ProofScore by Transparent Path
User Research and Usability Testing for the design of the business-facing side of the ProofScore product, which uses block chain technology to create transparency in the
food supply chain.
My Role: UX Researcher + Content Strategist
Duration: 3 weeks
Tools: InVision, MacBook, pens, pencils, paper, post-its, clipboard
Client: Transparent Path Executive Team
Eric Weaver, CEO + Co-Founder
Paulé Wood, Director of Experience Design
Mark Kammerer, Chief Strategy Officer
Badri Narayanan, PhD, Director of ProofScore
www.xparent.io
UX Design Team:
Ramlah Ringold Olt, Researcher + Content Strategist
Patricia Vildozo Margretto, Interaction Designer
Elle Patterson, Visual Designer + Project Manager
Design for dashboard of ProofScore business-facing desktop product, personalized for a livestock farmer.
(Visual Design for screen by my UX teammate, Elle Patterson.)
BACKGROUND
ProofScore is a product concept with a consumer-facing mobile app and a business-facing side. The technology startup company, Transparent Path, is developing ProofScore to create more transparency in the food supply chain. When my team began work for the client, they had preliminary designs for the consumer-facing app, which included a high-fidelity wireframe prototype. However, they had done little research with potential business-side partners. Since success of Transparent Path's ProofScore business plan relied on buy-in and adoption on the business-side, my team saw an opportunity for us to make a big difference in the development of the product.
The client was still in the process of defining what transparency would mean as it relates to ProofScore. They were certain they wanted at least three pieces of data tracked throughout the food supply chain: location, temperature, and humidity of each individual food product. However, they developed their business model with the admirable idea that it would not only improve the safe handling of food products, but also improve the nutritional value of the food itself, and therefore have a dramatic impact on food production processes and on the environment. Their vision is that ProofScore will have a revolutionary effect on the food industry.
Mobile design for consumer-facing app of ProofScore product, personalized for grocery store shopper.
(Visual Design of screen by Transparent Path contractor Dwight Stoddard.)
At the point when my team began work for Transparent Path, the end-customer research they had conducted showed that consumers had very broad ideas about what transparency in the food industry should mean, which corresponded well with the ProofScore Executive Team ideals. In addition to being interested in whether the food was properly handled throughout the distribution process, customers were eager to know the origins of their food and the farming practices used in the foods' production, such as whether the farmer minimized water waste on the farm, used genetically modified seeds, or used sustainable farming practices.
The CEO of Transparent Path, Eric Weaver, is an expert in the field of block chain technology. The ProofScore product relies on the ability of developers to use block chain technology to track many attributes of an object, including the object's GPS location coordinates, and the humidity and temperature surrounding the object at any given time. Block chain is the same technology that enables bit-coin users to feel confident in the security of the data associated with each and every financial transaction because data gathered using this technology is tamper proof. In the case of ProofScore, every product user who can access data transmitted by the sensors attached to a package of food receives real-time information from those sensors. The ProofScore product uses a QR (quick response) code label with sensors incorporated into the label itself. As the QR code on a single package of food is scanned, everyone along the distribution chain who uses the ProofScore product will be able to access all sensor data.
Eric Weaver, Transparent Path CEO, sketches ideas for using block chain technology to track a new cut of pork destined for retail sales.
This image shows an artist's collage of QR (quick response) codes. In the ProofScore model, when QR codes are attached to a package of food, users can track many data points associated with that specific package.
EXPLORATION
At our project kick-off meeting, the client directed our team to focus on users on the business-facing side of the product. This included farmers, manufacturers, trucking and shipping companies, warehouse distribution centers, and retailers. Ultimately, they wanted to show end-to-end user research data along the food chain. It quickly became apparent to my UX Design Team, though, that each of these business side users had very different needs, desires, and food handling processes. Since the scope of my work as Researcher included finding both users and usability testers, I advocated for choosing one group of business side users and going deep on the research for that single group. My interaction designer and visual designer both approved of this idea as they quickly realized each group of business users would access ProofScore from a different device and a variety of locations.
Our team had three in person meetings with the client over three consecutive days before we decided as a group to focus on the very first link in the food chain, the producers. At this point, the client directed me to narrow my scope of research to producers of high-value farmed products. As the client had consumer-facing research and a consumer-facing product prototype that investigated what a grocery store shopper purchasing ground beef considers as they select a package of meet, the full team elected to design for beef farmers.
