FarmSight Management System

FarmSight is an innovative farm management system aimed at streamlining operations, tracking crop performance, managing tasks and monitoring financial health for medium to large-sized farms. This project was a part of the "UX Architect" course by Ofer Monar, Ph.D. for designing complex systems. As the sole product designer, I handled user research, role and task analysis, information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, high-fidelity design, and presentation. The project lasted 1.5 months.

Problem Statement

‍Farmers often struggle with tracking tasks, tracking harvest readiness, and understanding their financial status due to fragmented and complex existing solutions.

"Go figure what you've done in block D32..." - Baruch

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Goals and Objectives

• Understand farmers' needs
• Understand the most impactful screens they need
• Understand systems that lack good UX and need to be improved

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User Interviews & Competitor research

‍I've conducted interviews with 6 farmers to understand their pain points and needs.
My assumptions on what farmers need, and the insights that my research has brought were totally different

Key insights were:

• Expenses tracking is the most important part. Farmers have two jobs - make maximum field yield and have minimum expenses. And should include actual vs. planned expenses
• In large farms it's neccesary to have a task management system to have an overview of what have happened and which tasks were completed today.
• Track and manage harvesting is important and there's an interesting ooportunity is vizualising it.
• The "Yearly Plannning Document Excel" isn't nessesarily bad, but it can be easier to visualize it in a digital way.

I've also reviewed existing farm management systems to identify gaps and opportunities. The 7 biggest and most relevant products had modueles of harvest tracking, disease control, irrigation, farming sensors etc. Names like SeeTree, CropX, Regrow & more. Notable findings were opportunities for data vizualization and lack of consistent navigation.

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Role Analysis

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Task analysis helps us understand the role more in depth

Doing role analysis and task analysis led me eventually to gain more clarity of user's needs and workflows and then prioritization helped me to focus design efforts on the most critical and frequently used tasks.

Information Architecture

Main User Flow - Farmer's morning routine

Screens

Yearly Planning Gant

An interactive visual planning gantt chart for planning and traking - specifying crop types, task types, and blocks provides a comprehensive and intuitive overview of the entire farming schedule. This tool helps farmers plan and organize their activities efficiently by visualizing key tasks, such as planting, irrigation, fertilization, and harvesting, along with their timelines. This detailed planning reduces the risk of scheduling conflicts, optimizes resource use, and improves labor management. Additionally, it allows for better anticipation of workload and aids in the timely execution of essential tasks, ultimately enhancing crop yield, quality, and overall farm productivity. With providing progressive disclosure for drilldowns.

Task managements

A dashboard with a summary of farm activities. Helping farmers organize, prioritize, and track daily activities, ensuring that all tasks are completed efficiently and on time. By providing an area to assign tasks, set deadlines, and monitor progress, it enhances coordination among workers and optimizes resource allocation. This streamlined workflow reduces the risk of overlooked tasks and delays, ultimately improving productivity and operational efficiency. Additionally, it allows farmers to adapt quickly to changing conditions, make informed decisions, and maintain a clear record of completed activities, contributing to better planning and overall farm management.

Harvest Tracking

The field is the business, and the crops are the income. A detailed crop performance tracking with readiness indicators is essential. The harvest screen optimizes timing for peak quality and yield, reduces waste, and maximizes market value. It aids in resource management by planning labor and equipment, cutting costs, and boosting productivity. Real-time monitoring and data-driven decisions enhance efficiency, while financial tracking and compliance reporting streamline management. It answers: “What fields should we harvest now?”, “What fields should we harvest later?”, “What progress have we made?”, and “What are the most and least popular fields?”.

Expenses tracking

"Tracking expeneses is the most important part for me to figure out" - Yael

The expenses screen offers farmers a detailed, real-time overview of their spending, aiding in effective financial management. It tracks planned vs. actual expenses across five categories: crop production, labor, equipment, utilities, and land. This helps identify cost-saving opportunities, avoid overspending, and ensure efficient fund allocation, enhancing budgeting, planning, profitability, and sustainability. It also simplifies financial reporting and compliance.