Farmers

Market

There are 8771 farmers market in the US, with more being added each year. Customers appreciate farmers market for their convenience, quality and sustainability. While the average distance that food travels in the US is 1500+ miles, the products at the farmers market are typically farmed within a 90 mile range. This is an enormous cut for the CO2 emissions, and because the produce is sold directly to the consumers, less plastic is used, prices are low, and the products are fresh out of the garden.

However, there are some limitations: the markets are usually open for only few hours a week, they are geographically sparse, and some merchants don’t accept credit card. If they have a website, it’s purpose is solely informative, and isn’t frequently updated.

For the purpose of this project, I decided to focus on solving three different problems of one of the biggest and most central market in San Francisco: the Hearth of the City Farmers' Market.

UX/UI
UX Research
Prototyping

Research

Online and on-site research was conducted to determine user personas. Online research showed some useful statistics about the customers and the reasons they choose to shop at the farmers' market, but it didn't give any insight about the customers' goals and pain points. The research on-site at the Heart of the City Farmers' Market was fundamental for creating an in-depth persona.

Online research
On-site research
User personas

Synthesis

From my research at the market, three main problems were found:

The limited amount of time the customer could visit the market weekly.
The lack of certainty around products’ availability.
The lack of information about prices and seasonal products on the website.

How might we give customers access to fresh, local produce anytime?

Design

IDEA: an online marketplace for the farmers’ market.

This will:

Provide information about the farmers’ products and prices.
Give the customers the choice of preordering products anytime and anywhere.
Give the customers the choice to pick up their order at the market’s location, or have it delivered.

Sketches
Wireframes
First prototype

Implementation

After testing the first prototype, some changes were necessary.

People couldn’t understand the use of the shopping list together with the cart, so I removed it and created a "favorite” list instead.
The map was more of a distraction than a helpful tool, so it was removed.
The "switch to list” icon was confusing, so it was removed as well.
The initial page changed from the map to an overview of the seasonal produce.
The vendor’s page was replaced with the product page.

Final touches and prototype

Typefaces and colors were chosen.
The profile and sign up pages were added.
All the elements were softened with rounded corners.
Some boxes were simplified and some were removed.
The cart was changed to a card UI element that slides in and out.
The main navigation was updated to be more intuitive and appealing.