Relocation of job
Relocation of job
A relocation occurs when you move to another city or state for a job. People relocate for jobs every day for a variety of reasons. A relocation takes a lot of thought and planning. Fortunately, you can take certain steps to evaluate whether a job-related move is right for you. And, if it is, you can begin to plan for your next home.
A relocation occurs when you move to another city or state for a job. People relocate for jobs every day for a variety of reasons. A relocation takes a lot of thought and planning. Fortunately, you can take certain steps to evaluate whether a job-related move is right for you. And, if it is, you can begin to plan for your next home.
Digitization Of Agriculture In India
A UX-driven ag-tech platform to empower smallholder farmers with real-time market info, personalised insights, and simplified digital adoption.
OVERVIEW
India’s smallholder farmers operate with fragmented, unreliable access to mandi prices, crop guidance, and advisory services. Low digital literacy, language barriers, and trust gaps further limit adoption of existing agri-tech solutions.
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As the lead UX Designer, (0 → 1, then iteration & scale) I led the end-to-end design of a mobile-first agri-care platform that simplified access to market insights, reduced cognitive load, and improved trust for farmers with varying levels of smartphone familiarity. I partnered closely with product, engineering, and research teams—translating field research into validated flows, usability improvements, and scalable experience patterns.
MY ROLE
Lead UX Designer & Mentoring
Usability testing, User Research, Interactive Prototypes, System design, High-Fidelity Mockups
Timeline
Feb 2021-Jan 2022
Outcome highlights
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Reduced onboarding friction by ~40–50% (steps + comprehension)
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Improved task completion for core flows (price checks, advisories)
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Increased repeat usage within the first 30 days (directional, cohort-based)
CONTEXT AND PROBLEM
Problem Framing
What Farmers Were Struggling With
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Trust deficit in digital advisory tools
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High cognitive load during onboarding
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Difficulty finding time-critical information (mandi prices, advisories)
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Poor discoverability of value after first use
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Business Risk
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Low activation → poor retention
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High drop-off after first session
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Underutilized advisory features despite strong backend data
WHAT USER SAID
THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we enable smallholder farmers to quickly access reliable agricultural information and take confident decisions, without being overwhelmed by complex interfaces or unfamiliar digital patterns?
MY ROLE
Entered at two critical moments: scaling a live product and shaping an undefined problem space. I led adoption-focused redesigns for onboarding and mandi price workflows, then anchored a new initiative in direct user evidence—interviews, testing, and multi-channel feedback. Beyond delivery, I strengthened the team’s design practice through mentoring and shared decision frameworks with designers also working in cross collaborations with product managers, data scientist, engineers.
Outcome (High-level)
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Improved feature discoverability and task completion
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Reduced onboarding friction for first-time users
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Higher engagement with price tracking and advisory features
User Research
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To understand their behavior, need
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How to shape the business use case with the user needs
UNDERSTANDING USER DEMOGRAPHICS
Initial research
So I spent about a month touring and interviewing farmers in several villages across Karnataka and Maharashtra. In Karnataka, we visited villages near Doddaballapur, Hampi, Belgaum, Hubli, and Davangere, while in Maharashtra, we explored villages around Pune, Nashik, and Baramati.
Research Methods
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Field visits & contextual interviews (rural India)
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Usability testing with low-literacy users
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Observation of real-world device usage (outdoors, shared phones)
Users & Context
Using the observational research method, we captured farmer’s behavior in their natural environment. It helped us directly look at what farmers are actually doing, what kind of routines they could have with the application, and how the application can be used in different contexts of their lives.
Primary Users
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Small and marginal farmers (1–3 acres)
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Mixed literacy and smartphone familiarity
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Time-constrained, interruption-heavy workdays
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Strong reliance on peer networks and local advisors
Key Constraints
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Inconsistent network connectivity
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Preference for visual and verbal cues over text
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High skepticism toward “digital” recommendations
FURTHER RESEARCH TO GRASP MARKET DYNAMICS
Questionnaire
Demographics
Target Audience
Competitor
Research & Discovery
Methods
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Field visits across rural farming belts
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Contextual interviews with farmers
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Observation of daily farming workflows
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Usability testing with early prototypes
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What We Observed
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Farmers rarely “explore” apps—usage is task-driven
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Trust is built through repetition and perceived accuracy, not branding
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Navigation patterns must align with mental models like crop → stage → action
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Text-heavy screens are ignored or misunderstood
Insights
How can we design a smallholder agronomic platform that fosters collaboration, enables data-driven decision-making, and enhances the livelihoods of all stakeholders involved, while ensuring an intuitive and seamless user experience?
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Fostering Collaboration and Connection: The project connects diverse groups across India, overcoming language barriers to understanding farming livelihoods. This aligns with your passion for creating systems that bridge gaps and enhance collaboration.
