End-to-End App Design
FarmStands Near Me
Role: UX / UI Designer
Tools: Adobe XD, Photoshop, Illustrator, Miro, Google Forms, Maze
Timeframe: 4 weeks in 2022
Overview
FarmStands Near Me is an app to help users find farm stands in their area. Users will have the options of searching via a map or keyword. Users will be able to sign in/create an account to save favourites, create farm stand profiles, and post on the profiles. Users will not have to sign in/create an account to search for farm stands.
It will be designed to be a free app without advertisements. Future recommendations for the business model would be to create a feature where users could pay for farm stand products on the app and FarmStands Near Me would receive a small fee for the transaction (similar to credit card charges).
Challenge
As the demand for buying and selling local continues to increase, the need to easily find local vendors increases with it.
Solution
From research to high-fidelity design and prototyping, I created a way for users to search and find farm stands as well as create an account, save favourites, and communicate with vendors.
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High-Level Design Goals and Objectives
Design a mobile app for Android
Design FarmStands Near Me brand
Target Audience
Farm stand owners
People who want to shop/support local vendors
Key Features (V1 Design)
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Search via map
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Search via keyword
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Sign in / create an account
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Save favourite farm stands
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Post messages to farm stand profile screen
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Create a new farm stand listing
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Add products
Understand
Research Plan
To learn how users currently search for farm stands online so that we can create a suitable platform.
Methodologies
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Customer Survey / Interviews
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Market Research
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Competitive / Comparative Research of competitors
Research Objectives
To determine:
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How users go through the process of finding farm stands online and off
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What motivates users to buy local: what is their why
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What information users are looking for when searching farm stands
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Which features are most important for users when searching farm stands
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What users’ pain points are when searching for farm stands
Participants
We will talk with people in the following behavioural categories, being sure to include a range of career stages, age ranges, genres, and ethnicities in our target industry:
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People who currently sell via a farm stand
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People who buy or would like to buy from farm stands
Research Debrief: Customer Survey / Interviews
The full Research Report can be viewed here. Below are the main take-aways.
Convenience
No participants listed this as a reason for visiting a farm stand. When questioned further, participants explained issues with:
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The time it took to find a farm stand selling the product they wanted
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Visiting several stands to purchase products was time consuming compared with purchasing from a supermarket
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Finding directions to the stand
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Discovering what other stands are nearby
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The inconvenience if the stand was sold out of a desired item
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Knowing what would be available in the coming days
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Not having cash to pay / the stand not accepting card payment
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Can be higher prices than supermarkets
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Not knowing the hours the stand is open
Why do people choose to put in the extra effort to purchase from farm stands?
According to the research:
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For the experience of it
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High quality products ("fresher and better")
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Building personal relationships with the farmers
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Supporting local businesses
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Buying direct - no middle person
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Gaining knowledge on how farmers grow their produce
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Unique products
“It's more of an experience than necessity for me. So if I'm buying produce at the farmer's market it's a decision I committed to (high prices and obstacles of the search)”
Market Research and Competitive / Comparative Research of Competitors
The current methods for searching for farm stands can be tedious in Canada. There are a few apps for download, however there are no farm stands listed in the country - they are all located in the United States. There are several websites that have Canadian listings, however the UI is very tedious to use and searching is time consuming. Because they are website based, the user has to type the address into their phone for directions. There are too many steps to the process. Facebook offers some relief in the form of users browsing local groups which list farm stands. However there is not a directory and finding information this way is cumbersome.
The number of farm stands in Canada is increasing considerably as the desire to buy local becomes more important to consumers.
The main focus for FarmStands Near Me will be on usability with the user’s needs in mind. Many apps only feature vendors willing to sell through the developer’s app, limiting the number of farm stands users can search. FarmStands Near Me will feature all farm stands in order to create a more functional app when users are searching for all the available farm stands near them. The main goal of the project will be to have most of the available farm stands in the given area with relevant, accurate information and directions.
Personas
Initially I recognized three provisional personas for the farm stands app, then, after the survey and interviews, I focused on a main persona identifying their motivations and challenges.
Two provisional personas, Thrifty Joe and Family Fran, were present in the surveys and I was able to dive further into their personalities with the research. However I could not connect with a farm stand owner in order to obtain a clearer picture of the persona Farmer Robin, so I relied on secondary research. I analyzed comments from farm stand owners on Facebook community farm stand groups and also the Cowichan Green Community's Growing Connection Handbook whose purpose is connecting farmers and purchasers and growing empathy between them. Through these resources I identified farm stand owners needs, frustrations, and motivations.
The full report can be viewed here.
