Case Study: GreenHouse
A virtual farmer’s market app that connects urban farmers and local neighborhood buyers.
Meets the supply and demand of fresh produce.
Boosts local economies.
Forges connections within communities.
Team
(Myself) Daria Zadorozhnaya
Research & development
User Testing & Interface
Prototyping
Type
UC Berkeley Extension Course Project
Year
JAN 2023 - APR 2023
The Problem
The Urban Farmers
Urban farmers frequently have a greater harvest than they and their families alone can consume.
Leading to wasted:
Food
Money
Time
Energy
The Neighbors
The growing desire for farm to table produce means there is a higher demand for local produce.
Wants goods that are:
Health-conscious
Affordable
On-demand
Locally-sourced
The Solution
This app aims to solve both issues by introducing buyers and sellers to one another. This will help them facilitate transactions, foster relations within communities, and support local farmers and business in the process.
Key Features
Commercial and social platform.
Organize and receive deliveries.
Connect with like-minded peers through community forums and events.
The Timeline
Week 1
Design Brief and Concept Map
Week 2
Personas
Week 3
Customer Journey Map
Week 4
Story Map
Week 5
User Flow
Week 6
Paper Prototypes
Week 7
Wireframes
Week 8
Digital Prototypes
Week 9
Case Study and Presentation
Weeks +
Further Iteration and Review
01 Initial Research: Design Brief and Concept Map
In order to put together my project, I needed to better understand the issue itself and refine my ideas towards the solution. I worked on ideas at multiple scales, such as:
How exactly would my app work?
What features would it include?
Who would it be used by, and what for?
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With a growing number of consumers thinking more and more about what happens to their produce before it reaches their table, the need for a reliable network of local growers also expands.
At the same time, urban farmers who put in the time and effort to nurture their own crops frequently find themselves with excess that goes to waste.
In order to forge a symbiotic relationship between these two groups, the development of this app as a virtual farmer’s market began.
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For Buyers: Users will be able to search directly for what they’re looking for, or browse through categories with ease. They’ll be able to rate their experiences, add farmers and/or farms to their favorites for convenience, compare prices, communicate with farmers directly, and securely checkout once they’re done.
For Sellers: Users will be able to designate their wares into available categories, create their own collections, provide information on their products and farm, set their own prices (and see the competition), advertise, organize events, and coordinate with associated delivery services.
For Both: There will be review systems available to weed out any scammers or bad apples, as well as additional customer support and resources.
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In addition to being a virtual marketplace, the app will also offer a place for local communities to get to know one another. Moderated forums and community posts will bring together people with mutual interests, advertise local events, competitions, and workshops.
For example, forums can include topics such as the latest tips and tricks for those starting out, recipe ideas for preservation canning, seasonal trends, and places to post pictures or share accomplishments with a supportive community.
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Initial development is planned for 10 weeks, the end of which will produce a working prototype that can be navigated for testing and feedback. Afterwards, the prototype can be finalized for initial launch and improved as needed. Networking can begin at any time, with advertisement directed towards appropriate groups and forums that would be interested in engaging with a new platform.
02 Defining the Users: Proto-Persona and Persona
To create my persona, I first had to do some research. After reading up on some published papers (found here, here, and here), I consolidated some demographics that would help me narrow down key characteristics about my persona.
Based on the study:
The age range of urban farmers is about 21 to 78 years of age, averaging out at around 44. For my persona, I chose to make her 28-years-old.
The gender distribution based off survey replies is 53% female, 44% male, 2% identifying as both and 1% as transgender or another identity. Based off the majority, my persona is female.
The majority of urban farmers were found to be in cities with a growing interest in being eco-friendly and counter-acting climate change. As such, I chose San Francisco both for its interests and its familiar territory.
The studies named 50 thousand a year as its low end for annual salaries.
Finally, the studies also noted that urban farmers were more often married and owners of a single-family home.
It started with a proto-persona I called “Amy”, who I used to put together the collected demographics, define specific behaviors, and understand the needs and goals of. Some highlights included:
Being climate-conscious and dedicating a lot of her time, energy, and resources towards urban farming.
Raising chickens for their eggs in addition to farming.
Wanting to learn new tips and tricks from others and always looking for opportunities to interact with her local community.
Having excess produce.
Wanting to contribute to the local economy.
And wanting to educate others on healthier lifestyles.
My Final Persona:
Jamie
28 / San Francisco, CA
“The Local Urban Farmer”
Education: Bachelor’s
Relationship Status: Married
Occupation: Marketing
Income: 75k - 100k annually
Living Situation: Homeowner
Biography
Jame heard about urban farming from a college friend and was eager to try out a new way to save money, help the environment, and connect with her community. She loves her plants, chickens, and the friends she’s made online and through the local farmer’s market. She’s always on the lookout for how to learn and improve, and isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty trying something new.
Motivations
Growing her own source of food as a means of being self-sustainable and saving money.
Being environmentally and economically conscious.
Always looking for tips, tricks, and new ways to learn more about growing, cooking, and preserving food.
