Community Gardens Forres
- Duration
- |
- Jun-Aug 2024
- Role
- |
- Individual Master's Graduation Project
- Focus
- |
- UX Research · Stakeholder Mapping · Community Engagement
Overview
A UX project that helps community gardens attract young volunteers and address long-term funding and labour challenges.
Challenge
Lack of funding, volunteers, and youth engagement.
Goal
Bring more young people into community gardening.
Impact
More volunteers, stronger communities, and a more sustainable future.
Solution
A multi-touchpoint experience designed to make gardening more accessible and engaging for young people:
- Home Gardening Toolkit
- Redesigned Community Signage
- AR Gardening Experience
GARDENING CALENDAR
Calendars related to the Forres community garden.
On the first Saturday of March, June, September and December, a gardening market will take place in the Grant Park in Forres. The calendar is one of the ways to publicise the event.
Map Front
Map Back
8-panel fold, pocket-sized when folded
COMMUNITY GARDEN MAP
A Map
on the theme of Forres community garden, which shows the general location and gives the contact information of the community garden.
Street Signs
let passers-by to learn about the plant and information about related community gardens
e.g. this rose bed is managed and maintained by Forres in Bloom.
Seed Bags
Scan the QR code on the back to learn the growing instructions for that plant.
AR Gardening Market
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/mA_cTKQcZcg
☀️ Saturday, June 7th 2025
⏰ 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
📍 Grant Park, Forres
💰 FREE to everyone
Storyboard
About Forres
Forres is a small town in northeastern Scotland, near the coast of the Moray Firth, known for its beautiful scenery and nicknamed the "flower of Scotland".
It has won a number of awards for its proliferation of floral displays, including Scotland in Bloom and Keep Scotland Beautiful, not to mention the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service for the teams who plant some 20,000 flowers each year. (Thackray, 2024)
Meanwhile, Forres has a number of community gardens
- Forres in Bloom
- Forres Friends of Woods and Fields
- Transition Town Forres
- Forres Community Garden and Allotments
Field Research
These are all gardening and growing I found in Forres
Community Gardens
Forres Friends & Transition Town Forres
Grant Park
peacock, ladybird or butterfly-shaped creations
High Street
hanging baskets decorating & flowers beds
Roadside
flowers beds
Residents' Gardens
Magnolia & Apple Trees
Gardening Trends
Through the desktop research, I learnt that gardening has been used as a form of healing and a way to socialise, especially after the epidemic, the need for mental health and socialising is stronger, and more and more people are into and starting to learn to garden.
Gardens functioned as therapeutic landscapes during and after COVID-19
Gardens have long been considered as refuges into which we retreat to escape various struggles and challenges. There is positive potential for therapeutic garden landscapes beyond COVID-19. (Marsh et al, 2021)
High levels of knowledge and interest in gardening among young people in the UK
As a hobby, gardening is seen positively. 72% of millennials have already helped with gardening, 79% have grown a plant and 75% enjoy growing plants. (Evelegh, 2016)
Global trends in the growth of consumer demand for organic food
A gradual, yet, extensive growth has been witnessed worldwide in demand for organic food (Sultan et al, 2020) with global sales posited to have crossed USD 90 billion in the past twenty years. (Willer et al, 2020)
After contacting Nick, the founder of Forres Friend, by email, I went to Forres Friend on 15 June for a 40-minute interview and participated in a 3-hour gardening session on the same day.
Every Wednesday and every other Saturday, Forres Friends of Woods and Fields is hosting an event at Sanquhar Woods & Chapleton Fields from 10am to 1pm with founder Nick organising and guiding volunteers in organic gardening.
In addition to the weekly gardening events, Forres Friends has organised an Open Day Festival to celebrate a beautiful year and abundance of harvest for two years in a row. Around 250 people attended an open day focused on the work of a local environmental charity in 2023.
Participatory Observation
Findings
1. People are increasingly disconnected from the land and its environmental challenges.
'It's not just saying farmers must do this, it's also the public.'
'She didn't know that's where peas came from. They come from a supermarket in a bag that's frozen.'
2. Organic food is costly, but growers are not fairly rewarded.
'There are organic producers, but they find it difficult because they have to charge a higher price.'
3. Limited publicity and poor location visibility make the organisation difficult for newcomers to discover and access.
'Would like to have more young people join in'
4. Volunteers share not only their harvests, but also their lives.
'Try the cheese I brought back from Poland last month.'
Part 1 - Questionnaire
A questionnaire containing multiple-choice and short-answer questions about their gardening background and basic concepts of organic growing.
