Discover / DefineResearch and Analysis
Interviews
To understand the potential stakeholders I conducted two qualitative interviews with the "why-why-why" method to gain insight on motivations and challenges regarding urban farming in Stockholm. Later we applied a thematic analysis through an affinity diagram on the interview findings and identified the following pain points:
Low visibility
Users didn't know where urban farms were located
Lack of knowledge
Many felt uncertain about how to start cultivating
Need for community
Expressed interest in connecting with others who share similar cultivation interests
To further guide our design work through our research, I created a persona to better understand what user requirements we were designing towards.
Persona created based on research insights
Together, the insights and persona helped us define clear design requirements: The solution needed to be informative, social and intuitive to guide to action.
Ideation
To come up with solution ideas, we held a brainstorming workshop within the team. We collaboratively added post-it notes, grouped concepts, and colour-coded them based on potential value and feasibility. This process helped us define potential functions for an app.
Map
A map for farm discovery and routes
Tutorial
Step-by-step cultivation guides
Forum
A built-in social forum to ask for advice and connect with others
DeliverFinal Prototype
The final prototype was developed in Figma based on wireframes and interview data, with the core features: locating farms in the Stockholm region, learning cultivation techniques, and connecting with the urban farming community. We also followed and tweaked a design profile for Stockholms Stad brand design, to make the app credible by using logos and key colors.
Final prototype views
Conclusion
Project outcome
The project resulted in a deliverable, interactive Figma prototype as well as a suggested concept on how to tackle the problem of limited awareness of urban farm locations, cultivation knowledge and scattered information for the target group of young adults.
Learnings
With practical semi structured interviews I got to learn how to conduct interviews for user research as well as converting findings into data that can be analysed into requirements that guide designwork. I also got to practice rapid prototyping and structuring wireframes and UI along with practicallity of using Figma. However, one reflection is that we were a bit too sure and assumed certain functions would work better than others without the input of the users because of the limited circumstances. At the time it framed us earlier in the process before exploring more options which could have otherwise maybe supported users better.
If I had more time...
- Test final prototype with participants
- Conduct a competitive analysis to better understand existing digital solutions and make the app more unique
- Refine the UI to better align with modern design systems, WCAG and brand profile
Final reflection
Overall, the project reinforced the importance of grounding design decisions in user insights while maintaining iteration for feedback to build a solution that truly aligns with user needs.
