Inspire 2023 award
Redesign the UX and UI of Farm2Go, test new features with end-users, and create a scalable design system for a native Android app that connects farmers and traders in developing countries.
When we joined, the WFP team already had a test flight of the app but had not managed to release it. Some features were missing, others had never been tested with users, and the look & feel needed to feel modern and appealing.
Farm2Go connects smallholder farmers, middlemen and traders: farmers log deposits of their crops, and traders buy through market offers.
As team lead, I built the timeline, identified blockers early and made sure everyone knew what they had to deliver. I kept communication smooth between our team, the product owner and developers, with a close eye on deadlines and deliverables.
We started with a heuristic review of the existing product, then spent three days with stakeholders from Bangladesh, where the first pilot would run — people in daily contact with the end users.
The insight that changed everything: common e-commerce patterns and automation simply did not apply in the field. Agreements change at the moment of the trade, so the tool had to be flexible for field users while staying reliable enough for WFP to track activity — data later used to grant loans to farmers.
“They might agree to a certain quantity or price, but when they meet to trade the goods, they end up agreeing on a different quantity.”
To align fast, I designed one complete feature concept per day and reviewed it with the product owner in a one-hour stand-up. This let us iterate quickly and have a prototype ready to test by week two, covering the redesigned features and the new payment and direct-offer flows.
We then ran two rounds of five test sessions, iterating between each, to make sure the product was intuitive and the new features obvious. In parallel, I created a new look & feel consistent with WFP’s visual guidelines and a design system of foundations and components that sped up front-end development.
Built for the field: every farmer and their crops one tap away, and every agreed trade tracked through to the exchange.
We had to get up to speed fast to bring value without wasting the team’s time — while still challenging their assumptions with facts.
Many features looked like familiar e-commerce flows. The realities of the field made us leave those patterns in the drawer and craft a tailor-made experience.
Simple on the surface, complex underneath. Combining the team’s experience with an out-of-the-box approach, we found solutions that handled the complexity and tested them to make sure they stayed intuitive.