My team meets with client Transparent Path to reach a decision about which user group to prioritize for our project.
My UX Design Team from left to right: me, Patricia Vildozo Margretta, Interaction Designer and Elle Patterson, Visual Designer and Project Manager.
My teammates meet with a Transparent Path team member. (Photographed by me.)
My User Research Strategy
As Researcher, my responsibility was to locate farmers who would be willing to speak with me on the subject of food transparency to learn their needs, wishes, and meat production process pain points. I learned from a Transparent Path staff member that their attempts to speak with farmers up to that point had been largely unsuccessful. They found that farmers were hesitant about speaking with strangers about their food production processes. I realized that in order to be successful, I would have to be highly sensitive to the farmers' feelings and business concerns. The work required me to be very diplomatic as I broached the topic of their food production processes and how it relates to the idea of transparency in the food chain.
I cast a wide net in search of farmers who would be willing to speak with me. In addition to reaching out within my team’s networks of friends and family, I had the idea to visit farmers markets around Seattle to speak directly with local farmers. My thought was that these are farmers who already invite some level of transparency in their production process, since they choose to speak directly with consumers on a regular basis.
A livestock and potato farmer who uses sustainable farming practices
University District Farmers' Market
A livestock farmer who uses organic and sustainable farming practices
Summary of Key User Research Findings
My user research led our team to some key findings.
First, the cattle farmers we spoke with described a production process that would make use of a mobile app extremely difficult. Additionally, the farmers who were using technology to assist them with their work were doing so almost exclusively from a desktop computer. As a result, designing for a robust desktop site made the most sense for this user group.
Next, the farmers I interviewed did not want to see a ProofScore number assigned to each of their individual products. They were happy to be labeled as a transparent farm but did not like the idea of having their product ranked for something that was out of their control, like the fact that a trucker might have allowed their cuts of meat to get too hot as it they were transporting the product from the cut and processing facility to the retail outlet.
Mobile design for consumer-facing app of ProofScore product showing score number associated with a package of ground beef. Farmers did not want to see a number associated with their product.
(Visual Design of app screen by Transparent Path contractor Dwight Stoddard.)
When I took these initial findings back to the client, they understood quickly why the beef farmer user group needed a desktop product and gave up their initial idea that we should build responsive design to cross multiple platforms. Regarding the second initial finding, though, they had some concerns. They view their market differentiator as providing every player in the food supply chain—from the producer through to the customer—with a transparency score for every individually packaged food product available for purchase. Their business model was created around this ProofScore number.
Initially, we brought up farmers’ concern about the ProofScore number through email to our client. The client responded by saying farmer’s would need to be taught the value of this type of transparency and how it would ultimately mean they would earn more money for their products, since consumers would be willing to pay more for products produced and delivered through a transparent food chain. The client told us to emphasize the protection from food recalls that this transparency would provide for the farmers.
Based on this client response, and on the fact that their business model at the time relied on business-side users purchasing the product and actually using it, I was concerned that they didn’t realize how critical it would be to design a product that really appealed to the farmers. If the farmers were worried about a broad definition of transparency, then they wouldn’t adopt the product. At that point in our process, I didn’t see why our farmer user group would buy-in to the product.
As we had an in-person client meeting coming up, I suggested to our project manager that we use Design Studio Method with the client to work on the product design. It was my hope that we could reach a breakthrough during that process, which would help us design a product that was appealing to our business-side users, the farmers.
My teammates liked the idea and we decided together to focus on the design of the farmers’ dashboard within our Design Studio Method session.
My team conducts a session of Design Studio Method with our client, Transparent Path, to reach a better understanding of farmers needs and interests. We focus on the farmer's dashboard design.
My team and client discuss the sketches we created during our joint Design Studio Method.
I was very happy with the outcome of that Design Studio session. By the end, we had all decided to adopt the idea of a certification system analogous to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification system in the construction industry. Better yet, it was CEO Eric Weaver who had the idea during the session to develop the certification system similar to LEED, so we had quick buy-in from all members of our client team for the idea. LEED ranks the sustainability of the systems and methods used to construct a building. We decided to give the farms of all farmers who agree to adopt the ProofScore product a ProofScore Certified ranking, indicating they are transparent with the temperature and humidity data associated with their animals and meat products. From there, all farmers have the opportunity to increase their rank to Silver, Gold or Platinum. The more sustainable their farming practices are, the more they increase their chance of receiving a higher rank.
LEED Gold certification seal in the construction industry.