“My experience that I love is building the personal relationships with the farmers, supporting them, gaining knowledge on how they grow their produce.”
Actual quote from customer survey research
Explore
Ideate
Next it was necessary to create a Feature Roadmap based on the previous research.
Priority 1
SEARCH BAR
• Ability to search via farm stand name, name of product, or location
FEED
• To be enabled only on farm stand profile pages as a way for the owner to engage with the customers and off valid info
MAP
• Users will be able to search for stands in their area via the map. They will also be able to get directions to the stand.
PROFILE
• Ability to add farm stand profile with details
• Ability to post images to farm stand profiles
Priority 2
SHARE OPTION
• Users can share specific farm stands via social media and email
REVIEWS
• Customer reviews and ratings on farm stand profiles
USER ACCOUNTS
• User registration, sign in, account page, and favourites so the user can access all their relevant and specific data such as favourite farm stands.
Priority 3
PAYMENT OPTION
• Ability for customer to pay for products via the app. FarmStands would then take a percentage of each purchase.
ONBOARDING
• Screens detailing main features of the app
PROFILE
• Private messaging
• Follow other users
ANIMATIONS
• For loading pages, heart icon, etc.
App Map
Based on priorities 1 and 2, I then created an app map for the project.
Users would not have to create an account / log in to search for farm stands, add one, or to add photos.
They would have to sign in / up in order to create favorite lists and see notifications. The purpose of this is to decrease the barrier to entry and increase the use of app for searching and adding farm stands, which is in line with the product goal of collecting as many farm stand profiles as possible.
Task Flows
I decided on two flows for the usability testing - add a farm stand and find a specific farm stand and add a new product.
Wireframes
Based on the app map, user research and competitive analysis, wireframes for the app were thoughtfully sketched out before the high fidelity wireframes were then created.
High fidelity wireframes
Task 1: Find Happy Valley Farm Stand (3 routes)
(1) Main Screen > Map Screen > Profile Screen
(2) Main Screen > Advanced Search > Map Screen > Profile Screen
(3) Main Screen > Favorites > Login/Signup Screens > Favorites Screen > Profile Screen
Task 2: Add a new product to Happy Valley Farm Stand
Home Screen > Map Screen > Profile Screen > Profile Product Screen > Add a Product Screen > Review New Product Screen > Profile Product Screen
Participants: 5 - 7 participants, all genders, 25-50 years old
Test Goal: The user is able to complete the flow with no/minimal issues
Materialize
Method: Usability Testing
Test Objectives:
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To understand how easily users can search and find a farm stand
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To understand how easily users can add a new product
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To identify any errors users encounter during the process
Usability Testing Recommendations
Insights:
Both flows were fairly straightforward and the assumption was they would be quite easy for most users. The results from the test confirm this with Flow 1 averaging ease of completion at 8.7/10 and Flow 2 averaged at 8.2/10.
"It was super easy to navigate! I think I'd like to see more information with the pins on the map. I'm thinking if I'm looking for farm stands in particular, I might want to see the main produce that is sold (e.g. honey, fruit)."
Recommendations:
Map Screen
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More details about the profile when clicked
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Directions link and km away from stand
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Show where user is on the map
Profile Screen - Products
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Use “winter” “summer” etc instead of “seasonal” as this may confuse some users
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Move Available Products before seasonal ones
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Change icon on Add Product to plus sign
Profile Screens - General
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Add “claim this farm stand”
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Add “flag this as inappropriate”
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Change name of "chat" to "feed"
before
after
before
before
after
after
Implement
UI Kit
Based on the product requirements a version 1 UI kit was designed to use it’s elements to quickly mock-up mobile screens.
Inputs were designed with plain language to enable users to quickly understand feedback and continue on their tasks accordingly.
Colours were tested with accessibility standards.
Simple UI for a Complex Solution
The goal when designing the frontend was to present a very simple and intuitive interface to the user, while still offering all the options needed for them to accomplish their tasks.
Usability testing was then done to analyze how users interacted with the app’s UI and edits were made accordingly.
High Fidelity Prototype Screens
Conclusion & Reflection
There are some farm stand apps appearing in the United States, however Canada is very limited in what is offered for users. Most of the ones in the US only list vendors willing to sell through their app, limiting the amount of vendors on the app and therefore limiting the user's choices and knowledge base.
The creation of an app or possibly a web app would be ideal for the growing market of people who would like to start supporting local, continue supporting local more easily, and supporting more local vendors. If vendors are selling more and becoming profitable in their ventures, it would encourage others to consider becoming vendors as well, increasing the market base. Being able to easily access most of the farm stand vendors in a given area would increase revenue while creating stronger communities through building lasting relationships with neighbours.