Ferguson Graze
The Project…
Massey Ferguson came to the team at YFS with the request of “disrupting” the farming industry through a digital medium. Working closely with our strategists we took a step back and asked ourselves why they need this, why their market needs something and what that “something” was…
My Role in this project:
- Lead product designer
- Collective Strategy
Understanding Who & Why
We broke down existing market research and pin pointed which audiences had the most potential to add value to; Taking into consideration the percentage of the market they currently made up and the long-term changes that were occurring within the industry.
Our selected target audiance:
- Independent Researchers
- Digital Networker
- Performance Focused
Spotting an opportunity
The team and I went away and conducted multiple forms of research (which included user interviews, market surveys and competitor analysis) within the market, to find out what the needs/desires of the selected audiences are and how they were currently being met.
What we found:
- The market wants a platform to share and collaborate with
- Professionals want to communicate with others within the industry
An architecture around user value
Once we had an objective with requirements to meet, we created various solutions based around the needs of the end users, prioritising key areas such as sharing content, accessing content and staying connected with the industry. We presented back several approaches of how we could meet the set requirements to Massey Ferguson, In the end they went with a web based social platform.
Testing lo-fi prototypes
After creating an architecture for the platform with user flows set out, we began building low-fidelity prototypes using Invision to rapidly test prototypes with individuals from a set user group acquired from Massey Ferguson’s marketing database.
After each session, we amended the prototype accordingly to the feedback received and did this repetitively throughout our testing phrase to ensure the foundations we had were solid and worked for the end user.
Revisiting the style-guides
We knew we had to borrow styling hints from the brand to retain the connection, this at first was a challenge as Massey Ferguson was situated in a graphic style that represented hard duty machinery.
The colours were taken and softened to give it a more friendly feel to match the people focused approach as compared to the hard solid colours that worked well when selling machinery; Similar approach was also applied to the icon set and typography.
Fleshing out the digital product
The goal with the high-fidelity prototype was to create a look and feel that felt very natural and familiar to the user, whilst still delivering the key information without it being overwhelming. The entire platform was designed from the ground up using atomic methodology which is made it super easy to create page templates and components.
What was achieved…
The client was a part of this project at every stage, working with us to accomplish the final digital product. The product was well received from all the stakeholders at Massey Ferguson when presented back to the board and gave an insight into how design thinking could better position the company to face challenges going forward.
A leading first digital experience within the farming industry that fills a requirement in the space.
A rich collaborative agriculture platform where industry professionals can share, learn and connect.
A communication platform for connected agriculture professionals to connect and interchange knowledge