Teapot Gardens
Putting a playful, gamified twist on community event sourcing and management
Role
Product Designer, Contract
Timeline
Nov. 2024 - Jun. 2025
Team
3 Product Designers
9 Developers
Skills Leveraged
Product Design
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Project Overview
Teapot Garden is a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, seeking to curate more green spaces within urban communities through social garden-based events. They needed an app that would entice more event attendees, keep them engaged, and ultimately encourage more volunteers. As a designer, I worked closely with the non-profit to evaluate the core needs of their organization and helped propose a feasible technical solution to be built out in less than a year. We designed the app from zero to one, along with a full-scale design system and design documentation to help ensure that the product can be sustained by the non-profit long term.
Problem
Managing events and volunteers are difficult and scattered
This can take forms of missed connections, overwhelmed organizers, and a hard time building a reliable, returning community of attendees
II. OUR SOLUTION
Introducing the Teapot Gardens Mobile App
Onboarding
We reimagined onboarding as a story-driven experience, using custom illustrations and motion to make users feel like they were entering the Teapot Garden itself—turning sign-up into an inviting moment that set us apart from typical registration flows.
Registration
The flow includes Google/Apple login, a streamlined password recovery process, and a demographic information step for personalized experiences. A “Pick Your Starter Plant” feature is also included, inviting users to begin with a sense of ownership and play.
Discovery
The Discover flow was designed with a playful card-swiping UX (inspired by that of Pokemon cards!), condensed list view, and spotlighted events, allowing users to seamlessly explore programs right after onboarding.
Events Pages
The Event page highlights program imagery upfront, showing attendee counts to encourage participation, and introducing volunteer vs. attendee roles with XP rewards. Based on stakeholder feedback, we added attendee profiles and community photo galleries, reinforcing Teapot’s emphasis on connection and shared experiences.
Garden Nursery
The Garden is Teapot’s main engagement hub, featuring a refined semi-linear plant modular unlock system tied to real-world milestones, hand drawn visuals/illustration work, and edge-case handling to make progression feel rewarding at every stage.