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Problem.
How might we motivate people to shop at farmers' markets more often?
Skills.
Affinity mapping, Interviewing, Ethnographic research, Personas, Wire-framing, Low-fidelity prototyping, High-fidelity prototyping
Solution.
Farmystery brings the fun of a farmers' market to your doorstep through a delivery service, themed mystery boxes, informative videos and highlights.
My role.
Since this was a school project I worked solo as the Product Designer. I conducted user research, ideated features and developed high and low fidelity prototypes with constant feedback from my peers and professor.
Feature 3.
MARKET INFO PAGE
Get to know the people you're buying from. Learn more about the market and farming community through photos and descriptions.
Key Features :
Feature 1.
The organic freshness of the farmers' produce is delivered to your doorstep.
Feature 2.
COLOR PALETTE MYSTERY BOXES
Order a mystery box based only off a description & color palette. See what other shoppers made with it for inspiration!
PRODUCE DELIVERY OPTION
HOW I GOT HERE :
- Starting Point: Secondary Research -
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With the coronavirus pandemic, many people are wary of in-person shopping and have resorted to online shopping to order their groceries. This article on civileats.com states that local farmers who sell directly to local markets are left struggling to make sales. This report from Brick Meets Click and ShopperKit states that roughly 31% of U.S households have shopped online over the past month (February 2020) & 43% of the survey respondents stated that they were extremely likely or very likely to continue online grocery shopping even after the crisis passes. This leaves local farmers at a competitive disadvantage, even though shopping from farmers markets are more ethical and healthy. So, we began to figure out whether & how we can motivate people to support local farmers markets through a delivery app.
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- Hypothesis -
Based on our secondary research we hypothesize that a farmers' market delivery app will motivate people to shop from local farmers markets more. We will use Google's heart framework to identify and measure KPIs to validate this hypothesis.
- Survey -
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GOAL: To determine whether a delivery service app can be used to motivate people to shop at farmers' markets more often
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TARGET AUDIENCE: People who were inclined to make ethical food consumption choices but preferred online delivery
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KEY FINDING: Out of 34 people who responded to the survey 70.6% said that a delivery service would be an incentive & 26.5% said they would be hesitant
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KEY INSIGHT: When asked why not, a major pain-point that emerged was that people felt the delivery service would not convey the true farmers' market experience
- Interviews -
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GOAL: Understand what people valued about the farmers' market experience & how we can convey it in our app.
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PROCESS: We conducted 1:1 interviews with 17 of the survey respondents. Here are some direct quotes:
Archana, 42
📍Milwaukee
"There is always something new I haven't seen or cooked with before. I'm a very experimental cook so I like to see what's new and seasonal each time."
Arijit, 36
📍New York
"It's a nice experience because it represents my community. It's nice to learn about our farming communities and form connections with the ones who help put the food on our plates."
Becca, 22
📍New York
"I would rather buy from a farmers' market because it feels more authentic like you're supporting real people and not large corporations"
Nicco, 24
📍Los Angeles
"It's nicer to have fresh and chemical free stuff for a change. knowing that it's organic & sourced locally feels very different from grocery stores with pesticide ridden vegetables all the way from who knows where."
- Synthesizing Insights -
Based on the interviews, we complied an affinity map to find thematic clusters. We identified 3 key aspects users valued about the farmers' market experience:
- Ethnographic Research -
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GOAL: To understand user goals, habits, and behaviors as they experience the farmers market so it can be emulated most authentically in our app.
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PROCESS: I accompanied my users to the farmers' markets and took notes to document how they interacted with other shoppers, the sellers, the produce, and the environment. A passive observation method was used so users carried out their most natural interactions. Here is an example of some notes I took:
- User Persona -
Based on our insights from our interviews and ethnographic research, we complied our target user persona:
- Redefined Problem -
How might we incorporate the farmers market experience in a farmers' market delivery service app?
- Feature Mind-map -
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GOAL: Figure out how the farmers' market experience can be imitated through our app.
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PROCESS: We separated the key 3 aspects of the farmers' market experience we identified through our research and generated ideas for each of them through a brainstorming session. We didn't hold back and listed all ideas no matter how unrealistic they seemed.
- Feature Matrix -
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GOAL + PROCESS: Since our goal was to generate a memorable experience mimicking the appeal of a farmers' market, we used the How-Now-Wow matrix to weigh originality of the ideas with the cost of implementation.
- Information Architecture -
To make sure users were able to navigate through the app and complete orders, we laid out the IA of the app.
- Low Fidelity Prototype & Testing -
ITERATION 1
ITERATION 2
After conducting usability tests and getting feedback, I implemented the following changes:
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Improving visibility of palette and produce list/ Shortening flow
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Reducing palette colors and adding an accompanying image to distinguish them from each other
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Better clarity for package price and size correlation
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Reviews and prices of package as overlays so users can scroll through palettes uninterrupted
- Visual Design -
Since I wanted the fruit and vegetable imagery to stand out I went with a clean black and white theme with a subtle grey background and blown up images.
- High Fidelity Design -
- High Fidelity Prototype -
- Measuring Impact -
- Reflection & future steps -
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Too many features!: Since this was done as a school project for a class centered around visual appeal, the creativity and aesthetic design of the app was often prioritized over the UX. Since then I have learned to focus on the usability of fewer features to develop a truly human centered product. If I were to redo this project, I would focus only on the mystery box feature (highest value to a spontaneous user, highest impact in terms originality) and develop the IA around that. Regardless, this project was an incredible learning experience for me.
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UI skills: While there's things I would do differently in terms of prioritizing features for MVP I gained valuable UI experience by designing something clean and bold at the same time. I feel the visual design accurately reflects the user needs & brand value and it also gained positive feedback during critiques.
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End user testing: While I conducted usability tests with the low fidelity prototype, it would be nice to see how real users interact with the high fidelity prototype with the real colors of the mystery boxes as opposed to unsaturated versions.
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The tech and business aspect: While prioritizing features for the MVP I weighed effort of implementation with originality of the product. However, since this was done in a classroom setting, I did not have a real world understanding of business and technical constraints. It would be great to work with these in the future.