4 Participants
with Over 5 Years of Gardening Experience
Crops Grown: Vegetables and herbs
Weekly Gardening Time: More than 7 hours
Purpose:
- Protect the environment
- Meet new friends
- Connect with the land and people
- Mental health benefits
Challenges:
- Planning year-round harvests
- Not having enough time
- Physical limitations
- Bad weather
Needs:
- Access to farmers' markets
- Engaging young people in gardening
Other Information: Volunteers at more than one farm
3 Participants
with Less Than 3 Years of Gardening Experience
Crops Grown: Vegetables and flowers
Weekly Gardening Time: 1-3 hours
Purpose:
- Personal interest
- Protect the environment
- Mental health benefits
Challenges:
- Lack of gardening knowledge
- Bad weather
Needs:
- Skill training
- Community garden
- Workshops to learn gardening knowledge
Other Information: Growing food for food banks
Part 2 - Ideal Garden Design
Food sources
Only one participant chose to grow flowers, while the other four tended to grow more vegetables
Socialising and sharing
Grow fruits for people to pick
Experienced in growing vegetables
Zoned gardening
Plant carrots and tomatoes in the warm room
Insights from Part 1&2
- Older people don't have enough energy for planting.
- There are too few learning opportunities for young people interested in gardening.
- People value the social aspect of gardening.
- People are more willing to grow vegetables than flowers.
Part 3 - Challenges of Forres Friends Discussion
Insights
For participants in the Community Gardens, "organic" is not a certificate from a certification body, but a reciprocal relationship between consumers and farmers based on the values of knowledge, trust, support and sharing.
The public has little knowledge of organic growing, and there is a lack of avenues for gardening learning, and it is difficult to start a gardening hobby without having friends around who are gardening experts.
Sharing among the volunteers is not only about the process and results of their labour, but also about many other things in their lives. For example, how their children and pets are doing, what's new in the community, how to cook delicious food, etc. The members have a strong bond with each other and the group is stable.
Opportunity From Participatory Workshop
By increasing publicity channels, we can make more people, especially young people, aware of community gardens like Forres Friends. This will encourage them to participate in gardening, assist the elderly, and learn gardening skills, thereby practicing sustainable gardening in their daily lives.
Interview
Mackenzie & Cruickshank
Garden centre, 1 West Rd, Forres IV36 2GU
I interviewed 11 people and these are their age & gender
>20 years
20-30 years
30-40 years
To find out the extent of young people's awareness and interest in gardening
Findings
ways to learn gardening
- family members
- community activities
- neighbors and friends
- self-learning through practice
purposes of gardening
- helping elderly family members
- obtaining healthy food
- keeping my garden tidy
- interest and hobby
- stress relief
- environmental protection
- socializing and making friends
difficulties encountered in gardening
- don't have time
- don't have chance to learn
- don't have garden now
interest in community gardens
- aware, but not participated
- unaware, not very interested
Persona
Pain Points
- Busy with work, limited time
- Lack of professional gardening knowledge
- No personal garden
Needs
- Seeds and tools
- Professional guidance
- Meeting new friends
- Large plot of land for growing various crops
Have a little interest and understanding of gardening and would like someone to guide and learn from each other
Case Study
I went to Mackenzie & Cruickshank, Tesco and the hardware shop on the high street to research the home gardening products that can be bought in Forres. At the end of July I went to Edinburgh and went to two of the largest farmers markets to do field research.
| Gardening Toolkits For Kids | Seeds | Grant Park Street Sign | Edinburgh farmers' market & Edinburgh Grassmarket | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  | |
| pros |
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| cons |
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There are actually many ways that people can learn about gardening and community gardens, but the existing beginner gardening products/services are too weakly appealing and the touchpoints are not connected to each other
Affinity Mapping
I used affinity mapping to list all the insights from stakeholder interviews, engagement workshops, and interviews with young people to come up with the design opportunity.
How Might We
Design a home gardening experience for beginnersconnected to the Forres Community Garden, helping them learn gardening independently or through guided volunteering, while supporting the garden's outreach and recruitment goals.
Ideation
Home Gardening Experience
For gardening enthusiasts
- learning professional gardening knowledge
- socialising, meeting new friends
- easy to get
- Integration into life without taking up extra time
+
Connecting Touchpoints Together
For community garden organisations
- Increased public understanding of organic growing
- more volunteers and labour
- socialising, sharing food, help and love
Concept 1
An App includes gardening guidance and connected with community garden websites
Pros
easy to use for young people
Cons
- Difficult to promote
- Difficult to engage
- There are more authoritative competitors
- No one can build and maintain an app over time
Concept 2
A toolkit includes gardening map, calendar, seeds, gardening guidance and connected with community garden websites
Pros
Easier for people to actually start gardening
Organisations have volunteers who are good at drawing who can design
Cons
- Paper is easy to mass produce
- can be bought and promote more easily
- Low price
Overview
Home gardening toolkits and community garden service for young people (13-29 years old)
*according to the definitions given by Office for National Statistics, UK government
Workflow
Interested in gardening
1Shop for gardening toolkits
2Follow toolkits guide home gardening
3Follow the map to get basic information about community garden.
