To create an app that lets users easily search and find local farms, purchase them on an app like a grocery store, and to pick it up at their convenience to make it easier to obtain local goods.

The Goal

I wanted to solve my own problem. As someone who can't always make it to the farmers markets on the weekends, I wanted an easier way to get fresh, organic local produce and animal products with a more flexible schedule.

The Problem

Primary Research

Pain Points

My goals were to find how people get local products currently and to find the frustrations people experience trying to find or get local produce. 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. 

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.

How can people be sure the good are actually local?

Product

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Competitive Audit

A craigslist type app for homemade and homegrown items, no map view, and limited inventory.

Farm Fresh 24/7

Farmish

Farmers Market Haul

There is still not a “shopping” function in any of these options and all use messaging as the primary way of purchasing.

Simple and easy to use app with consistent branding, but less farms and traffic listed.

Crowded and cramped feeling app with less filter ability and inconsistent branding, but lots of traffic.

Secondary Research

Takeaways

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.

User Story

Goals

Frustrations

“I am not very good with technology and would like to get fresh produce without searching so hard.”

Mia
29
Mexico City, NM
Married 2 kids
SAHM

Name:
Age:
Hometown:
Family:
Occupation:

Goals

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.

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.”

Ben
40
Nashville, TN
Single
Farmer

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.

Name:
Age:
Hometown:
Family:
Occupation:

User Story

Goals

Frustrations

“Nothing is better than home grown.”

User Story

Personas

Information Architecture

Beginning the Design Process

Digital Wireframing

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

Processing the Problems

Low Fidelity Prototyping

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.

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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. 

After Usability Study

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.

Users noted that the writing was small and difficult to read, so I updated the font to be larger.

Before Usability Study

After Usability Study

Before Usability Study

After Usability Study

Before Usability Study

Making Necessary Changes

Hi-Fidelity Prototyping

What I Learned

Project Takeaways

Confirmation is Key

My font sizing was a little small for some users and they had difficulty reading the app. This is imperative that it should be readable for everyone who wishes to use it.

The Right Size

Project Summary

Thank you!

Through my research, I found there is a market for this product, but a newer cleaner app is needed and might need some marketing to get it off the ground and discoverable. My usability studies indicated the app was easy to navigate and similarly laid out to other maps, making it intuitive to use. There were minor tweaks needed to improve the function, and if this were to launch in the real world, I would measure it's success based on Use of Navigation VS Search, Dropoff Rates, and Conversion Rates.