AgroPlan is a monitoring system for farmers that help them keep track of vital parameters in their soil, and react to changes accordingly. The product is aimed to help users make informed decisions about their farming activities, in a manner which will increase productivity. They can plan their season by comparing “what-if” scenarios to optimize their product and profit. My role was to conduct the initial Human Factors Engineering and write a concise UX Research Plan. 

Before I started thinking of design solutions, it was important to get familiarized with what's out there in the market, and how similar products look and behave.

Users’ interactions with a product consist of actions often referred to as tasks. One of the ways to describe the research results is by performing Task Analysis. The most common analysis used is hierarchical task analysis (HTA), where a hierarchy of tasks and subtasks represents the task structure. An example of a possible HTA:

After initial analysis of user tasks, I've suggested a session protocol for usability testing. In order to get more reliable results, it's important to have a test script, by which the researcher will lead the session.

This is the script:

❒ Look at the main screen. Can you tell me what the actions that you can do here are?

❒ [Assuming main screen show current crop status] What can you tell me about your crops' current status?

❒ Let's assume that you got a message about one of your crops. It says that the system recommends to increase irrigation output by 20%. What would you do?

❒ OK. Now, where would you go if you want to check if that change took place?

❒ You want to view your crops seasonal plan. What would you do?

❒ Where would you go to view your irrigation history?

❒ Where would you go to view your irrigation plan? How can you change this?

❒ Where would you go to view your mineral deployment plan? How can you change this?❒ Where would you go to view the plant type you have in the field? How can you change this?

❒ You want to make a financial estimation about water cost vs. profits. What would you do next?

❒ OK. [Enters Financial Estimation screen] What would be the profit change if you decrease the amount of water by 22% for 3 months?

❒ You want to look at what is going on in another field. How would you do that? How do you come back to the first field?

❒ Defining business goals

❒ Defining product requirements

❒ Target Audience Analysis 

❒ User research 

❒ Creating personas 

❒ Prioritizing features

❒ Discussing and documenting user tasks and optimal flows 

❒ Conceptual Mapping 

❒ Sketching 

❒ Wireframing of main screens

❒ User testing & Presenting test results 

❒ Fixing usability bugs

❒ Developing a graphic concept (including brand guidelines)

❒ Producing a Style Guide

❒ Creating a high fidelity mockup for all screens

❒ User testing & Presenting test results 

❒ Fixing usability bugs

❒ Detailed graphic design for all screens