Redesigning a fast-growing Agri-tech company’s product to meet the demands of their clients across multiple agricultural industries. Setting up design systems to simplify complex farm and forestry management needs.
SeeTree is an innovative product in the Agri-tech space, whose customer base has grown to include companies in a variety of different sectors within the Agricultural industry. The capabilities that SeeTree provides can translate to address the needs of all of their customers in different ways, and yet, many of them require additional features and functions depending on their specific location and industry. My challenge has been setting up design systems to allow for different versions of the product that maintain the same core UI guidelines and brand identity, while innovating and iterating on the product to find ways to address the specific needs of the different users.
Working together with the Product team, it’s been an ever-evolving process of conducting user research and Interviews, analyzing the feedback of what’s been working and what hasn’t, and what challenges they face in their day to day work. Although I spent time doing market research and creating competitive analyses, the most valuable resource has been hearing about the experience of users themselves. SeeTree works very closely with their users, many times visiting them on-site, so they get direct, on-the-ground feedback and usability testing. As a result, brainstorming as a team and creating empathy maps based on this real-life data and feedback has been an integral part of the process.
SeeTree has a variety of potential personas across the management levels and workforces of farms and forestry companies. As a result, I defined three different User Personas that are considered for different features.
With so many data layers and sources, it was important to clearly organize each layer, and map the overall flow. What is the source, and how will the data be organized and displayed to the user to then be implemented and channelled into action? For each new feature, a feature map was created, along with user flows and task flows to ensure that everything connects smoothly.
The mobile scouting app had to be designed with the field workers in mind, while the desktop product is a tool for upper level management who need a full-picture view of the farm and all of its data. As a result, I had to find ways to make the mobile designs as basic, simple to use, and easily viewed outdoors in sunny conditions as possible, while the desktop design is data-heavy, and the challenge was finding ways to present many layers of information in the clearest way possible.
The result is a full design system of components and blocks, including an established colour code, which allows for smooth application and integration when building a variety of features. The mobile scouting app has been designed and tested to address the needs of agricultural workers, resulting in increased visibility and ease of use when working in the fields.
