2 Months
A mobile application designed to help farmers calculate the nutrient content of their feeds. Recognizing this challenge, the World Poultry Foundation funded the development of a Feed App through partnership with the University of Georgia. This feed App (FeedMix), which is available at no cost from the App store, is an application allows the farmer to simply check boxes of available feedstuffs (maize, cassava, etc.) and the type of birds being grown, and it will calculate a basic diet.
Duration
Tools
Axure
Photoshop
Role
UX/UI Mobile Designer
Partners
University of Georgia, Department of Poultry Foundation
Frenik Marketing Solutions
Objective
Find a system to incorporate feedback to the user and communicate the mandatory needs with them for a better informational resource. This resource will also prove a necessary asset to maintaining a healthy livestock.
Key deliverables
User research, User Flows, User Journey
Digital Wireframes (Axure Share Link)
Persona Development
Phase 1 — Customer Discovery
User Interview Research
When this project was placed in my lap I didn’t have an understanding of how this industry worked from a strategic marketing standpoint. So I needed to interview farmers who could give me better insight into the farming habits of the market I’m trying to reach.
Research Plan
Goal
Describe the main points that farmers/producers experience and the causes.
Process
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- Identify the issues that farmers face when trying to find ingredients
- Identify what ingredients certain chicken types need to be fed.
- Identify what platform customer(s) are using.
Goal
Identify the key use cases of user interactions with the application.
Process
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- Identify the users end goal to creating a balanced diet for their livestock
- Identify how producers tell the difference between what livestock they are producing.
- Identity how users communicate feedback through the app.
Goal
Determine how the application produces feedback from a custom created diet.
Process
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- Identity a proper diet from certain chicken types
- Identity an improper diet from certain chicken types
Key findings
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- Users need to find the ingredients they use to feed their livestock.
- Users need an option to add their own ingredients for the diets they have for their livestock.
- Users need detailed descriptions of the diet they create
- The user interface needs to be user friendly
Summary
Farmers and producers face a challenge finding quality feed. Many of them produce their own feeds from local available feedstuffs for their livestock. This presents a problem, not just in formula accuracy for their nutritional needs, but also in the use of quality ingredients for their poultry diets.
User Personas
Salaam chicken farmer
Owner of Kingchick chicken farm in Kigamboni District
Characteristics
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- Eager to buy day-old Cobbs to fatten up
- Proper broilers diets are their specialty
- Maintains over 3,000 chickens
- Tech Savvy
Goals
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- Find quality feeds to raise their livestock
- Create their own diets to raise specific chickens
Free Range Chicken Farmer – Villager Rahema Rashid
Characteristics
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- Has a small chicken shed
- Feeds free-range poultry
- Her poultry provide eggs and meat for herself and a few neighbors
Goals
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- Creating their own diets for their live stock
- Discovering if their ready made feed is recommended for their livestock
Phase 2 — Feature Prioritization
Based on information from my user interviews, I was able to come up with core features for the of the app.
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- Ingredient Library
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- Diet Creation
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- Nutritional Guide
I used a prioritization matrix to determine how the features would rank:
Feature
Ingredients Library
Value: 10
Level of Effort:
Score (vs LOE):
Rank: 5
Phase 3 — User Flows and Wireframes
Now that we have the core features that we want to build into our app. It’s time to design this thing.
I’ll only walk through the flows and wireframes for the four core features.
1. Ingredient Library
Users will have option in the global navigation to choose the “Ingredients library”. Once, the option is chosen the screen will navigate to an ingredients list where they can see the nutritional content of all the ingredients.
2. Create My Diet
Users will be prompt to select their chicken type once they click the “Create My Diet” option in the global navigation. If the user chooses “Pullet” they will be prompt to another set of options (Starter or Grower). Then, the user will be guided to the “My Diet” section in which they can populate their diet with a list of ingredients. Once their diet has been completed they can calculate and the application’s algorithm will determine whether the selected diet is recommended or not.
3. Nutrient Class
Users will have option in the global navigation to choose the “Nutrient Class”. Once, the option is chosen the screen will navigate to a nutritional guide for Pullets, Laying Hens, and Broilers.
Conclusion
Now there would definitely be some fine tuning involved when it comes to the process, but this is just a rough idea of the user facing side of the app.