Make stock visible
Customers can search and filter plants, then see photos, prices, availability, and useful details before visiting.
Projects
Inventory / Product design / Web
07 / 09
Canopy
A mobile-first catalog and inventory prototype for nurseries whose products are difficult to browse online and inconvenient to keep current.
A two-minute walkthrough of the customer catalog, inventory update flow, and add-plant interface.
02 / What I observed
Across the nursery websites I reviewed, a recurring pattern was that inventory existed but was difficult to discover online. Some sites exposed only broad categories or static spreadsheets; others asked customers to call for availability. Photos, current quantities, sizes, and prices were often separated or missing.
That creates friction on both sides. Customers cannot easily decide whether a trip is worthwhile, while employees may repeatedly answer basic availability questions and update records through a workflow designed for an office computer rather than the nursery floor.
03 / How Canopy helps
Canopy connects a customer-facing catalog with a focused staff editor. Both use the same inventory model, so information only needs to be maintained once and can later come from a real database or an existing business system.
Update it where the work happens
Employees can change quantities, prices, and availability from a phone or tablet while standing beside the inventory.
Add products without busywork
A focused form lets staff add a plant, its details, and an image without editing a spreadsheet or a web page by hand.
Start without replacing everything
The catalog can be linked from an existing website first, then connected to a database or inventory feed when the business is ready.
04 / How it fits the business
Answer the customer’s first questions
The catalog prioritizes the information that determines whether someone visits: what the nursery carries, whether it is available, what it looks like, and what it costs.
Treat the phone as a working tool
Customers may browse while traveling and employees may update stock away from a desk. Both sides were designed for the smallest screen first.
Reduce the cost of trying it
A nursery can test the customer experience behind a simple link. A future adapter can begin read-only, leaving the existing system in control until deeper integration is justified.
Prove usefulness before infrastructure
The prototype makes the complete workflow testable before requesting production data, purchasing infrastructure, or asking a business to commit to a migration.
05 / Current state
Canopy is an independent prototype based on public workflow research, not a commissioned or deployed client system. It uses fictional records and browser-local persistence. A production pilot would still require a nursery's real workflow, authenticated staff access, server-side storage, an audit trail, and a defined connection to its existing inventory source.