My Roles and Responsibilities
- UX Design: Sketching, Feedback Sessions, Prototyping, Usability Testing
- UX Research: Literature Review, Competitive Analysis, Survey creation + distribution, Affinity Mapping, Journey Map
Tools Used
- Figma
- Miro
- Qualtrics
Project Context
- Fall 2022
- Research-based class project- industry sponsored
- Team: Kathi Tran, Namit Kapoor, CJ Marguin
The John Deere Operations Center Mobile App is a tool used by farmers to manage their operations and make data-driven decisions. My team worked on redesigning the app to make it more user-friendly and efficient for small and novice farmers.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Our Approach
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Challenge
How might we incorporate new and existing features of John Deere Operations Center Mobile to ensure approachability and accessibility for a novice demographic?
Defining the user group
- Novice farmers often face difficulties in learning the intricacies and terminology of farming
- The process of entering a new field can be challenging and takes time to adjust to
- Small farmers often struggle with limited resources for managing and storing operational information
- Many small farmers rely on paper-based systems, which can be difficult to keep track of and access historical records
- Paper-based systems often require manual calculations
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Solution
This redesign of the John Deere Operations Center Mobile Application is an approachable and accessible solution for small and novice farmers to manage their work.
Check your feed and daily tasks
- See automated news, weather, and sensor information specific to your land
- Create daily tasks to keep your work organized
- Swipe left on an important task to make it a priority
Find all of your personal and historic information in one place
- Check back on your archived tasks to see the history of your farm
- Update your alert settings to stay in the loop
- If you need any help, come here to contact support
Organize each row and section of your field(s)
- Edit or update the layout of your field
- Check each section of your rows to see what's planted there (and the specific field worker(s) working on it)
- Change the cell shape for a more realistic look of your asymmetrical field(s)
- Assign colors to each section for improved organization
Create work plans to stay organized and on schedule
- label a plan based on its stage in the growing process
- assign field members to work on certain crops/rows
- look back on past years' work plans
*Screens I worked on
Check on how your farm has done for the year
- an explanation of what each chart means for new farmers who are still learning
- export reports to share with family/business partners or print for storing history reports
- look at revenue predictions to inform future decisions
With more time and knowledge since completing this project, here are updates I would make to the Analyze tab based on user feedback:
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Research
To gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic and context, my team and I conducted an extensive research process. After conducting the initial research, we continued to progress through our research methodology, using a variety of methods to gather information and insights.
After thoroughly analyzing and compiling our research findings, our team continued to delve deeper into the problem space to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the issues and challenges at hand.
Survey
We distributed paper-based questionnaires at local farmer's markets to collect data from a variety of participants. The survey data was entered and analyzed in Qualtrics looking at percentages and the most highly mentioned words.
Interviews
To obtain a more generalized population of users, we posted on Reddit and Facebook forums. This allowed us to understand their needs, preferences, and experiences. Each of our users were based in varying locations, so our interviews were conducted virtually over Teams, or on the phone.
To centralize our interview findings and understand broader themes from our research, my team and I created an affinity map using Miro. We created a hierarchy of categories from 127 sticky notes. We ended with three overarching themes: 'Farming experiences', 'Technology interaction', and 'Getting familiar with the farming industry'.
Dealership Visit
During our research phase of the process, my team had the opportunity to visit a John Deere dealership! Here we were able to see the equipment up close and learn more about the interaction between customers and the company.
Brittany, Kevin, and my team at the dealership
Me sitting in a tractor!
Task Analysis
Task analyses were performed to analyze the specific actions and steps that users took to complete their daily tasks using the current application. This helped our team recognize the needs of the current users as well as visualize the step-by-step process each task takes.
Making a Harvest Plan for 2022
Choosing Arugula as a Crop
Identify what a ‘Flag’ Is
Adding Flag to a Farm
Creating a New Flag Category Titled ‘Chicken Coop’
Removing the Flag
Finding the Troubleshoot Menu
Journey Maps
We created journey maps to illustrate the steps and emotions involved during our users' daily tasks. These helped the team identify pain points and opportunities for improvement in the user experience.
A farmer taking inventory of his cucumbers
*Created by me
A farmer documenting seeds on-site in the field
Storyboards
Our storyboards were made as visual representations of the user experience to show actions a user would take while working. This allowed us to visualize how our product could be implemented to improve certain tasks.
A farmer taking inventory of her cucumbers
*Created by me
A farmer documenting seeds on-site in the field
Product Analysis
Since we had accumulated more knowledge on the subject, we then evaluated the current product to identify its strengths and weaknesses. We identified many features dealing with equipment that we took off and other screens of information we decided to combine.
