrition.
To receive your Click & Grow 25 before others (and enjoy an early bird discount!), back us on Kickstarter today.