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CASE STUDY
Designing solutions for users in agriculture
Overview
CamoAg is an ag-tech company offering innovative solutions for farmers and consumers. I worked with a cross-functional team, including a lead designer, engineers, product managers, and marketers, to develop features for their mobile and web applications.
Problem
Many farmers across the country are eager to expand their operations, streamline their workflow, and grow their agribusiness. However, they often find themselves limited by traditional methods and a lack of supporting data.
Solution
The goal was to develop a digital operating system tailored to agriculture and land management, giving users a more precise and comprehensive view of their prospects. This involved creating a dashboard for managing thousands of farms simultaneously, enhancing search refinement on the plat map, and introducing a new, user-specific landing page.
Research
While at CamoAg, I had the opportunity to engage directly with our B2B customers to gain a deeper understanding of their goals and common pain points. These customers included farmland management companies, lending institutions, appraisers, and general platform users.
These diverse perspectives provided valuable insights into how each user navigates the platform and how they incorporate it into their daily workflow.
Key Findings
Several key themes emerged during the discovery process:
Some users regularly visit the platform for specific tasks and desire quick, seamless access to these functions.
Users managing a large number of farms—sometimes thousands—want a more intuitive way to oversee them.
Many users expressed the need for greater refinement and control when searching for prospects within a defined area.
Defining the User
Before starting the design process, we prioritized identifying who the platform’s users were. This helped us address different use cases and understand what each user aims to achieve when interacting with the site.
We identified three distinct user groups: the generic user, the lending institutional user, and the farmland management user. While these groups share some similarities, each one requires tailored solutions to accomplish their specific tasks.
Internal Surveys
To better understand what to include on the landing page, I conducted a series of surveys across the company, targeting our internal stakeholders. The objective was to gather insights on the structure that would be most effective for the majority of our users. We applied this same process to the farms dashboard and search refinement on the plat map.
Sitemap
The next step was to define the main user flow of the product. Given that some users visit the platform to perform very specific tasks, it's crucial to ensure they can achieve their goals as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
In the example below, if a user wants to add a new farm to their account, it's helpful to create a sitemap that clearly outlines all the possible paths they can take to accomplish this. This is key to defining the site's information architecture.
Card Sorting
Feedback from internal stakeholders and external customers revealed a specific list of items that users wanted to be able to search for on the platform. The challenge then was to organize this content in a way that wouldn't overwhelm the user with too many options.
There was also a strong desire to include search options by section, township, and range. While this would provide users with greater refinement and control over their searches, it raised the question of how to integrate these features into the existing structure of our plat map.
Sketches
With the general structure now established, I began sketching out ideas. Each category underwent several stages of this process, with the final layouts for each displayed below.
Design Components
We developed and incorporated several design components into our library for these projects. I worked closely with our lead designer to ensure that each component adhered to our brand guidelines and effectively met user needs.
Landing Page
Browse Map: This component allows users to view current farms for sale, compare recently sold farms, and explore parcel details on the plat map.
Portfolios: Portfolios serve as a way for users to organize and store similar farms. Users can rename and reorder items within their portfolios to suit their preferences, enhancing farm organization.
Notifications: All user notifications are housed here, including new messages, offer acceptances and lease documents that require review.
Farms Dashboard
Farm Card: This component has been updated to align with the new farms dashboard. It features details such as a satellite image of the farm, the farm name, legal entity, location, tillable and gross acres, and the number of fields.
Plat Map Search
Inputs: Our input component has been updated globally to support various search criteria. Users can now search by state, county, section, township, or range. As they type, autocomplete suggestions appear, allowing them to select from the listed options.
Accordions: These are groups of nested inputs. For instance, the location accordion below includes inputs for county, township-range, and section, along with a 'clear all' button. Accordions can be expanded or collapsed to reveal or hide information.
Landing Page
Using the components mentioned above, along with some new ones, we created the following dynamic landing page. Each landing page adapts to the user type detected at log-in. For instance, a lending institution user might have access to reports, while a generic user may not.
Here’s a breakdown of the components featured below:
Platform Announcement Banner: Added at the top of the page to highlight important updates.
Welcome Component: Includes quick links to actions like adding a new farm or accessing account settings.
Client Intelligence Card: Features jump-to links for quickly opening the relevant map.
Reports Card: Visually displays the volume of sales and average sales price on a map.
Farms Dashboard
A new dashboard was created to help users manage large volumes of farms more efficiently. From this page, users can toggle between viewing farms, comparative market analyses, and sales.
Here are the key updates:
Filter Accordions: Users can now search by farm name, state, county, and more.
Bulk Actions Button: Allows users to edit and update multiple farms simultaneously.
View Options: Users can toggle between card, table, or map views.
Sorting Options: Sort by parameters such as last updated or date created.
Advanced Map Search
The advanced search panel was redesigned to give users better control over their searches.
Here’s what’s new:
Location Search: Users can search by county, township-range, and section.
Dynamic Map Zoom: As users enter information, the map automatically zooms in on the relevant area for easier navigation.
Default Location Centering: If a user has a default county set in their account settings, the map will automatically center on that county.
Final Takeaways
During these projects, I gained insight into the common challenges faced by farmers and others in agriculture. I collaborated with various company stakeholders, spoke directly with customers, and designed practical solutions to address these issues.
Additionally, I contributed to a design library at the company, enhancing my understanding of collaboration and balancing feedback during weekly review sessions. Whether through large or small contributions, I had the opportunity to help advance digital solutions in the agriculture sector.