ProofScore Platinum certification seal design for ProofScore product. (Visual Design by Elle Patterson.)
There was a misunderstanding, though. All three members of our UX Design Team left that meeting thinking that for now, we would replace the individual product ProofScore number with only this Farm ProofScore certification ranking. When our project manager sent the client a meeting summary, though, the client got back to us saying it was their understanding that we would keep the individual product-level ProofScore number but also add the farm-level ProofScore certification ranking.
At that point, my Interaction Designer created a design for the product that included both the farm-level certification ranking and the individual product-level ProofScore number earned out of a maximum score of 100. I conducted usability testing with the idea in mind that one piece of the design would remain controversial to many members of our user group.
Throughout my usability testing, the design for the product retained both the individual product-level ProofScore number and the farm-level ProofScore certification ranking. All of my usability testers quickly grasped the concept of the farm-level ranking, but the majority of my testers had a harder time understanding what the individual product ProofScore number meant. Once they understood what it meant, they were generally more hesitant or resistant about wanting to have that number associated with their product since the score would be affected by the way people all along the food chain handled the product, including truck drivers, slaughtering house workers, butchers, distribution warehouse workers and retail staff. The farmer could not completely control the product ProofScore number.
Mid-fidelity wireframe of farmer's dashboard showing the two different ranks or scores associated with a farm. The platinum certification ranks the farm itself based on the sustainability of the farmer's practices and how humanely farmer treats their animals. The product ProofScore ranks each individual package of food (meat, in this case) from farm to fork. One farm's average product ProofScore is the average of all of its product packages that have ever been associated with a ProofScore label.
(Interaction Design by Patricia Vildozo Margretto.)
My User Research Process
The people I interviewed ranged in age from 24 - 78. They represent several different types of farmers and include 5 cattle farmers some of whom have other livestock, 6 produce farmers, 1 wheat farmer, a dairy farmer, a distributor of high-end, local, organic beef products, an agricultural sciences student and several relatives of cattle farmers.
There was quite a contrast between the practices of the farmers at the market compared with those of some of the other farmers I interviewed over the phone, like the dairy farmer in Montana, the beef farmer in Wisconsin, and the wheat farmer in Oregon. All of the farmers I spoke with at the market are committed to sustainable farming practices. The beef farmers there feed their cattle primarily or ONLY grass.
Meat, dairy and egg farmer at the market
Grain farmer harvesting his crop
Produce farmer at the market
I led my team in an affinity mapping exercise to find our users’ common threads, values and needs. I found that the farmers who were willing to consider Transparent Path, the ProofScore product, and the idea of some level of transparency in the food supply chain, are farmers who are already using sustainable farming practices. They make every effort to treat their cattle humanely and have strong views about how to make sure the beef they produce on their farms is nutrient rich.
My teammates and I determine user "I statements."
My teammates sort the results of my user research.
Our affinity map data
I heard two needs consistently from these farmers - the need to educate consumers about the value of sustainable farming practices and the need for software to track their cattle and their meat products once they leave their farm.
Based on my research, I developed our project persona, Karl Bauer. In order to help our client understand these very specific farmers, I wrote, drew and presented a detailed storyboard for Karl:
Karl Bauer is a 38 year old husband and father. He operates Bauer Family Farm with his wife, Maria. Their goal is to raise sustainable, high-quality livestock. Karl’s story will show us how his mental model regarding his family farm and farming practices evolved over the years, and why he was the perfect persona for our complex project.
Farmer Karl Bauer, the User Persona I developed for our complex project.
When Karl’s father took over the family farm from his grandfather, he kept some of the old ways but also adopted the new farming conventions of the day, including feeding corn to the calves he was fattening for market, using vaccinations and antibiotics to keep his cattle healthy, and growing thick grass with the use of fertilizers. Karl’s father was a thoughtful farmer who cared deeply about his cattle’s health and was proud of the products he produced on his farm.
Karl has always admired his father. Over the years, though, Karl - an avid fisherman - noticed it became harder and harder to find worms on the family farm, and the worms he did find weren’t as fat and juicy as the worms he’d found as a kid. Karl wondered what was going on.
As an agriculture student, he realized the farming practices his dad was using were depleting nutrients from the soil. This made Karl worry about the health of their livestock and the quality of the food they were producing on the farm. By the time he graduated, Karl decided to adopt sustainable and organic farming practices.
