Nikole Morales
Hello! I'm a product designer and researcher who's focused on changemaking and service. In the past 2 years, I've built for collectives, coalitions, and ministries. I've researched for education and nonprofits. I try my best at whatever role I explore. Currently, I'm studying design at San Jose State University. Feel free to connect with me, I'm always open to new connections and opportunities to learn.
Webrings
Hopamine Webring
Cool Christian Webring
Hi, I'm Nikole Morales!
My goal is to encourage faith and climate action through design and mixed-methods research. I bring curiosity to every project, uncovering insights and resources to drive the design process. Currently, I'm learning about the design cycle, business, and climate solutions as my team and I grow our startup Green Garden.
In the future, I'd like to collaborate with likeminded Catholics or solarpunks to build for social good. I have many ideas that I'd love to share with peers!
Experience (2026)
Green Garden
UX Designer & Co-Founder | June 2026 - Present
Alliance for American Leadership
Web Design Intern | May 2026 - Present
SF Spirit
UX/UI and Marketing Designer | Feb 2026 - Present
San Jose State University
Research Assistant | Aug 2025 - May 2026
Organizations
Hopamine
Member & Designer | May 2026 - Present
Christians for Impact
Member & Former Volunteer | May 2025 - Present
Fun Fact
My favorite verse is Micah 6:8. It’s a grounding verse, reminding us that life doesn’t need to be lived grandly, it just needs to be lived with God.
Green Garden
Sustainable garden planning. Winner of the HOPAMINE Green Hackathon 2026. On track to officially launch.
June 13 - 14 2026
Role: Product Designer
Team: Isaiah Jackson, Ian McCulloch, Oskar Lebon
Tools: Figma
All mockups made with Morflax Studio
CONTEXT
HOPAMINE is a collective of creatives, builders, and changemakers that push for solarpunk solutions. On June 13, HOPAMINE hosted their 48-hour GREEN HACKATHON for participants to:
“Build software that solves a global environmental problem, owned locally.”
The winning team receives support from the host and the HOPAMINE community (a collective audience of 50k+) to refine the project, launch it, and promote it to reach 10K users.
Problem
Gardens have different needs depending on the type of garden and its local climate. The wide variety of gardening resources and advice online can mislead gardeners who don't yet understand what their land needs. Only recently have native plants and regenerative gardening practices entered the conversation, making specific information hard to find for aspiring sustainable gardeners.
Photo by Zoe Richardson on Unsplash
Solution
Green Garden, a platform that forms garden plans tailored to local ecosystems. Through a short flow, users of any skill level receive a selection of recommended plants tailored specifically to the user's gardening goals and region. Lowering the barrier to regenerative gardening prevents soil degradation, boosts biodiversity, and combats food insecurity.
Design
Simple Questions
A highly-visual and easy-to-navigate quiz about the user’s goals and land conditions.
Utilizes royalty-free stock imagery to engage users and improve their understanding, making the flow accessible to all ages.
Tailored Results
A page with a clear format presenting detailed recommendations for plants and best practices. Users quickly learn the exact plants to cultivate and how to do it with fewer cycles of trial-and-error.
Includes tags for users to quickly understand the basic information of a plant, leaning into the promised efficiency of the user journey.
Off-App CTA’s
Cards with the next steps users need to garden safely.
Includes a recommendation card with shop locations, connecting users to local small businesses. + An email card for users to own their data, which will be deleted off the app .
Process Snapshots
Design System
Early Mockups
Challenges
Research
Due to time constraints, we skipped research to build as soon as possible. Instead, we relied on the agricultural knowledge of our product owners, Ian and Isaiah. → We’re scaling down our scope to start with U.S. gardeners so we can keep our research focused and in-depth. We’ll consult agricultural experts and develop a strong understanding of best agricultural practices for our core user base. We’ll expand globally later. The project will become open-source, allowing us to research rapidly as a community.
Environmental Impact
The AI we use to generate results is both rudimentary and non-sustainable. We used AI to ship the product by the hackathon deadline. → Scaling down the product to U.S. gardeners gives us a more achievable goal: to build a comprehensive database to pull recommendations from without the use of an AI. Part of this process entails referencing existing database models as a starting point. Another part of this process entails partnering with U.S. Indigenous farmers to gain a de-colonized understanding of American ecology, offering equity and a platform for Indigenous advocacy. By minimizing our environmental footprint, our app will be more effective at drawing in climate-conscious users interested in Indigenous ecology and renewable gardening.
Revenue Modeling
The app doesn’t generate revenue, which threatens its long-term sustainability. We’ve included supplier recommendations as a feature to generate revenue through affiliate links. We haven't yet connected real suppliers due to time constraints. → Part of the database we’ll build includes local suppliers. We’ll reach out to suppliers across the country to form partnerships and collect links to add to the database. We’re also considering offering paid services to users such as soil testing outreach and garden mapping consultation, which we'll integrate into the app flow.
Impact
The app reduced garden planning to a 3-minute process with more tailored results that provide a point of connection to local businesses and transfer data ownership to users. Its emphasis on native plants introduces users to indigenous ecological knowledge and makes the app a tool for environmental justice. The app won the HOPAMINE Green Hackathon. With support from the host, the app will be refined, relaunched, and promoted to receive 10k users.