Insights
Our 6 major insights informed our design and development of a more user-friendly and effective product.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Design
Design Requirements
We began our design process by creating requirements that would guide the creation of our product.
1. The solution must be time-efficient
2. The solution must be user-friendly
3. The solution must help with accounting
4. The solution must track inventory
5. The solution must help farmers plan for their workday
6. The solution must help manage the maintenance of field processes
2. The solution must be user-friendly
3. The solution must help with accounting
4. The solution must track inventory
5. The solution must help farmers plan for their workday
6. The solution must help manage the maintenance of field processes
Concepts
Based on our requirements, two mobile application concepts were created:
1. a redesign of the John Deere Operations Center Mobile with changes based on research
2. all new layouts and features that we believed would help our users based on our research
1. a redesign of the John Deere Operations Center Mobile with changes based on research
2. all new layouts and features that we believed would help our users based on our research
Concept Feedback Sessions
We then asked our users for feedback on both concepts to see which one they preferred and made sure to counterbalance the concepts for different users.
Sketch feedback session with one of our farmers
Wireframes
After compiling the feedback on our sketches, we decided to continue with the redesign of the John Deere Operations Center. Here we created wireframes for each of the tabs and included gestures to show interactions.
Home tab interactions
Map tab interactions
Plan tab interactions
Analyze tab interactions
*Created by me
Wireframe Feedback Sessions
Next, we held feedback sessions on wireframes with three of our users and analyzed the main findings by annotating each of the screens with post-it notes on Figjam.
Here is how I organized the feedback for the screens I worked on:
Analyze tab 'Revenue' section updates
Prototype
After our wireframe feedback sessions, we began creating our final prototype. The prototype has four main navigation tabs and a profile section.
Home Tab + Profile Screens
Map Tab
Plan Tab
Analyze Tab *the screens I worked on
Accessibility Considerations
Throughout the process, my team investigated and worked to improve the accessibility of the product.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
EvalUation
User Evaluations
We chose to evaluate our prototype with a task-based user evaluation. This allowed us to simulate a sample size of our end user’s experience with the prototype before publishing it.
Goal: to learn if our prototype was successful in meeting the design requirements established previously. These feedback sessions were important to understand the information architecture and affordances that were intuitive for users in our redesign.
We evaluated each task based on its success rate, with nine out of 14 tasks completed successfully by all three users. One task was completed by two users, two tasks were completed by only one user, and two tasks were not completed by any user.
Using the standard procedure, we calculated the System Usability Scale (SUS) score for our prototype, with an average score of 70 among the interviewed users. This indicates that users had a solid comprehension of the prototype overall.
Expert Evaluations
We decided a heuristic evaluation would be the best method for our product because it is a complex and niche problem space. The app has many functions and the tabs in the main navigation deal with separate activities.
Goal: to find any issues with the prototype, pain points or confusing areas, and unclear UI. We wanted our expert feedback to focus on the flow and usability of our design.
We calculated the average scores of the heuristic severity ratings, which identified two high-priority issues and two mid-priority issues that require attention.
Recommendations for Future Iterations
- Make terms consistent throughout the system and clearly describe what they’re labeling
- Implement a walkthrough of page functionality when the user initially accesses the app
- Create a label or organization/layout of tasks to correctly identify when they should be completed (e.g. past, present, future)
- Place options in the profile screen under a hamburger menu in the Home screen.
- Unify interactive elements to match (ex. ‘Revenue’ tab, filters, ‘add’ buttons)
- Adding a fifth tab to the navigation that deals with tasks.
- Make labels larger/clearer, or rework the layout of the page to improve its organization
- Incorporate a camera feature where users can track the types of seed packets they use. Similar to a seed packet journal.
- Modify the icon used to indicate tasks/work plans are selected as “Priority”
- Iterate on the design to look more high-fidelity
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Reflection
During the project, I gained insights into my leadership, teamwork, work habits, and the agriculture industry. I maintained focus and initiated work on my sections, while also mediating any conflicts that arose to ensure everyone felt heard. In exploring the agriculture industry, I gained an appreciation for the extensive maintenance and daily processes involved in fieldwork. Furthermore, I became aware of the diverse types of farming and the various ways people manage their agricultural businesses. Collaborating with an industry partner made this experience more authentic and enabled me to put my newly acquired knowledge into practice.
Regarding UX practices, I realized numerous techniques are available for the UX process, and it is crucial to select the most appropriate ones for a given situation. By defining the objectives and goals of each research method, it was possible to avoid drifting off-topic while conducting research. In the design phase, starting with a low-fidelity concept and gradually refining it while gathering user feedback at each stage was critical.
Presenting our initial design at the Georgia Tech GVU Poster Event