Making friends with shared interests and passions.
Goals
Needs a way to sell off excess produce to local customers.
Wants a way to connect to and communicate with like-minded people to socialize and share knowledge.
“I adore my chickens and love my garden, but I end up with way more than I know what do with.”
“If I could find some customers, we’d all be happy in the end. By the way, anyone have any idea what’s been eating my pumpkins?”
03 Through the Customer’s Eyes: Customer Journey Map, Story Map, User Flow
Using Jamie as my guide and link to potential users, I began to explore how she might interact with the product. I considered things such as:
What features or elements would she need in order to be successful?
What could guide her if she had trouble understanding how to use them?
What pain points might she encounter along the way?
What could help her overcome or avoid these?
How might user expectation influence how I will need to build the app itself?
The customer journey map (right) breaks down and analyzes the steps of a specific scenario: Jamie has excess harvest and wants to put some products up for sale.
Expectations:
Quick and effective app navigation.
Ability to coordinate with potential customers and delivery services.
Visible results within a timely manner.
Pain Points:
Doubts about the app’s legitimacy as a new service.
Slow flow of traffic to a new profile.
Difficulties picturing long-term goals and uses.
I took these expectations and pain points with me as I began to craft the next piece: the story map.
For this exercise I defined the minimum amount of steps needed to put an item up for sale, considered what features would be needed for it to be an MVP (minimum viable product), and brainstormed a few possible updates for later iterations.
Some features included:
Being able to search and download the app.
Creating an account and personalizing user’s page.
Putting products up for sale.
Adding information about themselves and their farm.
Finally, I put together a user flow in order to better understand how users would navigate certain tasks under different circumstances.
For example, here I analyzed the different routes a user could take if they wished to sign into the app:
If they already had an account.
Needed to create a new one.
Had forgotten their information.
Needed to reset their password.
This flow also helped identify how many screens I would need to craft before I could present my paper prototype for user testing.
04 Pen to Paper: Paper Prototype and User Testing
I crafted my paper prototype using the back of index cards to create uniformly-sized screens. I presented these to several users for testing in order to collect valuable feedback about what was working, what wasn’t, and what desperately needed change. I was also able to test out certain features, take in recommendations, and remove elements that were too clumsy or confusing.
Speaking with the users directly ended up being one of the most effective tools of the entire project, allowing me to make significant progress.
Users Liked:
“It all seems really straight-forward. Everything is labeled as needed and I can see all the information. I was able to move through the pages and do the tasks pretty easily.”
“The images are cute! They add some personality and I think they help me find what I’m looking for too.”
“I really like that I can navigate on any page with the menu. And the back button is good too.”
“Being able to adjust the quantity of the item on the page itself is a good feature. I also like that you can see if it’s available for delivery.”
Users Disliked:
“The sizing of some things need to be adjusted. I would want the image of the product to be bigger. What if there are multiple images for it too?”
“The location of the back button is confusing. I think that’s a Samsung-exclusive thing? It should be moved or changed to make it more accessible.”
“What does the Other category even mean?” (Discussions with this user confirmed that categories should be clearly organized.
“The profile page seems bare. Probably needs more added to it.”
05 Going Digital: Wireframes and Digital Prototyping
Onwards towards the digital prototype!
With user feedback in mind, I cleaned up my designs in Figma and created one of my very first digital prototypes! This version included a few critical paths such as:
Signing in with an account.
Creating a new account.
Browsing categories.
Using the search bar.
Selecting a specific product (pumpkins).
Adding items to the cart.
Viewing the profile.
Listing a new product.
Viewing forums and messages.
Learning how to make overlays:
One of the new things I picked up in this project is how to make overlays that can hover over specific parts of the screen.
This came in handy when I crafted my hamburger menu and search bar for the prototype demonstration!
Learning how to make variations (the hard way):
As I was learning Figma, I successfully crafted some special effects to occur under certain circumstances. It wasn’t until afterwards however, that my instructor informed me that there was a far easier way to do so that was built-into Figma itself: variants. That would have saved me some time and space for sure!
To Summarize:
The GreenHouse app brings together buyers and sellers to exchange goods, services, and information; as well as foster opportunities for growth and understanding. The issues of excess product and desire for locally-sourced produce are solved through community outreach and the relationships formed therein.
Outcomes
A digital prototype that allows for free-form exploration of the app.
Critical paths include:
Adding, subtracting, and removing products.
Listing a new product.
Viewing and interacting with the user’s profile.
Viewing messages, forums, and event postings.
UX elements and deliverables.
Improvements in:
Using Figma.
Using UX methods effectively.
Creating paper prototypes and translating them digitally.
What I Learned
How to better communicate with users, process feedback, and facilitate user testing.
Previously unconsidered elements that were brought up by users:
The ability to adjust the quantity within the product screen.
Including more opportunities for navigation and back-tracking within the app.
What Comes Next
Further testing to revealing additional pain points and areas of potential improvement.
Further iterations to the prototype to allow for clearer paths and greater chances of success.
General skill improvements when using Figma will go towards bettering the prototype.