Today, Karl and Maria run the Bauer Family Farm together and are happy their daughter and their livestock are growing up on such beautiful and nutrient rich land. While Karl’s father considered himself a cattle farmer, Karl says he farms grass and raises healthy cattle.
Since Karl is a big believer in the importance of strong communities, he’s proud to be a role model for other local farmers. They regularly ask Karl for advice about sustainable farming practices. He always wants to help his farming community, but he’s very busy with his own farm work. His average workday lasts 18 hours, after all.
And Karl has concerns about his operations. He wants to know that Bauer Family Farm’s cattle and meat products are handled properly after they leave his care. And he wants his own secure record of how much of each different cut of meat - like top sirloin, rib roast and tri-tip - he sells to each of his grocery store partners.
Karl’s values are clear:
“I farm grass and raise healthy cattle.”
“My family and community are very important to me.”
Based on the ProofScore model, Karl’s farm, Bauer Family Farms, is a ProofScore Platinum Certified Farm.
Problem Statement
Karl helped us identify our very specific users’ problems:
Karl needs a way to educate other farmers and consumers about the value of sustainable farming practices.
Also, once Karl transfers care of his cattle and meat products to his partners, he needs a way to monitor their safe progress through the food chain.
Hypothesis
My hypothesis is that if the Transparent Path ProofScore product rewards farmers like Karl for all of their efforts to be thoughtful, sustainable and transparent farmers, these farmers would be happy to become ProofScore pilot project participants. My team’s goal became to design a ProofScore Product that meets these farmers’ needs.
My Interaction Designer created a mid-fidelity wireframe prototype that takes our testers through two farm tasks:
Task 1: To order sensors for seven animals scheduled to leave the farm and therefore, leave Karl’s care. A trucker would transport the animals to the slaughterhouse.
Task 2: To track a different, recent shipment of seven cattle from the farm and see whether any incidents occurred along the way.
I conducted 3 rounds of usability testing with our mid-fidelity wireframe prototype then tested the product’s usability with a system usability score (SUS).
Our SUS for Version 1 was 72 out of 100, which was already within the score range for a useable product.
I noticed how much more confident testers became using our product in versions 2 and 3. (click) Our SUS score for Version 2 was 73.
And our SUS score for Version 3 was 81. In our last meeting with you, we identified additional features that Patricia changed for her current version of the prototype.
Now I’ll let Patricia explain what she’s changed.
[Sample wireframes go here to show changes between each version.]
Pain points in product design users pointed out from version 1 to version 5:
Dashboard
Task #1 Order sensors
Task #2 Track shipment
Next steps
Much more research into farmer pain points and practices is needed
Identify incentive system for farmers to use this software
Explore ways to get entire supply chain on board with this system
Consider adding an inventory management system to this software
Test with other types of producers, i.e. vegetable farmers
User Experience Research Plan
Scripts and Protocol
Transparent Path
ProofScore Product
Business partner-facing side of product
User Group: Farmers
Project Timeline: 10/15/2019 - 11/4/2019
From first client meeting through final client presentation but 2 weeks of worktime
Client Meetings
10/15/15 - Kick-off meeting with Paulé Wood and Eric Weaver
10/16/19 - First meeting with Martina Dove, Ph.D. Lead UX Researcher
10/17/19 - Paulé, Eric, Martina
10/23/19 - Paulé, Eric, David (was at GA)
10/30/19 - Paulé, Eric, David, Mark Kammerer, Badri
11/4/19 - Paulé, Eric, David, Mark
User Research
Concentrated Research Day on Saturday, 10/19/19, University District Farmers Market, Seattle
Scheduled additional phone calls with other farmers/people closely connected to farmers throughout project timeframe.
Usability Testing
Version 1 - Friday, 10/25/19 - Saturday, 10/26/19
University District Farmers Market
V2 - Sunday, 10/27/19
Ballard Farmers Market
V3 - Monday, 10/28/19
General Assembly
User Research Script/Interview Questions #1 (Ramlah’s V1)
I’m a UX Design student working with a technology startup company that’s developing a product to make a farmer’s work less financially risky. The company is looking at expanding transparency in the food supply chain. We would really appreciate your time and any insights into the work of a farmer that you might be able to offer us. (Asked them whether they could sign interview and recording consent forms. Mark Kammerer has the originals.)
General questions for farmers in our user group:
All farmers:
How long have you been a farmer?
What type of farming do you do?
What do you like about being a farmer?
What is the ideal scenario for your livestock/crops?
What are your thoughts about maintaining your farm’s reputation?
