Alertify
Natural disasters are on the rise in the United States, there’s no doubt about this and with that comes the need for a platform to help coordinate an effective and quick response. In desperate times, the RWTC (Ready When the Time Comes) chapters are called upon in the community and stand side-by-side with Red Cross to stabilize the situation. However, most RWTC chapters struggle to communicate with Red Cross due to a lack of time and coordination. From this main problem we discovered where our solution lie, Alertify was formed to lead the coordination. This platform will streamline local led activities and make them more effective as impacted individuals wait for rescue and recovery from organized assistance. Six features will be incorporated into the application design to better fit the users’ needs: Social Media Integration, Interactive Map, Screens for Community Organizers to view and manage Volunteers and track Donations, Screens for Community Organizers to associate volunteers and donations with needs, and a way for people to volunteer and donate.
Overview: MUXD Masters Team Project
Roles: UX/UI Design, UX Research, Information Architect, Project Manager
Software: Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe XD, Azure, Whimsical, Uxpressia, Miro
Product: Desktop and Tablet Design
Team: Joshua Hillmer, Sally Kim, Julian Addison, and Ron Park
Timeline: 6 Weeks
If you can’t afford to buy organic, then you should grow organic
Each year the average gardener spends around $70 on their hobby and harvests over $600 worth of food.
Project Plan Schedule
For this project we tasked ourselves to have a working prototype within 6 weeks. Although this was ambitious we were confident that we would be able to lean on each other for help.
The Problem
An individual with a garden/fruit tree, often feels overwhelmed about having too much of the one type of produce and needs to find a way to give or trade for another type but faces no easy way to do so past their friends and relatives.
Phase 1: Understand
User Interviews
The users were provided with a consent form, conducted over Zoom and took place within the span of 3 days. During the interview 5 basic questions were asked of each participant, with a question branch chain following to fill any void and an open discussion was prioritized. Several key findings stuck out.
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User Survey
A survey was sent out to 20 individuals who own either a mature fruit tree or a home garden. Below are the key findings:
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Market Research
Has this been done before?
Lets take a look at the closest competition…
No Dedicated app
Directory of CSA farms
Focuses on B2C of produce/meat/herbs direct from farms
No dedicated area for trading of selling local produce
No dedicated app
80 million monthly users
Focus on used items/jobs/housing
No dedicated area for produce
Dedicated app
44 million active users
Focuses on C2C of used items
No dedicated area for produce
Pain Points
Not having a dedicated app or platform specifically made for produce
Currently if you want to trade or get fruit from a neighbor you need to go out of your comfort zone to ask them in person.
If you have an excess of fruit or vegetables you have only a few options
Give it away to friends and family (limited to your network)
Eat it all (can quickly turn unenjoyable)
Let it go to waste
Persona
What is a persona?
Although personas have come under fire in more recent times. I believe they can still help serve a purpose. While it should be used as a supplementary research tool and not a heavily relied upon one. Personas help to not only create a vision of your ideal user but help to formulate needs, wants and frustrations. They are based on behaviors and motivations of real people we observe or data gathered from actual users encountered in ethnographic interviews. They help to maintain alignment with all members of a team on a website or digital project. They serve the purpose of helping to orient a project and can be used to help make informed decisions when user goals are called into question.
Jodi Greenthumb
As we can see here the persona created is named Jodi. She has a knack for gardening and loves the outdoors. Well not so much camping or hiking, but more planting and harvesting type of outdoors. When she’s not counseling and helping others she is out with her pups tending to her garden and fruit trees. She is an advocate of the therapeutic nature of well.... nature. The only problem is, she is very shy outside of work and has way too much produce during the harvest season.
Phase 2: Define
Journey Mapping
Current State
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Future State
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Research Tools Used
Card sorting
Card sorting is a research tool used to assess or determine the way information is grouped, labeled, and organized within a site by allowing users to sort content topics into categories that make sense to them. Card sorting helps you understand what users expect of a site so you can provide a product that meets their needs. Creating structure in the content using information gained from card sorting promotes a smoother interaction between the user and the system.
In the video to the right you can see just that. I took 3 users from the target audience and ran them through a card sorting exercise to see just what stood out. Below you will see the highlights.
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User Flow
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Site Map
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Phase 3: Justify the Need
Target Audience & Basic Need
Demographics
Ages 25-65
Homeowners or individuals who like to garden or have access to mature fruit trees
iPhone or Android user
Behaviors
Frequent user of Offerup, Facebook Marketplace or other similar apps
Hobbies include gardening, cooking or they like to go to farmers markets
Who stands to benefit?
Local companies and organizations
Nurseries looking to advertise
Restaurants wanting to buy fresh
Farmers market stalls looking to promote
Users
Individuals looking to trade produce from their garden or orchard
Those who enjoy going to farmers markets on the weekend
The opportunity
Untapped Potential
American gardeners have spent nearly 4 billion on garden retail sales- this is up 20% from just last year.
TownSquare will be taking the same approach as other C2C marketplace platforms such as OfferUp. However, it will be unique because there are currently no other platforms out there that focus on produce trading between communities.
Revenue will be driven by allowing users to promote their posts for a fee and through hosting ads on the platform. This ad and post promotion model works quite well. In comparison, OfferUp’s annual revenue is between 300-500 million and has a valuation at just over 1 billion.