Delta Farmers Institute

As a user researcher, I worked with the Delta Farmers Institute to conduct a design evaluation of their website. DFI works closely with Delta farmers, providing information about water salinity, tides, and weather forecasts crucial for crop decisions. Our goal was to identify what was valuable to the current audience and uncover opportunities for improvement.

Role: Lead user researcher: designed the field study, ran farmer interviews, and authored the redesign recommendations.

Mapped the real needs of Delta farmers around water salinity, tides, and weather.
Proposed a mobile-first redesign (real-time alerts, dashboard, historical data) to strengthen DFI's provincial funding case.

The Client

The Delta Farmers Institute provides crucial services to Delta Farmers, such as acquiring provincial agriculture funds and managing their website. The website is an essential tool for farmers to access critical information, enabling them to make informed decisions about their crops.

The goal of the field study is to identify which aspects of the website were valuable to DFI's current audience and to uncover opportunities for improvement that can better support the Delta farmers, helping DFI seek additional provincial funding.

Preliminary Research

Early preliminary research using heuristic evaluation revealed that Delta farmers were not too familiar with technological products.

We traveled to Delta for field research, obtained consent forms, and conducted informal interviews about farming procedures while observing how farmers used the website to check salinity and water levels, preparing comprehensive questions to inform further analysis.

Study Methods

We used a pre-questionnaire to gather demographic information and insight into basic technology knowledge. We then conducted a heuristic evaluation and an interview-based field study to understand participants' daily needs and how they envisioned the DFI website to function.

Our evaluation aimed to uncover insights to enhance website usability, then understand farming practices and gather insights to inform the design of future systems.

The Solution

Our study led us to propose modifications to convert the DFI website into a mobile application. Customization, real-time notifications, improved mapping, and readable historical data are essential features that help farmers access critical information more efficiently.

Proposed Features

Notifications

Real-time alerts to notify farmers when salinity is ideal.

Dashboard

A customized dashboard to track the most important locations.

Filters

A filtering system to help users narrow down to specific locations.

Information

Historical salinity data from various locations.

Map

A map interface displaying locations and water flow activity.