Did you use a farm management system? If yes, could you describe it to me?
Where are your challenges?
Livestock farmers only:
Did you slaughter your livestock on your farm or send them off-site for slaughter?
Would you walk me through a cycle of a animal’s birth on your farm through the time of slaughter?
Who purchased your livestock and where is that location? Is that where the meat was consumed?
Are there any steps in the cycle from birth of animal to the time the meat is ready to be eaten where the process wobbles or even breaks down?
For all farmers again:
Did you ever have any safety concerns about the process of getting your product to a consumers table?
How do you feel about the use of technology in your industry?
What do you need to solve your big problems?
Were you ever affected by a food recall? Do you know any farmers who have been affected by a food recall?
User Research Script/Interview Questions V2
(Martina’s suggested script. Ramlah ended up using a combination of both sets of questions during the interviews, which all ended up more conversational than formal.)
1. Tell me something about yourself and your work? Can you describe your typical day, your typical week?
2. What problems do you encounter in your work? What is your biggest challenge? What are your worries regarding your work?
3. Can you describe the time when something went really wrong? How did you feel? What could have solved that problem?
5. How do you keep on top of your day to day operations? (follow up with these if they don't cover)
Is there anything that you use to help with that? What?
Can you describe how you use it and what it does?
6. In an ideal world - if there was a thing that could help you run your farm even better - what would that be?
7. What, in your opinion, would make your products stand out from the crowd if there was such a solution?
8. What do you think would help your reputation? If there was something out there that could help you communicate to consumers about the quality of your products, how would you feel about that?
9. With regards to your work, what is food safety to you? What worries you most about that? Do you have any examples of when you experienced food safety issue? What would have made that easier to deal with? If there was a technological solution for this, how would you feel about that? How would it help you?
Livestock farmers
1. Can you tell me how you keep track of your animals from birth? Do you do your own slaughtering?
2. What happens to your animals when they leave the farm?
Do you sell them to the slaughterhouse or do you pay the slaughterhouse for their services only? What happens then? Are there any challenges in this process? If so, what are they?
Produce farmers
1. Can you tell me what you do with your produce after harvest? Whom do you sell to? Are there any challenges with around that?
Usability Testing
ProofScan for Farmers
Transparent Path
Test Tasks
You are a farmer. You already have an account and a subscription with ProofScan. It has all the information it needs about what livestock and produce you farm and grow. When you perform actions on the site, you do not need to pay money. I have two tasks for you and it will take you a few steps to complete each task. As you go through the tasks, it would help me if you could speak your thoughts aloud.
1st Task
Create a New Livestock Shipment
Your first task is to create a new shipment of products and to order ProofScan sensors to accompany those products.
1. Please enter a new shipment in your ProofScan system and order the correct number of electronic tracking sensors.
2. In order to do this, you will add the type of product you will be shipping, then import into ProofScan your spreadsheet of data about this product. In this case, you’re shipping livestock so the data includes your animals’ Electronic Identification Device (EID) numbers, weight and size.
3. Next, you will add details about the food you feed these animals and the type of farming practices you used as you raised them.
4. Then order the sensors you will need for the numbers of individual packages you will have to sell from this group of livestock. In this case, you will ship 7 head of cattle and create 3,000 packages of beef product.
5. You will place the electronic sensor order and receive an order confirmation.
2nd Task
Track Your Shipment
Your second task is to track this shipment and monitor its progress. You’ll want to check the temperature of your products along the route.
Remember, you are a farmer:
1. What is your initial reaction to this process?
2. What would you change?
3. Do you have any other thoughts or ideas?
For actual farmers:
What do you produce?
Who delivers your products?
What do you think of the idea of being able to closely track your products once they leave your farm?
If you had access to this data, would you consider changing your product delivery methods or process?
If so, would you describe your thoughts?
User Research Group
#
Occupation
1
Livestock and Potato Farmer, Owner
2
Livestock and Potato Farmer, Manager
3
Livestock Farmer, Owner
4
Livestock Farmer, Employee
5
Wheat Farmer
6
Produce Farmer, Collective
7
High-end meat distributor
8
Grandson of a Dairy Farmer
9
Livestock Farmer, Cheese Producer, Son of Owner
10
Beef Farmer, Wisconsin, Retired
The following are sections/quotes from some of the user research and post-usability testing interviews that is particularly interesting or important. Please see User Research Excel Workbook for full summary of methods and metrics from User Research and Usability Testing.
