Valencia's Best—Revolutionizing the Farmer-to-Consumer Connection
Empowering small-scale Filipino farmers and eco-conscious consumers through a seamless farm-to-table mobile app.
- Customer Interviews
- High-Fidelity
- DesignsMobile App Design
MY ROLE
I served as a co-designer of Valencia’s Best, conducting five customer interviews to understand their needs. Additionally, I took charge of the UI design, crafting a user-friendly interface, and contributed to the app's strategy.
DELIVERABLES
- Customer Interviews
- High-Fidelity
- DesignsMobile App Design
TEAM
- Emil (Me): UI Designer and Researcher
- Miranda: UX Designer and Researcher (Farmer-focused)
DURATION
3 months
Project summary
Valencia’s Best is a mobile app designed to disrupt traditional supply chains by connecting Filipino farmers directly with consumers. Our goal was to eliminate exploitative middlemen, ensuring fair pricing for farmers while delivering fresh, affordable produce to consumers. The platform prioritized sustainability by integrating features like partial seed payments for farmers, fostering long-term agricultural growth.
My Contribution
- Conducted interviews with customers to uncover their expectations and pain points.
- Led the UI design process, ensuring the app was intuitive and accessible for all users.
- Collaborated with Miranda to align the needs of both farmers and consumers into a cohesive strategy.
Users and needs
- Farmers
- Fair pricing for their produce.
- Support for future farming (e.g., seed provisions).
- Consumers
- Convenient access to fresh, affordable produce.
- A fast and simple buying experience.
Outcome statement
Despite a promising vision, the project faced challenges related to infrastructure and market readiness in the Philippines. As a result, the app was not implemented. However, the experience underscored critical gaps in infrastructure and the importance of aligning solutions with on-the-ground realities.
Highlights - Animation
Solution 1: Direct Farmer-Consumer Marketplace
The app enabled farmers to sell their produce directly to consumers, eliminating middlemen.
Solution 2: Partial Seed Payment System
Farmers could receive part of their earnings in seeds, helping secure future harvests while reducing financial constraints.
Solution 3: Facebook Integration
Recognizing that most users were active on Facebook, we designed the app as an extension of Facebook Marketplace, leveraging its familiarity to drive adoption.
User Personas & Flows
Through 10 interviews (5 with farmers, 5 with customers), we developed detailed personas:
- Farmers: Struggled with literacy and needed simple, accessible interfaces.
- Consumers: Valued ease of use, speed, and the ability to purchase smaller quantities.
The app’s user flows were tested through iterations, starting from paper prototypes to low-fidelity and high-fidelity wireframes.
Onboarding process
According to our research, a key priority for users (customers) was finding a way to BUY a small portion of the product and to be fast and ease. Our other user (farmers) want a way to protect their future.
In response, from a product perspective, we decided to tackle this challenge by designing Android app called Valencia's Best that offers a fresh experience, showcasing all the products the farmers offer with a connection to Facebook. Building on this, we then crafted an experience tailored to user needs, grounded in our research findings.
Key Design Decisions
User Base Adaptation
The app catered to active Android and Facebook users, ensuring ease of adoption.
Simplified Design
Given the literacy challenges faced by farmers, simplicity was prioritized in the app’s interface.
Language Inclusivity
English was selected as the primary language to bridge diverse linguistic backgrounds and enhance scalability.
Interactive Prototype
Learnings
Research
More market and consumer research would have given us a clearer view of market readiness and helped us fine-tune product-market fit.
Research
Overemphasis on farmer needs led to missed opportunities to address customer pain points in the early stages
