An app to shop for locally grown produce and animal byproducts offering fresh organic local products in an online shopping experience.
Harvest
1 Month
Role: UX Research and Design
February 2025
To make local goods easy to purchase and pickup on a flexible schedule through a convenient, user-friendly app.
The Goal
Local goods are often difficult to access, typically limited to farmers' markets, which are only available on weekends and not as convenient as traditional grocery stores. With varying schedules and locations, many people seek a simpler, more accessible way to shop for organic, locally sourced products.
The Problem
Design Process
Test
Discover
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Hi-Fi Prototype
User Flow
Competitive Audit
User Interview
Information Architecture
Wireframing
Lo-Fi Prototype
Feedbacks
Conclusion
Personas
Empathy Map
Interview Questions
Discover Phase
User Interviewing
Do you buy local produce often? When you do, what are the reasons you do?
Where do you get your local produce from?
Do you feel you have any difficulties getting local produce?
Is there a scenario in which you would shop locally more often?
Interview Goals
I want to know the frustrations people experience trying to find or get local produce.
I want to know how people get local products currently.
I interviewed 3 family and friends who are interested in shopping local to start my initial process, since this is a mock project and I did not have access to a larger audience.
What I found through my research is that people are untrustworthy of produce even at farmers markets and want there to be transparency about where the product is coming from. People said they would be more willing to shop locally also if it was easy to access.
Takeaways
Initially, I assumed people do not shop locally because farmers markets are the most common way to get local produce and it is only one day a week, which might be inconvenient for some people.
Assumptions
Pain Points
Farmers markets being open only weekends are tough for busy schedules.
Support
Local goods are more expensive than big box grocery stores.
Financial
Buying local requires more effort than going to the grocery store.
Process
How can people be sure the products are actually local?
Product
Discovered
Primary Research
Competitive Audit
- There is a clean modern version out there but it is not as used or recognized as other older versions.
- People will still use it even if the interface is not clean or intuitive, so the market is there.
- There is still not a “shopping” function in any of these options and all use messaging as the primary way of purchasing.
- I like the function to be able to login to message or purchase but you can use the app without logging in.
Interaction:
Visual Design:
Content:
- You can search specific items using their categories
- (A)They have views likes and reviews
- (B) When you click on vegetables, it says peppers at the top. Messy work.
Visual Design:
- Crowded and not clean
- (C) Top photos do not align with brand, branding inconsistent
Content:
- Writing mostly done only by the farms
Takeaways
Unique Value Proposition: Information based system to find Verified local farmers near you.
Interaction:
Visual Design:
Content:
- 2 views (list and map)
- No tabs to get to different menus
- No Search bar
- (A) There’s a very long row of products at the top that is a little too long to sort through to find what you need
Visual Design:
- Crowded and cramped feeling
- (B) Icons are inconsistent sizes and different art styles
- (C) The use of buttons and icon colors don’t seem related to their brand. Inconsistent branding
Content:
- Writing mostly done only by the farms.
Farmers Market Haul
Crowded and cramped feeling app with less filter ability and inconsistent branding, but lots of traffic.
Secondary Research
Farmish
C
A
B
C
A
B
Interaction:
Visual Design:
Content:
- You must login to use
- Need to message seller to purchase
- Simple navigation buttons at bottom
- (A)View options at top make it very obvious how you might want to search
Visual Design:
- Beautifully simple and clean
- Consistent branding
- (B) The marker is a little bit hard to see on the map because it’s all the same color.
Content:
- (C)Very simple an easy explanations so you know how to use the app
Simple and easy to use app with consistent branding, but less farms and traffic listed.
Unique Value Proposition: Great filtering for farm or listings and really clean easy to use layout.
A Craigslist type app for homemade and homegrown items, no map view, and limited inventory.
Unique Value Proposition: It’s a craiglist style listing space for homemade and home grown items
Farm Fresh 24/7
Personas
She wants to nourish her children with organic locally grown. produce and meat without antibiotics or pesticides.
She can’t always tell if the produce is actually locally grown even at farmers markets.
As a mother, I just want better transparency about which food is local and fresh so I can feed my family nutritious meals.
“Nothing is better than home grown.”
Ben
40
Nashville, TN
Single
Farmer
Name:
Age:
Hometown:
Family:
Occupation:
“I am not very good with technology and would like to get fresh produce without searching so hard.”
Angie
65
New Braunfels, TX
Married, grown kids
Retired
Name:
Age:
Hometown:
Family:
Occupation:
To find a place to go to regularly each week to buy local in season produce that’s fresh and healthy.
She can’t go to farmers markets due to her schedule, and has difficulty with technology to find other local produce.
As a busy retired woman, I just want an easy way to shop for local produce so I can pick it up in my own time.
Goals
User Story
Frustrations
To find other ways to sell his local good other than limiting to weekend farmers markets.