4Follow the calendar to learn about community garden's special events.
5Street signs on flower beds to increase the publicity of community gardens.
6Participate in community garden's special events.
7Become a volunteer after learning about community garden
8becoming more experienced in gardening
9Service Blueprint
Touchpoints
Physical
Toolkits
Street Sign
Map
Calendar
Seeds
Digital
AR games in
special event
People
Community Garden Organizations
Volunteers
Shop Assistant
User Testing And Iteration
1. Gardening Toolkits
I like the drawings and I would buy this map
I wish the calendars had more guidance, like instructions or something
The paper quality of these calendars is comfortable to touch
The QR code tutorial for the seed packet was detailed and the packaging appealed to me
I invited three GSA students and two young passers-by at Forres Station to participate in the test individually.
A
male
25 year old
Spanish
Frontend engineer
N
male
24 years old
Nigerian
working staff in Tesco
All five of them commented that they liked the style of the toolkits, and one of them wanted the toolkit to be more instructive, so I added soil, sunlight, and irrigation suggestions specific to the month on the back of the calendar. A sheet of instructions was included explaining the connections between the map, the calendar, the seed packets, and how this toolkit relates to the Forres community garden.
2. Street Sign
Classmate C
Interaction Design
Since workshop could not do metalwork, I chose acrylic first for waterproofness, but after testing with my classmate C, the QR code was laser engraved on the acrylic board with a blurred pattern, and with the material itself being highly reflective, the user needed to look for an angle in order to scan it out.
So, I changed the street sign to wood and brushed two layers of waterproof coating as an iteration.
3. AR Game
Classmate C
Interaction Design
Classmate K
Environment Design
The two students commented that the AR effect added a lot of fun to Forres street, and said they were looking forward to seeing more models, encouraging me to explore more possibilities and themes.
During our user testing, a passing teenager saw our iPad screen and took the initiative to ask us what we were doing, expressing interest and like for this AR effect and thinking it was awesome and cool.
References
Blanco, H. and Lal, R., 2023. Restoration and Management of Degraded Soils. In: *Soil Conservation and Management*. Springer, Cham. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30341-8_14.
Evelegh, R., 2016. Big up Monty D: what young people think about gardening. *The Guardian*, [online] 22 September. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2016/sep/22/big-up-monty-d-what-young-people-think-about-gardening.
Kinema, 2024. Six Inches of Soil Event. [online] Available at: https://kinema.com/events/six-inches-of-soil-iyaqcj/tickets.
Marsh, P., Diekmann, L.O., Egerer, M., Lin, B., Ossola, A. and Kingsley, J., 2021. Where birds felt louder: The garden as a refuge during COVID-19. *Wellbeing, Space and Society*, 2, p.100055. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wss.2021.100055.
Paz-Ferreiro, J., Gascó, G., Méndez, A. and Reichman, S.M., 2018. Soil Pollution and Remediation. *International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health*, 15(8), p.1657. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081657.
Produce Green Foundation, 2024. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). [online] Available at: https://pcd.org.hk/csa/gb/csa01.html.
Saggau, P., Busche, F., Brunotte, J., Duttmann, R. and Kuhwald, M., 2024. Soil loss due to crop harvesting in highly mechanized agriculture: A case study of sugar beet harvest in northern Germany. *Soil and Tillage Research*, 242, 106144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2024.106144.
Scotland's Environment Web, 2024. Risk Maps. [online] Available at: https://soils.environment.gov.scot/maps/risk-maps/.
Sultan, P., Tarafder, T., Pearson, D. and Henryks, J., 2020. Intention-behaviour gap and perceived behavioural control-behaviour gap in theory of planned behaviour: Moderating roles of communication, satisfaction and trust in organic food consumption. *Food Quality and Preference*, 81, 103838. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2019.103838.
Tandon, A., Dhir, A., Kaur, P., Kushwah, S. and Salo, J., 2020. Why do people buy organic food? The moderating role of environmental concerns and trust. *Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services*, 57, 102247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102247.
Willer, H., Trávníček, J. and Schlatter, S., 2024. *The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2024*.
Appendix