User #1
Brent Olsen
Olsen Farms
(Audio recording of my interview with Brent and Abby is in images, audio file in shared drive.)
Wife is his business partner. She manages books and all documentation. She wrote their farm’s HAACC Plan, required by the FDA
Owns Smokey Ridge Meats Slaughterhouse - all products are cut and wrapped here. Separate location.
“I wish I had a better tracking system for my inventory.”
“I wish I had a self-checkout system for my customers.”
“None of the POS are quite right for us.”
“We cut beef every couple weeks.” Slaughter 4 head of cattle at a time.
“Full-time farm work is a real challenge.”
“It’s a real family business. My mom works in the operations with my wife and me.”
User #2
Abby
Olsen Farms
Farm Manager for 7 years
“I’m passionate about making quality products for other people.”
“I consider my work to be a convergence of survival and community and art.”
“I’m passionate about giving people access to healthy food.”
User #3
Eiko Vojkovich
Skagit River Ranch
It was obvious to me that Eiko has been educating consumers on this topic for a very long time:
“We’re the richest nation in the world and also the sickest.”
“Our job is to make sure they reach their genetic potential.”
“We could fee the world with grass-fed beef but we can’t compete at the large-scale.”
“In this country, we’re targeting a specific demographic with higher income and greater knowledge and awareness.”
“The paradigm has to shift: who you are is what you eat. Food is directly related to your health.”
Described the great difference in iron content levels between organically grown veggies and conventionally grown veggies.
Her answers to questions I asked in an email that was a follow-up to the in-person interview I conducted at the University District Farmer’s Market on Saturday, 10/19/19:
We realize that we won’t be able to design anything close to a final system within such a short time frame. Since we’re students and have assignment deadlines, though, we’ve been tasked with having a very first ROUGH iteration by Wednesday. I wasn’t able to provide our team designer enough information to make this possible.
If you’re able to answer the following questions, it would be incredibly helpful. If you’d prefer to tell me your answers, my cell is 206-650-9828. If you just don’t have time to write answers or talk on the phone again, I’ll definitely understand that, too.
Do you dry-age the cattle carcass after slaughter?
Yes we dry age them
If so, do you do that on your farm or at a separate processing facility?
They are slaughtered on THE mobile slaughter unit at our farm, and then are transported in refrigerated compartment of the slaughter unit Operated by Island Grown Farmer’s Cooperative (IGFC) to their processing facility nearby.
How long do you dry age and do you hang the carcass to dry?
We age 2-3 weeks
What temperature(s) should the carcass be kept once the animal has been slaughtered? (Maybe the temperature is different during the aging process than once the butcher has portioned the cuts?)
They are kept between 35-40F
2. Where do you portion the carcass into different cuts?
At IGFC’s processing facility. IGFC operates mobile slaughter unit AND processing facility where we age carcass, cut & freeze. We have over 100 members and are IGFC serves the member farms for their livestock slaughter and processing.
3. Do you package your cuts of meat in butcher paper or some other packaging materials?
In order to maximize the longevity of the products, we vacuum pack each items.
Do you freeze any of your cuts of meat before you deliver them to restaurants and the customers at farmers markets?
ALL OF OUR PRODUCTS ARE FROZEN TO SELL. No exceptions. Trying to deliver fresh products to many locations are IMPOSSIBLE in logistics without compromising quality and cost prohibitive for small farms.
Thank you so much for all of your time and for the incredible work you do to provide sustainably and humanely raised meats for our local community.
Warmly,
Ramlah
User #4
Alex Johnson
“Most farmers don’t want to tell you a thing unless you have the vernacular to show you’re on their side.”
“There are degrees of organic.”
“I don’t buy meat unless I talk to the farmer about their practices. What do your cows eat and how much land are they on?”
“Cows should be grass-fed and grass finished.”
“Once you know one farmer’s practices, you know one farmer’s practices.”
“I don’t eat potato fed beef.”
“You won’t see organic pigs. Instead, you’ll see pasture raised pigs. They don’t sweat and need to roll around in mud. They eat everything.”
“The barrier to entry is high for new livestock farmers.”
“People have been price de-sensitized to the most egregious practices in livestock farming.”
User #6
Taylor Ahana-Jamile
Interviewed by phone of 10/20/19
Produce Farmer
Has always worked closely with different farmers.