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Data-Driven Empowerment: Focusing on data-driven decision-making, mirrors your interest in designing intuitive interfaces that empower users to make informed choices, ultimately improving their effectiveness and outcomes.
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Improving Livelihoods: The project's goal of enhancing stakeholders' livelihoods resonates with your commitment to designing solutions that do more than just solve problems but uplift the quality of life for individuals involved, including offering vital resources like proper mandi prices.
Insight
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Farmers distrust abstract recommendations
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Price checks are frequent but short
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Literacy varies widely
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Apps feel overwhelming
Design Implication
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Make data sources and logic visible
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One-tap access to mandi prices
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Icon-first UI with progressive disclosure
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​Reduce features shown per session
ATTRIBUTES TAKEN IN CONSIDERATION
Design Principles
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Trust before intelligence
AI or advisory value only matters if users believe the source. -
Task-first, not feature-first
Every screen answers: “What can I do right now?
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Progressive disclosure
Show only what’s essential—reveal complexity gradually. -
Design for interruptions
Experiences must survive mid-task drop-offs.
Brainstorm to organise and categorise the problem
Synthesizing Insights
On the basis of emotional context map and business requirements
Often prioritizes breadth of features to appeal to a wider audience.
KEY FEATURES DEVELOPED
Onboarding
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App Concept: Designed to help the Indian farming community optimize resources and maximize yields and profits through information and features provided within the app.
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Onboarding Process: Simple and informative, aimed at helping farmers understand how to use the app easily and without confusion.
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Guide to Designing a Seamless Onboarding Process for Farmers:
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Understand the Farmers' Context
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Simplified Sign-Up Process
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Localized UI/UX
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Visual and Audio Guides
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Demonstrate Value Quickly (e.g., incentives for registration)
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Offline Access
Simplified Onboarding
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Crop-based entry instead of profile-heavy signup
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Visual cues and minimal text
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Early value exposure within the first session
Impact:- Faster activation and reduced drop-offs
Market Prices
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Price Sourcing: Daily price data is collected from 167 markets (Mandis) nationwide for over 60 crops, with information gathered by on-field staff from an external agency.
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Market Access: Farmers can view price information for all selected crops from any Mandi within their state or across the country.
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Price Trends: Farmers can track maximum and minimum price trends for the last 10 days.
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Popular Feature: This is the most frequently used feature on the app, with around 40% of daily active users engaging with it.
Trust-Focused Market Price Experience
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Clear mandi source attribution
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Price trends shown visually (up/down cues)
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Region-specific defaults
Impact:- Increased repeat visits to price screens
Designed around stages -In app Flows
Guided flows provide users with a quick and immediate introduction to new features, eliminating the need to search for the feature, consult help center articles, or contact your support team.
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Advice grouped by what to next and new features
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Contextual alerts instead of generic notifications
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Visual representation of crop health and actions
Impact:- Higher relevance, lower cognitive load
Feedback
- user feedback on friction points and what they plan to accomplish with your tool
Collecting customer feedback from users is the most accurate way your team can identify growth and adoption tactics for your product.
We can use digital adoption platforms, chatbots, or survey tools to consistently gather insight from users regarding their experience with your product and what we can do to improve it. With these tools, we can also target your feedback collection at points in the product journey where you’ve noticed lower levels of engagement.
Usability Study
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Digital literacy of the farmers
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Complicated data entry
TESTING AND VALIDATIONS
What We Tested
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Onboarding comprehension
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Market price retrieval speed
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Advisory clarity
Key Improvements After Iteration
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Reduced steps for core actions
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Improved icon recognition
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Clearer feedback for successful actions
Testing -Mandi feature
Onion
Tomato
KARNATAKA
28 Users
Participated in the test
3mins
Avg. time spent
6 Screens
English, Kannada
> 80%
Overall response
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Farmers from Karnataka own 2 to 6 acres of land.
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Farmers visit the markets 5-8 times per month
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Users with their smartphones and owning land was 100%
ACCUMULATING FEEDBACK
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Unclear Feedback Option: Users couldn’t find where to report inaccurate prices.
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Difficult Market Search: Markets were hard to find; not all Mondays appeared consistently.
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Confusing Navigation: Frequent taps on bottom navigation led users off-track.
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Loss of Simplicity: The previous version was easier—prices were visible upfront.
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Hidden Actions: Adding crops and following/unfollowing markets wasn’t intuitive.
We also did heatmap to understand the clicking of users in the application.
VISUAL GUIDELINE GLIMPSE
The visual design emphasizes clarity and accessibility, using earthy tones, icon-driven navigation, and high-contrast text for readability in outdoor conditions. Imagery focuses on real-life farming scenarios, reinforcing trust and relatability. The UI elements prioritize essential information, ensuring a seamless and efficient user experience tailored to the needs of Indian farmers
With an intuitive interface, we ensure ease of use for farmers, integrating regional languages and simple navigation.
