Project Overview:
- Desktop
- Individual Project
- 4-6 Months
- 2016
The project is a platform for the farmer's in my hometown to be able to sell their goods to the people who live in the suburbs. This platform will allow for more interaction between these two groups, seeing as there is currently very little between the people in the suburbs and farmers in the outskirts of town.
As we become less and less connected to our local communities, there is an outcry to local fresh produce and for those who want to sell it.
How can we connect these disconnected communities (suburbs and farming communities) and help reinvigorate local farms?
During the research phase, I had to interview both types of user for this site, which included the buyers and the sellers (farmers). Both groups were needed to be addressed in my platform. I interviewed 4 farmers and 3 buyers. I also sent surveys to buyers and received 12 responses.
The following needs were discovered:
- Buy products
- Sell products
- Get updates from farmer's on what goods are available
- Find markets in the area
After brainstorming 60 different concepts and bringing 10 of them through storybording, I decided on an Online Farmer's Market to help connect buyers to farmers in my hometown. Individuals will make an account and can see farmer updates on the farmers they follow. At the same time, they can search based on specific food or area and go through the process of purchasing your good. A major problem that farmers explained to me was that they still wanted face-to-face interaction and didn't have the means(money) of delivering food to buyers. To help this problem, I designed the ordering system so the buyer can decided whether to pick up food directly at the farm they purchased from or pick up their order at the next farmer's market that the farmer will be at.
From this point, I created several personas to help in beginning to design the physical platform. An example of one of these below with Tom Zange, the farmer.
The initial paper prototype can be seen above in the ideation section and you can test the final prototype here.