Indigenous Roots Farm in Carnation
They are set up like an NGO
In 2020, will begin cucumber sales direct to customers
Small local farmer group
De-colonization practices
Old School farming practices
Till the land by hand
All organic
Work closely with local community groups, serve local community groups
Have teaching, instructional contracts with Seattle Public Schools and Edmonds Public Schools
Gave his permission for our GA team to use any of their website images in our presentation.
User #8
Riley Todd
Riley Todd
From family of Dairy Farmers in Bozeman Montana
Christina Twu’s Roommate
Spoke with Riley over the phone on 10/22/19
Is from Bozeman, Montana
From a family of farmers and gave us this warning about asking them any questions about transparency in the food supply chain:
The farmers is my family are from an “evangelical frontier republican culture… [they’re] wonderful people until you get on social justice topic. They’re just not exposed to it and its triggering for them.”
Texted on 10/20/19
Uncle is on staff in the Agriculture Department at Montana State University
Connected me with his uncle through email but I never heard from his uncle
Riley told me the story of the worms. His grandfather grew up on the farm. Avid fisherman. Used to find fat, juicy worms in the fields. As a young adult, he couldn’t find many anymore. Attributed this decline in worm quality to decline in nutrients in the soil. Decided to adopt some sustainable farming practices.
Was a member of the Darigold farmer coop. To this day will only buy Darigold.
Was a leader in the farmer coop. Negotiated regularly with Darigold to get good rates and contracts with the corporation.
Riley considers his grandfather socially conservative, but his grandfather believed in the power of the union.
Riley spent his summers helping out on the farm. Whenever he goes back there to visit, he always starts out his visits by doing farmwork.
User #10
Uncle Mark
78 years old
Retired beef and pig farmer
“I consider organic farming irresponsible. I vaccinated my cattle so they wouldn’t get sick and I gave them antibiotics.”
“Once I sold my cattle at auction, I didn’t want to know what happened to them.”
“I got my money and I was happy.”
“I felt good about my work.”
“Farmers around here do things pretty much the way I did it.”
“The farmer who leases my land now likes to fatten his cattle up to 900 pounds before he sells them at auction. I raised mine until they were about 600 pounds on a combination of hay silage and corn silage. After the were sold at auction, the buyer would finish them on corn.”
“You don’t get the nice juicy cuts of meat from cattle that eat just grass.”
My research findings on farming practices
Old School
Conventional
Sustainable
Transitional Organic
Organic
Certified Transitional Organic
Washington State
Products certified as “transitional” must meet the same production and handling requirements as an organically certified product, except that the land must have no applications of prohibited materials for one year prior to harvest, rather than the three years required for organic.
California State (only within state)
CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers)
My client presentation slide deck notes:
To conduct our user research my team cast a wide net in search of farmers who would be willing to speak with us.
(click) In addition to reaching out within our team’s networks of friends and family,
(click) I visited the University District Farmers Market to speak directly with local farmers.
The people I interviewed ranged in age from 24 - 78. They represent several different types of farmers, and include 5 cattle farmers some of whom have other livestock, 6 produce farmers, 1 wheat farmer, a dairy farmer, a distributor of high-end, local, organic beef products, an agricultural sciences student and several relatives of cattle farmers.
There was quite a contrast between the practices of the farmers at the market compared with those of some of the other farmers I interviewed, like the dairy farmer in Montana, the beef farmer in Wisconsin, and the wheat farmer in Oregon. All of the farmers I spoke with at the market are committed to sustainable farming practices. The beef farmers there feed their cattle primarily or ONLY grass.
I suspect your very experienced team is already familiar with the process of affinity mapping to analyze user research. We used affinity mapping to find common threads, values and needs. The farmers who were willing to consider Transparent Path, the ProofScore product, and the idea of full transparency in the food supply chain are farmers who are already using sustainable farming practices. They make every effort to treat their cattle humanely and have strong views about how to make sure the beef they produce on their farm is nutrient rich.
We heard two needs consistently from these farmers - the need to educate consumers about the value of sustainable farming practices and the need for software to track their cattle and their meat products once they leave the farm.
After our User Research and Affinity Mapping, we brought you an important user research finding. Farmers did not want to see a ProofScore number assigned to each of their individual products. They were happy to be labeled as a transparent farm, but didn’t like the idea of having their product ranked for something that was out of their control, like the fact that a trucker might have allowed their cuts of meat to get too hot in transport. Using Design Studio method together,
(click) we all decided to adopt the idea of a certification system analogous to the LEED certification system in the building industry. We decided to give the farms of all farmers who agree to adopt the ProofScore product a ProofScore Certified ranking, indicating they are transparent with the temperature and humidity data associated with their animals and meat products. From there, all farmers have the opportunity to increase their rank to Silver, Gold or Platinum. The more sustainable their farming practices are, the more they increase their chance of receiving a higher rank.
