Domain
Agritech
Platform
Mobile application
Services
Research, Strategy, Design
Awards
Kyoorius Design Award
Kyoorius Creative Award
End to-end farmer support platform
SeedWorks is a plant-science company engaged in research, production, and marketing of hybrid seeds such as cotton, millet, rice, mustard, etc. Their aim is to provide superior seed solutions by harnessing latest tech and innovation to make agriculture both sustainable and profit-driven. SeedWorks approached us to design, from scratch, a unique & innovative farming solutions platform that empowers Indian farmers to turn more tech savvy & leverage the power of agritech design to enhance their crop yield. A highly holistic approach to agritech solutions that accommodates the need of 200 million+ Indian farmers spread across the country.
Challenges
Indian farmers grow 160+ major types of crop & 18,000 species of higher plants. The soil quality, humidity, rainfall, terrain, climate, irrigation resources, & other factors remain largely diversified. There are more than 200 million farmers in India cultivating a diverse range of crops across 3 major crop seasons. Additionally, similar diversity exists across languages too.
We had to build a one-stop comprehensive platform keeping in mind a multitude of such factors; a platform that would become the one true of ally of farmers breaking language & technology barriers.
Solution
SeedWorks app comes with a host of personalized features, the main being the Crop Calendar, which will handhold the farmer throughout the entire lifecycle of a crop by providing him with advice and personalized tasks to help him increase his profits and improve yield.
SeedWorks can be best described as a ruggedly farmer-centric app that helps farmers enhance their yield. Built on robust gamification principles, SeedWorks keeps farmers engaged on the platform through rewards, badges, points and leaderboard.
Our
research
The research phase of this project was quite extensive and immersive where our team of designers spent 18 days visiting 50 villages spread across 9 Indian states, talking to over 700 farmers.
We had to understand the complete rural landscape with its nuances such as importance of elders, community, & the outlook towards modern agriculture methods.
This direct, face-to-face interaction with hundreds of Indian farmers unearthed a deluge of rich insights, broke several preconceived notions we had, & opened us up to the real, unfiltered stories of Indian farmers, their problems & their needs.
Painpoints discovered
Lack of personalized information
No platform that provides tailor made information to farmers for their specific needs.
Lack of engagement in platforms
Most of the platforms could not keep farmers engaged throughout the crop life cycle.
Unorganized resources
Most farmers followed the approach of others without considering contextual differences.
Diverse languages and crops
India is a country of 22 languages with 160+ major types of crop & 18,000 species of plants.
Our
strategy
To enhance engagement we applied gamification principles in an agritech product design by adding fun elements & features across the app to tap farmers’ intrinsic motivations in order to nudge them towards using technology for improving their crop yield.
Personalization
Customizing solutions that make every farmer think, “This is made for me!”
Gamification
Include gaming elements in app design to increase engagement
Design goals
Make Seedworks the only agritech app a farmer will ever need
Design
execution
We wanted the farmers to feel that the app was built exclusively for them with highly personalised support. To encourage their participation the app had to be more visual and not text heavy.
Summarizing our design process
- Information architecture
- Journey maps
- Low-fidelity wireframes
- Visual design
Information Architecture
The extensive IA covered tree maps, content models and visual models, detailing out every minute aspect of the application.
Design principles
Visual
Non-demanding
Focus
Gratifying
Conversational
Low fidelity wireframes
The wireframes for SeedWorks went through multiple iterations, from sketches to high-fi wireframes, constantly applying research insights and converging towards the final designs.
Visual design
In order to increase reach & adoption, we ensured that we implemented strong & universally-accepted visual cues throughout the platform, with customized icons, illustrations, microanimations, & symbols placed strategically to ease the job of the farmers. A consistent design language, as per the above-mentioned design principles, including high contrast hues, color palette, & typography that spoke directly to the farmers formed the groundwork for SeedWork’s visual design.
Kyoorius
We were awarded the prestigious Kyoorius Creative Award and Kyoorius Design Award for our impactful work.
The outcomes
With one-of-its-kind, end-to-end Farmer Support App for SeedWorks, Indian farmers now, for the very first time, had a 100% reliable digital ally that furnished highly customized farming solutions, making tech easily accessible for 180+ million farmers across different states, languages, cultures, & terrains.
A highly sophisticated VUI enabling farmers to access the app’s features by voice, gamified workflows, conversational tone, & striking yet starkly relevant visual design language – everything made SeedWorks app the ONLY app farmers will ever need to enhance their yield & foster a strong community among themselves. Eager to infuse your agritech app with similar design-thinking & innovative solutions? Connect with us here today!
