Seedlings
Using plant metaphors and attachment theory to facilitate emotional growth and deeper human connections
My Role
Product Designer
UX Researcher
Tools
Figma
LottieFiles
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe After Effects
Timeline
Feb 2024 - April 2024
Overview
Seedlings is a concept project designed to make understanding and improving attachment styles more approachable and engaging.
It encourages emotional awareness and articulation by giving users a plant avatar to grow alongside, encouraging self-care, empathy, and the development of secure attachment behaviors.
By normalizing emotional expression, the need for support, and the act of giving and receiving care, Seedlings helps users cultivate healthier relationships and greater self-awareness.
Read full research paper here
Problem Space
How might we facilitate more genuine connections and mutual understanding between people through a digital tool grounded in attachment theory?
Overview
Attachment Theory
Proposes that the nature of the bond formed between a caregiver and an infant can significantly affect the child's social, emotional, and cognitive development. [3, 16]
This attachment bond acts as a prototype for all future social relationships, impacting the individual's capacity to form stable relationships, manage emotions, face challenges throughout life. [5] “Relationships” in this context indicate various relations (familial, platonic, professional, romantic, etc.)[15]
Things to note:
Attachment is a spectrum
Attachment styles are flexible [2, 26]
The 4 Attachment Styles
There are four types of attachment styles, and to briefly explain each, we’ll explore them through three key areas: development, which reflects early caregiver experiences; relationships, focusing on intimacy and communication; and workplace, examining collaboration, leadership, and performance.
Secure Attachment:
Development: Confidence in caregiver availability fosters self-esteem, resilience, and healthy relationships.
Relationships: Comfortable with intimacy, communicates needs effectively, and depends on partners appropriately.
Workplace: High job satisfaction, strong interpersonal relationships, and trust in leadership.
Anxious Attachment:
Development: Inconsistent caregiving leads to worry and sensitivity to relational changes.
Relationships: Deeply invested but prone to self-doubt, fear of abandonment, and behaviors that can overwhelm partners.
Workplace: Seeks acceptance, struggles with independence, but demonstrates self-reflection and pursuit of improvement.
Avoidant Attachment:
Development: Emotional unavailability creates a preference for independence and difficulty with intimacy.
Relationships: Prioritizes autonomy, avoids emotional closeness, and suppresses emotions to maintain distance.
Workplace: Independent, productive, and task-oriented but less likely to seek collaboration or trust leadership.
Disorganized Attachment:
Development: Erratic or frightening caregiving creates confusion in relational behaviors.
Relationships: Exhibits traits of both anxious and avoidant attachment styles.
Workplace: Fluctuates between high-anxiety and avoidance, impacting consistency and emotional regulation.
What’s your attachment style?
Rationale
Why this topic?
The inspiration for exploring attachment styles in my undergraduate Capstone project at IMA comes from my fascination with how deeply they influence relationships, self-perception, and quality of life. Personally, understanding my own attachment style was both challenging and illuminating, helping me make sense of the chaos in my relational dynamics and self-regulation.
Over 40% of people have an insecure attachment style, and considering the ways in which they influence a wide array of life domains– from psychological resilience and emotional intelligence to relationship satisfaction and personal growth– it was a topic that I couldn’t help but examine.
Why plants?
In Seedlings, plant care symbolizes how vital it is to care for ourselves and others. Just like plants thrive with consistent attention, we all need emotional and psychological nurturing to grow. For me, this idea reflects how rewarding it feels to offer support and see someone flourish because of it. The plant avatars bring this to life, visually showing changes in emotional well-being—like wilting or blooming—which makes it easier to understand and respond to our own and others' needs. It’s a gentle, non-verbal way to explore vulnerability, build empathy, and strengthen connections.
Just as plants thrive with consistent care, humans do too. We shouldn’t have to rationalize it.
Emotional and psychological nurturing towards oneself and others is a fundamental need, not a luxury.
Read Full Research Paper & Documentation
User Assessment
Attachment style
Personality (Big Five model)
Relationship functioning
Seedling Selection
Users then select a plant avatar and “plant” their seedling in their digital garden. This plant becomes a visual representation of their emotional growth and attachment journey.
From there, users can begin adding friends to their garden, creating a space for mutual care and connection.
Your seedling grows as you improve your attachment security and give/receive support
Even a fully grown plant requires maintenance to be healthy
(continued care & attachment security)
Assessing users’ real time
emotional state
Widget check-in
The widget refreshes every few hours with simple, scalable questions that deepen with engagement, allowing quick, passive interactions to gauge emotional wellness. Users can access it passively as shown here, or within the app.
* this functionality is speculative and may depend on support for interactive widgets on IOS or android devices
Assessing users’ real time
emotional state
In-app Journal Feature
Users can choose freeform journaling to write entries without feedback or AI-guided journaling for personalized, prompt-based or conversational support tailored to their attachment assessment.
Encouraging Interpersonal
Support & Interaction
Garden Check-In
Users can view the well-being of their seedlings (friends) at a glance and check in on those who may be struggling. What is displayed depends on each friend’s privacy settings, ensuring users can offer support while respecting boundaries.
Encouraging Interpersonal
Support & Interaction
Sending Resources
Symbolic resources like water, sunlight, or love, offers a quick yet meaningful way to check in with others. These gestures
reduce the vulnerability of expressing needs directly
provide time-efficient ways to maintain connections
encourage regular engagement through their simplicity.
Providing a visual representation of support and care, differentiates the gesture from text messaging or calls.
Encouraging Interpersonal
Support & Interaction
Send a Card
These cards are not just messages but interactive prompts that encourage mutual sharing, reflection, and deeper connection.
Picking a deck -> more user autonomy over the type of conversation
Hidden card prompt -> both users have to choose to engage
Simultaneous answer reveal -> reinforces mutual investment in the relationship
Interactive Learning Modules
Allows users to engage more deeply with educational content about attachment styles, their impacts, and self-improvement strategies.
Discussion
Disclaimer
Seedlings as a Complementary Tool
Seedlings is designed to complement, not replace, the personal and often professional journey required for secure attachment and self-improvement. It provides a framework that supports self-awareness and relational growth through accessible resources and interactive features. The app acts as a touchpoint for users, encouraging them to explore their emotional states and behavioral patterns within a supportive digital environment.
Prototype Successes
The question that prompted this project was “How might we facilitate more genuine connections and mutual understanding between people through a digital tool grounded in attachment theory?”
4/5 features within this app were tested with positive feedback whereas the effectiveness of the journaling feature remains unclear. Successful features are as follows:
plant avatars
widget check-ins
sending symbolic resources
sending cards
Next Steps
Collaborations with Therapists and Counselors:
Validate and refine research data to ensure the app’s content aligns with best psychological practices.
Regularly update educational resources to reflect the latest attachment theory research.
Expand content offerings with expert articles, videos, and interactive learning modules to deepen user knowledge and application of attachment concepts.
Refining AI Features:
Work with AI trainers to improve the app’s journal feature, ensuring responses are personalized, contextually appropriate, and sensitive to user needs.
Develop AI capabilities to better understand and respond to diverse emotional expressions, providing thoughtful and effective feedback.