Designing For Farmers — My MA Major Project: 5
Developing, testing, learning, repeat
I’ve been a busy boy, hence my delay in getting this post up. In my last post I discussed some initial ideas I had around the area of knowledge sharing within farming. Since then, I sketched out many ideas but kept arriving back to the knowledge-sharing social network I had mentioned previously. I kept an open mind as I moved forward in that if other ideas became prominent or presented themselves, I would look to develop and test them also but for the most part I began fleshing out the aforementioned social network idea quite a bit.
Concept development
I got all (or most) of the ideas I had in my head out (quite messily) on paper to see where I was at.
Since beginning my MA, I really wanted to design some sort of digital-service and I generated some ideas around that, but that being said, I wasn’t limited. I referred back to my initial interviews and discussions with stakeholders throughout the process of development, thinking about what it is they want and don’t want.
Discussion groups are happening regularly, be they the state-run, incentivised ones which are invigilated by Teagasc or self-organised ones. I wanted to explore how these groups were organised, if they were reaching their potential, if participants were getting anything out of them, what participants do if they’re stumped in the long period between discussion groups, where and when they’re held and the content discussed, to name a few points.
More interviews
I was fortunate to get to speak to a few more people who had some buy-in in the farming space. The first was Owen, an Interaction Designer with Fjord (Dublin) who worked for The Farmers Journal for 13 years. When I told him about the idea I had, his response was good to hear:
“ Discussion groups are integral to local farming communities in Ireland and emulating and facilitating them digitally is inevitable.”
He had some terrific insights around farming as a whole, thanks to his long-term exposure to the industry for so many years. The fact that he comes from a design background in the farming space meant that he could give me a few pointers and things to keep in mind moving forward:
“When designing for farmers, it’s very much a case of less is more. By having too much, you dilute it and there’s far less of a chance then that a farmer will actually use it. The value in using it, whatever it is, has to be instantly apparent.”
“Farmers don’t want to invest a lot of time figuring something out. As soon as it starts interfering with their day-to-day tasks, they’ll stop using it. Farmers are knowledge-rich but time-poor.”
“Farmers have a fear of being monitored.”
“A lot of farmers work by themselves and don’t have family members coming through to pass information onto anymore. Discussion groups are supposed to be about passing on knowledge but underneath that is what’s really important, the social aspect.”
It was one of the most beneficial chats I had throughout my process so far. Less is more, apparent value, privacy awareness and social interaction were just some of my big takeaways.
I also got to speak with Colin, the Technology Advisor & Supervising Facilitator for Meath of Teagasc. In my ‘Designing For Farmers — My Major Project: 3’ post, I mentioned the chat I had with the Knowledge Management & Communications Specialist of Teagasc, who’s based up in Galway, so it was great to get a different Teagasc-perspective. We spoke about the different types of groups, group size, group formation and organisation, Teagasc’s role before, during and after meetings and typical meeting content and duration. This really helped me get my head around how some of the ins and outs of a digital discussion group might work.
“A lot of work and research has gone into determining the right group size and it’s been found that 12–15 farmers is the right number.”
“The groups are organised based off the type of farm you’re working on or running and where you’re based.”
“Each group has a chairperson who does the brunt of the organisation.”
The logistics of running or facilitating a discussion group became more clear as the conversation progressed. Something interesting which came out of our chat was how Teagasc will only intervene if required. Farmers should try come up with the answers themselves but if they’re having trouble, Teagasc are there to help. Maybe this could be a feature of some kind that could be built into a digital solution?
“Some farmers ring us once a week, some once every six weeks. Some ring us every day and we try to help them all.”
“Some farmers are a bit quieter or more protective of information but in general, if you’re part of a discussion group you tend to be quite open or at least after a few meetings you will be.”
Having heard about the openness and willingness to help each other within farming and agriculture as a industry from so many people up to this point, Colin confirmed this when he said:
“Farming is a wonderfully unusual industry. You wouldn’t see car manufacturers sharing information whereas farmers get together and really try to help each other.”
Card sorting
As my ideas progressed, I began thinking about some potential functionalities/features that a knowledge-sharing social network might have but in order to determine the importance and hierarchy of these features, I wanted to go back to some of my initial farmer interviewees to see what they thought.
The herd management side of things is quite saturated and has been tackled quite a bit so I moreso wanted to focus on the typical day-to-day tasks that farmers are undertaking, as seen in the above image. So far I’ve gone back to two farmers and I hope to get back to more over the next week.
If there was an app or platform that was designed to bring farmers together to share knowledge and create new social circles and these were some of the potential features, can you rate these features from most relevant/desirable (1) to least relevant/desirable (9)? As well as that, could any be grouped together under one heading?
The first participant did a digital card sort with me, something I had never done before but it worked quite well. He coupled the forum and message-able groups, farm events and news (or suggested that events could come through as a message either) and buying and selling. He suggested that integration from other platforms like DoneDeal or a reliable weather forecast service could be beneficial. He also gave me the idea to include information on factory market prices (which could come under selling somehow) as well as a timeline of some kind for closing periods. He felt that notes/lists wasn’t as important but that a space to look for job seekers or contractors was needed.
The second participant is a little more against the idea of sharing knowledge. Well, not against it exactly:
“Yeah, it’s great to talk about issues you might be having with the farm or whatever but at the end of the day, there’s no money in farming, no amount of talking about it is going to fix that.”
Nevertheless, I felt that his opinion and insight as to the relevance and hierarchy of features would still be helpful.
This participant felt that checking the weather and the ability to make notes or lists were the more important features followed by farming news, factory prices and notices of farm events. He coupled buying and selling stuff together but stated that buying is all he’d really do. And what did he put last? Message-able groups. Great.
I wasn’t too disheartened though. This idea of being able to contact other farmers with a view to helping each other isn’t going to be for everyone initially but maybe when they experience it and see the benefits then they’ll adopt it more.
I found both card sorts to be very useful. One important thing I took away from them was that every persons preference is going to be different. Perhaps customisation of features is the way to go.
Personas
Lastly, I made a couple of personas so as to try and keep in mind the types of farmers I’m designing for. As the project progresses, I intend on expanding the below personas and create scenarios and journey maps to accompany them.
What’s next?
From here I hope to card sort and paper prototype with more of my initial farmer interviewees while also beginning to move into mid-fi prototyping and testing. As well as that, Colin from Teagasc is looking to get me a place in an upcoming discussion group so fingers crossed that comes through.
