Version 1.8 - design update & more stats!

Hey so its been a while since the last update. As I have mentioned I recently started working full-time again so have had less time for this project, but I found a bit of time in the last weeks so without further ado, here is Version 1.8!

Various design / UI updates

• You may notice immediately that various core UI elements have received some attention this update. Things like Buttons and Inputs are now looking much nicer with a solid shadow effect, as well as a new "on-click" animation.

• Home screen rework - the main plant logging interaction has bee simplified to just depend on 2 buttons. The previous flow was kinda flashy and I think for that reason I held onto it despite it not being a good UX, but after seeing the feedback from some new users I decided its just not clear enough what you are supposed to do when first using the app. The new flow is also 1 less click so thats a great benefit for existing users as well.

• Extended stats screen - introduced in the previous update, the stats screen is now even better. I have added a new Line Chart to show your progress over time as well as a selector to view previous weeks logs and breakdowns. Please note that this screen is for now "online only" so you need to make an account to view it.

• New animations - I wanted to do this for ages but didn't get round to it. But from you will see a satisfying celebration / animation when hitting your thirtieth plant (as well as in a couple of other situations too).

New categories

After quite a bit of thought and discussion, I have added 2 new categories: Fungus and Flowers.

Although technically not "plants", Mushrooms have amazing nutritional value and I would like to app to encourage this. Currently, we just have a single entry for "Mushroom" and then many sub varieties, but this feels increasingly like a disservice to the wide array of edible fungus in the world.

Flowers has a slightly different justification. Flowers such as "Jasmine", "Lavender" or "Camomile" have frequently come up in peoples requests and its been a source of personal confusion each time as to whether they count as "herbs" or "spices" or neither. Eventually I came to the opinion that they deserve their own category. So I will gradually start moving those over soon as well.

Fixes

I fixed a couple of relatively recent issues in this update as well

• the bug mentioned in the previous announcement relating to Buttons & Pressable elements.

• an issue where Back/Forward navigation sometimes led to unintended interactions.

• some screens that required Online access were sometimes shown for Offline users.