Croptivity -
Scouting Location Marker

Project overview

My roles: UX designer, UI designer, user researcher
Team: 2 product owners, 4 engineers
Project Duration: 4 months
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Croptivity is a mobile app that assists farmers in managing and scheduling activities on their farms. The scouting location marker is an essential component of this app, helping farmers record their locations while scouting in the crop field.

The impacts

• The timely feature release prevented four farmers from leaving
  

We had four farmers who were at risk of leaving us because they relied on the location marker feature for their scouting activities, and this feature was initially removed. To mitigate this, we identified key areas for improvement and successfully released the feature on time. As a result, we retained all four farmers, saving the company approximately $5,000 per customer.

• The new design prevented farmers from losing six rounds of scouting work per year
  

Overview of the process: Not ideal but practical

The ideal process would involve research before design. But the reality of this project came with constraints, the project required a more flexible approach. As a result, I began exploring solutions while concurrently planning user research, as shown in the following chart.

Exploring solutions while planning user research

Getting to know farmers and their task of "Scouting"

After multiple rounds of discussion with the team, several key takeaways emerged:

• Target users
  

Farmers require a way to document their observations when scouting in the crop field.

• Why farmers need to document their observations in the crop field
  

Crop scouting enables farmers to stay informed about field conditions, such as pest or disease outbreaks. By recording the locations of these issues in the field, farmers can easily share this information with farm employees equipped with specialized tools or treatments, facilitating effective management.

• The product team aimed to complete this project using the existing components and structure already present in the app.
  

The scouting marker should maintain the current information architecture within the app and make use of existing components, such as the map and task assignment features.

Task analysis: How farmers carry out scouting activities

After several rounds of discussions with the team, I still had questions about user behaviors and their environment. In theory, I would have preferred to conduct a series of contextual inquiries to observe user behaviors during scouting, followed by interviews.

However, due to remote work constraints and the fact that September is harvest season, making it difficult to reach farmers, I opted for a conceptual task analysis flow to deduce how users might complete a scouting task.

Conceptual task analysis: The process of conducting scouting activities

Planning to gain deeper insights from farmers while ideating solutions

With the conceptual task flow, I started to brainstorm ideas of marking scouting locations while drafting a user interview plan, aiming to learn,

• The process of how farmers schedule and complete location-based scouting tasks
  
• The participants who are involved in scouting activities
  
• The scouting environment 
  

I had some preliminary ideas for marking scouting locations.

• Idea 1: Utilizing geographic information extracted from photos
  

This idea was grounded in a few assumptions. Firstly, users capture photos as evidence during scouting. Secondly, users are open to permitting geographic tracking for their photos.

• Idea 2: Enabling on-the-go location marking
  

The assumption here was that locations are digitally marked as scouting takes place

Low-Fidelity Concept: Tapping map to mark a location

• Idea 3: Analyzing satellites geographic images
  

I had additional concerns regarding the assumptions for this idea. Firstly, the satellite images could potentially be outdated. Secondly, I was worried about the accuracy and level of detail in satellite imagery. After a brief discussion with product owners and engineers, we abandoned this idea due to technical limitations.

Transforming recurring farmer behaviors into farmer needs

With the help of Customer Success Managers, I managed to interview five farmers in October who routinely conduct scouting activities in their fields. Here are some of the interview questions I asked:

• When was the last time you scouted your field? How did you plan and what did you do? What did you see in the fields and how did you record them?
  
• How many people were involved in scouting? How did you communicate?
  
• What challenges do you face when it comes to scouting? What’s your workaround?
  

Certain key behaviours repeatedly appeared in the interview response, 

• Farmers typically use a truck to scout in the crop fields
  
• The truck may have multiple control panels that users need to monitor
  
• Remembering the locations of issues is more crucial than the issues themselves
  
• Users are concerned about accidentally deleting records that represent hours of work
  
• Users tend to rely on their memory or quick notes rather than taking images
  
• In larger fields, multiple people may be scouting, and they communicate their findings after finishing scouting
  

Based on the interviews, I've translated the research insights into user needs statements, which include:

• Users require a solution that doesn't demand excessive attention when marking locations, allowing them to manage other devices in the truck simultaneously
  
• Users need assurance that each marked location is saved securely to avoid the risk of accidentally losing all marked locations.
  

Solution iterations

The idea of capturing geographic locations from photos was dismissed due to its high demand for user attention and the need to manipulate the camera's direction. This approach could potentially pose a safety hazard when a user is driving.
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Here are some proposed changes for Idea 2 - Idea 2: Enabling on-the-go location marking

1 To reduce the attention required for marking a location, users can simply tap a dedicated button at the bottom of the screen to mark their current location, rather than pinpointing it precisely on the map.

2 "Back" or "Cancel" buttons will be hidden when a user is on the location marking page, eliminating possibilities of accidentally deleting scouting progress.

3 To distinguish locations marked by different users in the same field, a tag featuring the user's initials along with a sequence number will be added to the pin icon.

One of the edge cases: When GPS is out of service

After presenting the iterations to the engineers, we encountered a noteworthy concern. There were instances when GPS reception on mobile devices didn't function properly in crop fields, causing the app to be unable to track the user's location and mark it on the map. This raised a critical question: "How should we address the situation when a user's location is not visible on the map or is far outside the field boundary?"

Following discussions with a specialized GIS engineer, we arrived at a solution. In cases where a user's current location was unavailable or outside the field boundary, the app would drop a pin at the center of the field. Subsequently, the user would receive a prompt to manually adjust the pin to the correct location.

High-fidelity concept: In-app feature demo

Croptivity in-app feature demo: Adding multiple locations in a field

Future research: Two segments of farmers

Given our current remote working situation, it's challenging to conduct observation studies or usability testing in the real environment. However, I'm eagerly anticipating the opportunity for a field visit when we can meet our farmers in person.

• For farmers who utilize our app for scouting, I plan to learn:
  

• The success rate of location marking while users are scouting in the fields, especially when they're driving a truck
  
• The steps that are error-prone and cognitively-demanding when users mark locations
  
• The workarounds users might have developed to mark scouting locations
  
• Users' attitudinal feedback regarding their experiences with our app
  

• For farmers who scout without using our app, I aim to learn:
  

• The process of planning, conducting, and completing scouting
  
• What other tools or workarounds farmers might have used for scouting
  
• The learnability and success rate of location marking using our app as a new user