Based on our research, we developed our project persona. Meet Karl Bauer. (click) Karl is 38 years old and operates Bauer Family Farm with his wife, Maria. Their goal is to raise sustainable, high-quality livestock. Karl’s story will show us how his mental model regarding his family farm and farming practices evolved over the years, and why he is the perfect persona for our complex project today.
When Karl’s father took over the family farm from his grandfather, he kept some of the old ways but also adopted the new farming conventions of the day, including feeding corn to the calves he was fattening for market, using vaccinations and antibiotics to keep his cattle healthy, and growing thick grass with the use of fertilizers. Karl’s father was a thoughtful farmer who cared deeply about his cattle’s health and was proud of the products he produced on his farm.
Karl has always admired his father. Over the years, though, Karl - an avid fisherman - noticed it became harder and harder to find worms on the family farm, and the worms he did find weren’t as fat and juicy as the worms he’d found as a kid. Karl wondered what was going on.
As an agriculture student, he realized the farming practices his dad was using were depleting nutrients from the soil. This made Karl worry about the health of their livestock and the quality of the food they were producing on the farm. By the time he graduated, Karl decided to adopt sustainable and organic farming practices.
Today, Karl and Maria run the Bauer Family Farm together and are happy their daughter and their livestock are growing up on such beautiful and nutrient rich land. While Karl’s father considered himself a cattle farmer, Karl says he farms grass and raises healthy cattle.
Since Karl is a big believer in the importance of strong communities, he’s proud to be a role model for other local farmers. They regularly ask Karl for advice about sustainable farming practices. He always wants to help his farming community, but he’s very busy with his own farm work. His average workday lasts 18 hours, after all.
And Karl has concerns about his operations. He wants to know that Bauer Family Farm’s cattle and meat products are handled properly after they leave his care. And he wants his own secure record of how much of each different cut of meat - like top sirloin, rib roast and tri-tip - he sells to each of his grocery store partners.
Karl’s values are clear:
(click) “I farm grass and raise healthy cattle.”
(click) “My family and community are very important to me.”
Based on the ProofScore model, Karl’s farm, Bauer Family Farms, is a ProofScore Platinum Certified Farm.
Karl helped us identify our very specific users’ problems:
(click) Karl needs a way to educate other farmers and consumers about the value of sustainable farming practices.
(click) Also, once Karl transfers care of his cattle and meat products to his partners, he needs a way to monitor their safe progress through the food chain.” Our hypothesis is that if the Transparent Path ProofScore product rewards farmers like Karl for all of their efforts to be thoughtful, sustainable and transparent farmers, these farmers would be happy to become ProofScore pilot project participants. Our goal became to design a ProofScore Product that meets these farmers’ needs.
Now Elle will discuss our information architecture.
Patricia designed a mid-fidelity wireframe prototype that takes our testers through two farm tasks:
(Click) - First, I asked testers to order sensors for seven animals scheduled to leave the farm and therefore, leave Karl’s care. A trucker would transport the animals to the slaughterhouse.
(Click) - Then, I asked testers to track a different, recent shipment of cattle from the farm and see whether any incidents occurred along the way.
I conducted 3 rounds of usability testing with our mid-fidelity wireframe prototype and again, I suspect your experienced team is comfortable with the concept of testing a product’s usability with a system usability score or SUS survey after a user completes the tasks.
(click) Our SUS for Version 1 was 72 out of 100, which is already within the score range for acceptable products. A score of 68 or above is considered above average.
I’ve noticed how much more confident testers have become using our product in versions 2 and 3. (click) Our SUS score for Version 2 was 73.
And our SUS score for Version 3 was 81. In our last meeting with you, we identified additional features that Patricia changed for her current version of the prototype.
Now I’ll let Patricia explain what she’s changed.
Patty’s bullets
From version 1 to version 5:
Dashboard screen
Order sensors task
Track shipment task
Next steps
Much more research into farmer pain points and practices is needed
Identify incentive system for farmers to use this software
Explore ways to get entire supply chain on board with this system
Consider adding an inventory management system to this software
Test with other types of producers, i.e. vegetable farmers