Farmsy
I provided an app to help farmers utilize advanced technical tools.
Objective
To help farmers avoid burnout due to a lack of practical farm management.
Solution
Introduce Farmsy, an app that tracks upcoming tasks and updates live weather.
Result
Improved task decision-making and reduced farmer burnout.
UX Designer
Rob Cahalane
Timeline
4 months
Tools used
Farmsy Inspiration
I read an article about "Keeping tabs on stress and mental health" by Aidan Brennan in the Irish Farmers Journal.
Aidan outlined that farmers need help when feeling overwhelmed with work.
Spring is one of the busiest times of the year, and things can go wrong and do go wrong.
I wanted farmers to feel supported during these challenging times.
Scope of work
The scope of work for Farmsy, the farm scheduling app, involved thorough research, ideation, and design phases.
Research
Market research, user interviews, and data analysis informed the app's features.
Ideate
User personas and ideation diagrams guided the user-centred design approach.
Design
The design phase included wireframes, prototypes, a responsive interface, feature prioritisation, and user testing.
Market research
I encountered a Teagasc, Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre case study. The study examined labour time use on spring-calving dairy farms in Ireland.
I saw the most common jobs in the busiest season where farmers needed planning.
Farmers agreed to the study.
87
Farmers completed the study.
82
Farmers dropped out due to hectic scedules.
5
Milking cows
31%
Grassland management
13%
Caring for newborn calves
14%
Hours of daily work during Spring!
14
Surveying local farmers
Surveying local farmers door-to-door proved more effective than using Twitter or LinkedIn. All five farmers I visited agreed to participate and completed the survey.
Q1: What method do you commonly use to plan?
Q2: What features would you like to see in a scheduling app?
Competitive Benchmarking
Several highly-rated farm management apps inspired my designs, including Croptracker, Resolution, and Camilo.
Resolution
Has a working offline feature.
An interactive timeline, e.g. tagging keywords to access old archives.
Camilo
Workplace Communicator.
Staff engagement & quick onboarding.
Croptracker
Offers Performance reports.
Inventory processing.
Work crew activity and labour tracking.
All these competitors incorporated great features.
These apps were tailored to run the business and incorporated too many features.
I wanted an app that focused on the individual farmer and the aspects that were most important.
Wireframing
Farmsy Sketchs
Medium Fidelity Designs
High Fidelity Designs
Design Features
Homepage
A simplified home screen with a bento box design was added to allow easy access to daily tasks and weather updates.
Add Task
“Add Task” highlights daily jobs and provides easy access to all functions by incorporating an easy-flow design to checklist upcoming tasks and inspections.
Weather
The weather, a crucial feature for farm planning, was the most requested addition in the survey.
It was essential to add metrics that farmers needed to know daily.
Testing
I carried out five usability tests. First, I screen mirrored my phone to the laptop. Then, I captured their reactions on Camtasia using the webcam.
Reflection and update?
The weather feature paved the way for all the planning decisions. Adding this feature close to the add task feature gave the farmer quick access to planning ahead.
Soon, I’ll focus more on Livestock & medicine management for Farmsy. This will help farmers more during inspections.