He has a website but no one seems to know that his farm exists and sells a variety of goods.
As a busy farmer, I just want people to be able to find and purchase my products without spending time or money on marketing so I can focus on providing quality local products.
User Story
Goals
Frustrations
"The ultra processed and modified foods just don’t have the same nutrition anymore. I just want my kids to grow up happy and healthy.”
Mia
29
Mexico City, NM
Married 2 kids
SAHM
Name:
Age:
Hometown:
Family:
Occupation:
User Story
Goals
Frustrations
Define Phase
Empathy Map
Thinks
Feels
Says
Does
Resigned about not buying local.
Frustrated that farmers markets are only available for a short period of time on Saturdays.
Frustrated that it’s not easy to find local produce and determine if it’s local.
Shops at the grocery store and also farmers markets, but will sometimes choose cheaper items that are not local.
Shops at big box stores because he does not want to put the effort into shopping local.
Buys eggs from neighbors but generally shops at the grocery store, where she will buy local if she sees it there.
“I am always busy Saturday. If farmers markets were an option other weekdays I would go.”
"If I knew where to get it and it were vetted for me...”
“It’s fresher, hasn’t traveled as far, harvested and in a shorter time frame, better quality.”
That it requires addition effort to get local produce.
That she will shop local when it is convenient or purchase from neighbors.
That it’s difficult to find out if what you’re getting is local.
4. Custom Farm Pickup
Incorporating Data
Convenience was a key factor with all of my interviewees. I wanted to create an experience that would be convenient for the shoppers and the farmers.
1. Convenience is Key
With custom pickup instructions, farms can put orders in designated locations and make pickup simple for customers and convenient for themselves.
2. Online Shopping is Easy
3. Scheduling for Customers
To make it convenient, I thought an online grocery shopping experience would be a great solution.
How does this work with local farms? Customers order their groceries online and schedule pickup based on farms listed hours.
4. Scheduling for Farms
For farms, the custom hours of operation allows them to operate like a small business and the scheduling allows them to plan pickups.
Ideate Phase
User Flow
Information Architecture
Pickup scheduling based on farmers listed availability to make groceries more accessible with custom pickup instructions for farmers to leave orders in designated locations, how to get there, or any particularities.
I started with digital as I find it easier and faster than paper. I wanted to make sure there were ways to search by particular farms or items to make it simple to find what you are looking for, and to sort by location since the customer has to pickup their order. Additionally, I wanted it to be more like grocery shopping on a website, and created a cart feature where you can create an order per farm, with scheduling availability to decrease the back and forth of messaging.
Cart feature for checkout
Searchability by map view, by farm, or by item with “distance away” to see how close you are for accessibility.
Low Fidelity Prototype & Testing
Digital Wireframing
Processing the Problems
Make the search bar opening "Tap" to serach.
Credit card layout should be more clear
Change wording "Schedule Pickup" to "Checkout".
Create a separate billing page to make checkout clearer.
Solutions
Test the Low-Fidelity Prototype Here
Takeaways
Swipe to search was not clear so there were difficulties getting to the list view.
Payment card selection was unclear, and couldn't tell if paid.
Wording "schedule pickup" caused confusion as to if that as the checkout button.
Moderated Usability Study
Subjects will be given a brief introduction then a list of tasks to follow.
Methodology
Project Background
To help people obtain better quality local products, I am creating an app with a grocery shopping experience with scheduling pickup capabilities.
To see if the app is intuitive enough to make it easy for customers to find farms and items.
Research Goals
Time on Task
User Error Rates
Key Performance Indicators
Is it easy for someone to navigate and checkout items in the app?
Are there aspects that could be clearer or organized better?
Research Questions
User Testing
High Fidelity Prototype & Testing
04
01
03
02
After Usability Study
Before Usability Study
After Usability Study
Before Usability Study
After Usability Study
Before Usability Study
Making Necessary Changes
Relooking at popular apps, I wanted to include the add to cart button fixed at the bottom instead just the top of the page.
After Usability Study
Before Usability Study
Button Sizing & Placement
14pt Font > 16pt Font
I simplified the cards to include only basic information to not overwhelm users, using other popular apps UI to quickly add to cart in list view.
Cramped Feeling
Users noted that the writing was small and difficult to read, so I updated the font to be larger.
I simplified the cards to include only basic information to not overwhelm users.
Cramped Feeling
Quantity Update
Users noted that they may like to add more than one quantity of an item and there is no way to do that in the item page.
The font was a messy cursive that may have not been the best choice for accessibility. After some feedback, I updated it across the app to make sure all writing is legible.
Accessibility Forward Font
Email Confirmation
Users noted that they would like to get an email confirmation with all order details including pickup time to make sure their order went through. I added that information and increased the font size slightly for readability.
Hi-Fidelity Mockups
