South Africa's agricultural sector is characterised by a dual economy, comprising well-developed commercial farming, with established supply chains, and small-scale subsistence-based production. The country has also become a net importer of fresh produce, which kills small-scale farmers even big established farmers.
Small scale farmers and upcoming farmers normally have difficulty to be certified with big retailer stores because they are unable to satisfy standards of consistency supply. This results in them only supplying informal traders such as street vendors and hawkers.
CHALLENGE
Digitising the shopping of fresh produce, while supporting locally produced fresh produce from small-scale farmers and up-coming farmers.
It was challenging to gather reliable supply chain data from small-scale farmers, analyzing the shopping habits of fresh produce products from retail stores, due to the diverse demographics of the country (low class, middle class, high class).
SOLUTION
Empathy-first approach
I needed to define a desirable approach for the prototype development and how it would meet the needs of shoppers. I, therefore, took a non-linear process that is common to designing an app or website.
MY ROLE
I began my design research with a "Why?" question to clearly understand why users need this app and know how their goals are like and how they achieve them.
Major focus areas on the design were; Functional (efficiency), Usable (satisfaction), and (patriotism) buy local and support small-scale farmers.
FUNCTIONAL
USABLE
PATRIOTISM
DISCOVERY
Knowing my ultimate goal in-depth, and the user's needs and behavioural patterns.
I selected to interview different types of shoppers—both male and female, aged (20 -60), from well-established supermarkets, greengrocers stores, hawkers and street vendors.
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The research revealed that shoppers' core motivation(s) for shopping at their prefered supplier was the freshness of the produce, the pricing, and the distance from their place of residence.
THE PROBLEM
PERSONA
Based on my research, I created primary and secondary personas to define who may be and may not be my target user
Focussing on Mia's goals and motivations also some of the common goals that Tiko has with Mia helped me to understand the environmental and emotional state of the user. Based on my personas, I created a list of features that can help users in their needs.​
Understanding the buyer's behavioral patterns helped me develop a clear vision of the tonal expectations of users
Sparking shopping desire
To motivate visitors to explore online shopping and inspire them with new ideas with vegetables and fruits baskets, I implemented a new visual language and purposeful patterns:​
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—Good quality images
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—closeup images and different perspectives
Onboarding
Level 1
Level 2
