Clever Crops

UI/UX • Research

Project overview

The purpose of this project was to create a cheap and easy-to-use solution that any farmer can take advantage of to increase their crop yield. Our goal is to help low-literate farmers in developing countries optimize their water usage and increase their crop yield.

My role

As a UX lead, I provided the overall design direction and steered the mobile development team to implement the mobile app to my specs. 

Problems

Currently, many farmers struggle to manage their farms because there is no real-time guidance on water use.

"India supports 15 percent of the world’s population, but has only 4 percent of the world’s water resources - this in itself is concerning. World Bank data shows that only 35 percent of India’s agricultural land is irrigated. This means that a huge 65 percent of farming depends totally on rain."

Design process

  • Conducted user interviews to have a better understanding of the users.
  • Used Design Thinking exercises like Empathy maps and User Stories to identify the problem area and potential solution ideas.
  • Through the user research, we gathered the pain points that we needed to address.
  • Conducted research on apps that are designed for low-literates and children.
  • Based on the pain points, we identified three main need statements.
  • Facilitated a sketch session to generate ideas.
  • Identified issues and user’ needs and iterated on the ideal solution. 
  • Validated the final idea with our sponsor users.
  • Created wireframes and used Invision to create a clickable prototype for testing. Worked with a design researcher to conduct tests on three sponsor users.

User interview

To better understand how farmers predict the rainfall and how they ensure their crops get the water they need, my teammate, Gaurav, packed his bags and travelled halfway across the world to conduct research in India. He interviewed 4 low-literate farmers who lived and owned farmland in rural India. By learning about their motivations, frustrations, and needs, we were able to gain user insights.

User interview finding

  • A common concern was water and being unsure of the amount needed to water crops
  • Weather information was not readily available, farmers relied on newspapers and the radio
  • Farmers showed interest in the application and would spend upwards of C$100 to have up to date information 
  • The solution should have a strong focus on usability and accessibility, especially for low-literate users
  • The solution needs to be low cost: Android devices are common and available at a very low cost, while the sensor can be made for a few dollars.

User flows

Sketch session with the key stakeholders

Scenario

It’s scorching hot these last few days. Armaan, a family farmer in India, hopes the rain will come soon. He hardly has any water and his crops are in danger. His children and parents rely on him.

The weather forecast for his region (which is large) is provided through the radio. The chance of rain is low, but he is unsure if he should use his spare water or hold out a bit longer for rain.

Through a local event, Armaan learns about Clever Crops, an app that provides real-time guidance on the water for farmers. A soil sensor is required to detect temperature and soil humidity. He purchases a sensor from the event and he downloads the app as soon as he gets home.


Select a language

Clever Crops detects that Armaan is located in India. The first task Armaan needs to do is to select a language.  Clever Crops shows him the 6 most commonly used languages in India.

Though Armaan is semi-literate, he can easily identify his preferred language through the visual alphabet/symbols on each button. He presses each button and hears audio for that specific language to further strengthen Armaan's confidence that he is selecting the appropriate language.

Onboarding

Armaan goes through the onboarding experience. Each slide is accompanied by audio instruction. It gives Armaan an overview of how Clever Crops will help him.

Adding crops & checking the weather

After going through the onboarding experience, Armaan sees the weather information and is prompted to enter his first crop. Armaan is pleased to see up-to-date weather information since he only gets weather information from newspapers, tv, or radio. Now, he can check the weather anytime he wants.

Search

Armaan searches and adds his crops by typing, speaking or through image search.

Selecting crop type & growth stage

To ensure Clever Crops gives accurate prediction and water advice, Clever Crops asks Armaan to confirm the crop type and crop growth stage.

Measures

In the last step, Clever Crops prompts Armaan to place the sensor in the soil.  The sensor will take the temperature and soil humidity reading. This information is sent to a central station for processing and combining with weather forecasts. The central server sends each station its water usage recommendation for Armaan's area.


Recommendations

After a few seconds, Armaan receives information for the water recommendation. Armaan reads that he should wait for 3 days before using any water because rain is expected soon.

He can easily read the instructions using the visual legends.

He follows the advice and indeed he saves water and his crops are growing again.


Illustrations for different stages of crops & water advice.

What I learned

• Don't make "North American" assumptions. Always validate the design early with sponsor users.

• A flag is not a good way to represent a language. There are many countries in the world where multiple languages are spoken and in some cases, there are political disputes around flags. Different regions within a country might not see themselves as part of that country due to wars or the desire to be independent. Using a disputed flag to represent their language might alienate users. 

• Since most of the users are low-literates, we should rely heavily on images instead of words

• Keep the app as "offline" as possible, most of the farmers don't have a lot of data to spare or don't have a data plan.

• Keep the app as "lightweight" as possible, most of the farmers are using older Android phones. We need to ensure we don't drain the user’s battery with the app.

Outcomes

• Clever Crops is going to be a part of the University IoT education program in November 2021

• Clever Crops technologies will develop the IoT housing with their scalable technology

• Working with the University of New Mexico for the education project, “Echo”  to educate people on location using sensors and our application

• Pilot in Thailand and/or Africa (via sponsor users' help)

• Adding soil information to improve agricultural advice by collaborating with the University of Guelph

• The WorldBank and the UN have shown interest to be part of the project


Using Format