FRESH PERSPECTIVE
Customized messaging based on application engagement
The market query search box emerged as a key feature for users
User can can search markets acoording to kms
The process for adding and removing crops is now clearly defined and seamlessly integrated.
User can follow market upfront
Feedback Buttons have
given a different style where
buttons are prominent to the users.
The button of “yes and no“ are boldly placed so that user can easily locate it.
Seeing Results
After testing, we enhanced customization options by incorporating real-time market prices across the country, making them easily accessible within the app to drive user adoption. With the latest app update released, we're excited to gather data and leverage it for more informed design decisions.
Metric
Before
After
Onboarding completion
Price feature engagement
Feature discoverability
User confidence
Low
Significantly improved
Sporadic
Frequent & repeat
Low
Moderate–High
Low
Improved trust signals
POSITIVE OUTCOME
Improved Navigation and Understanding:​
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Notifications: Farmers found the notification feature easy to use. They prefer concise notifications over detailed text and favor receiving notifications at specific times (morning/evening).​
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Location Preference: Changing the location as per user preference was straightforward and clear.
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Mandi: Adding favorite markets was easy, but users suggested clearer cues (e.g., a clickable button) would improve usability.
CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED
Step Decline in Feature Engagement:
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While the payment process improved, other features experienced reduced engagement. This may indicate user attention being drawn to specific features at the expense of others.
Notification Interaction Behaviour:
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Users often tapped on images within notifications without reading the accompanying text, potentially missing critical context.
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Users expressed the need for more tailored notifications relevant to the features they use.
Crop Management Difficulties:
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Adding Favourite Crops: 90% of users found the drag interaction challenging. Although they adapted once shown, this highlights a lack of intuitive design.
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New UI Solution: The updated UI prominently displays crop management with a clear layout (seasonal crops, add crop, and non-seasonal crops).
POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS
Improved Engagement
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Consider adding a brief tutorial or visual indicators to encourage users to read before tapping.
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Introduce voice-assisted interactions for low-literacy users
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Allow personalized notification settings (e.g., specific features of interest) to cater to user preferences.
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Design offline-first flows with sync transparency
Simplify Complex Interactions:​
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Build explainable advisory logic to deepen long-term trust
Feature Visibility and Prioritization:
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Analyze why certain features saw a decline in usage post-launch and consider emphasizing them within the user flow, notifications, or onboarding materials.
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Create regional personalization beyond language alone
Enhancements:
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First-Person Tone: The use of conversational, first-person content made the app more engaging for users.
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Market Details Page: Redesigned graphs and trends on market detail pages simplified understanding price transactions and trends over multiple days. Feedback mechanisms and other crop price comparisons were prominently added.
To assess your platform's impact on smallholders
Adoption & Onboarding
What changed
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Reduced steps from ~8–9 → 4–5
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Language + icon-led screens
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Deferred non-critical inputs
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Why
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Farmers needed to see value before committing effort
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Impact
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Higher onboarding completion
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Faster time-to-first-value (checking prices)
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Activation Rate – % of users completing onboarding.
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Drop-off Rate – % abandoning onboarding.
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Time to First Action – Time taken for the first meaningful interaction
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Engagement & Retention​​
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DAU/MAU & Stickiness Ratio – Frequency of user return. (How to Improve: Personalized notifications, feature discoverability, relevant recommendations.)
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Feature Engagement – % using core features like mandi price checks.
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Session Duration – Time spent per visit.
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Mandi Price Experience
Design decisions
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Visual price trends instead of tables
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Source attribution for credibility
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Nearby market comparison
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Result
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Increased confidence to act on displayed prices
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Reduced cross-verification drop-offs
Trust & Data Reliability
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User-reported Errors – Flagged incorrect data.
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Price Trend Interactions – % checking historical trends.
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Data Satisfaction Score – Survey-based accuracy perception.
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Business & Impact
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Market Price Awareness – % reporting better price knowledge.
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Revenue Impact – Profit increase from informed decisions.
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Repeat Usage & Referrals – Indicators of platform trust
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How to Measure & Improve
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Use Google Analytics, UXCam
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Apply heatmaps, A/B tests, and surveys for insights.
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Optimize onboarding, feature discoverability, and engagement loops.
Project Learnings
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Simplicity is Key
As designers, it's easy to be drawn to trendy and unconventional designs. However, it's crucial to stay anchored to the 'why'—understanding users, their challenges, and crafting solutions that truly address their needs.
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Focus on Priorities
Aligning user needs with business goals is essential. Conduct testing before development, and if necessary, build an MVP for select users. This approach helps filter out out-of-scope requests that could derail the project, ensuring the timely delivery of a high-quality product.
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This project reinforced that good product design is contextual, not universal.
Designing for smallholder farmers required unlearning urban digital assumptions and re-centering on attention, trust, and immediacy.
We got the NEW challenge and improvement.
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