The Challenge
Agriculture as ancient as the history of mankind, follows conventional practices. A few businesses and farmers are slowly adopting technology to increase their work efficiency. However, most are intimidated by the use of interfaces and equipment.
Duration
3 weeks
My Role
Research
Ideation
UI/UX Design
Prototyping
Testing
Why should we care?
The UN has projected global population to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Food production would need to be twice as much as today to feed the growing population.
The Problem Statement
How might we future-proof agriculture to meet the demand of the growing population.
The Solution
Enhanced decision-making | Seamless collaboration | Clear visibility.
Accurate data-driven decisions
To ensure sustainable growth and profitability.
Ability to plan target output and achieve them via progressive guidance.
Control to farmers
System’s insights to use the exact amount of raw material to achieve target quantity.
Visibility on business status to maintain efficient inventory levels.
Visibility across operation silos
Uncover hidden bottlenecks with holistic visibility on a crop’s life-cycle.
Farmers can identify the top and low KPI’s which enables them to prioritize resources accordingly.
Streamline partnership with stakeholders
Skyrocket profit margins with an end-to-end structured collaboration.
Seeking help in critical situations will avoid embarrassing situations such as failed deliverables.
The Outcome
FarmSmart was voted the 2nd best idea amongst my classmates
Candidates were given a limited budget to invest in ideas that they saw potential in.
Understanding the context and challenges faced
Concerning insights
Growing Population
The UN has projected global population to reach 9.6 billion by 2050.
Crop wastage
In developing economies, 32% of food losses occur during food production - McKinsey.
Climate Change
Rise in global temperatures, carbon dioxide, droughts, and floods - severely impacting agriculture.
What are the revolutions of farming?
We’re currently in the 2nd revolution.
The challenges identified
More clarity on how to approach the solution space.
Achieve target production
Inconsistent inventory levels
Yielding the target quantity of produce often depends on luck since the farmers have minimal information on how to maintain consistent production during uncertain times.
Lack of visibility
Reputation in the industry
Farmers have no understanding of their customer satisfaction. Their crop quality may get affected during transport and storage - occurrences beyond their control.
Inefficient use of resources
Water: 3x more than 50 years ago
Pesticides: 2 million t/yr (20-40% yield lost). Farmers overuse water and pesticides just to be cautious. However, these practices end up being counter-productive.
Limited networking
Restricted to farmers located nearby
It’s highly unlikely for farmers to track progress of farmers in different parts of their country or globally. Their knowledge is restricted to allies or farmers located nearby.
Defining the people and guiding principles
Key stakeholders identified within the ecosystem
Focus on agribusinesses owing to the highest frequency of communication.
Understanding how “control” and “identity” can be leveraged to empower farmers
Internal and external locust of control.
What the identity could be…
The guiding framework that influenced our design decisions
Remove | Reduce | Add | Raise
Remove
Poor communication and lack of visibility on achieving target output followed by successful delivery.
Add
A comfortable way to get accustomed to working with tech in agriculture.
Reduce
Over-utilization of raw materials by following system generated insights.
Raise
Awareness on where the exact bottlenecks arise and solutions to avoid their reoccurrence.
A sneak peek into the prototype and visual strategy
White-boarding and rough sketches helped explore quick variations in the early phase
Guided by system intelligence
Machine learning to detect bottlenecks in farming processes & provide actionable insights to achieve target output
Transparency achieved amongst all stakeholders
Produce can have unique QR codes that can be scanned via customers to share their reviews and feedback.
Networking and collaboration via digital means
Farmers can discover and collaborate with other farmers on meeting production targets efficiently.
Setting the mood for the product
Green was selected to represent crop and farmlands.
The primary colors needed to appear earthy
What the information would look like
Considering both background treatments.
The visual experience
Key flows based on the finalized option
Setting the UI library
It was crucial to have infographics for a quicker understanding of the system status.
A unique evaluation of our projects
Our projects were critiqued by our classmates and each of us had a set amount to invest in each idea.
Each of us were given a limited budget to invest in ideas that we saw potential in.
This is what the final investments looked like - the highest funded ideas are towards the far right.
And that’s my funding - I was thrilled to see my classmates invest their amount on a climate change fighting project.
Reflections
Challenges faced and what I’ve learnt
Bottlenecks
My first role playing experience of pitching an idea to potential venture capitalists was challenging at first since I had to incorporate business focused ideas into the presentation.
It was interesting to move away from the traditional design decks that would focus more on the design process.
Learnings
Exposed to new formats around traditional frameworks such as the Value Proposition and guiding principles.
They played a crucial role in churning out a compelling concept within a limited time period.
Future Steps
Focus on churning out an experience for the agri-business stakeholders.