About the Grainmate app

In 2020, the team at Sesi Technologies, a Ghana-based AgriTech startup reached out to me for a possible collaboration.

The team had developed a cost-effective moisture meter that was helping local farmers to measure moisture content in their grains. The goal was to help reduce Post Harvest Loss which was a major source of worry for a lot of farmers across Africa. They wanted to build a companion mobile app to compliment it.

I worked with the CEO and an in-house developer to ideate, put together wireframes and prototype an end product that has been used and loved by many farmers, agricultural workers and warehouse managers in Ghana.

Ideations, flows and wireframes

We went through several rounds of ideations with regards to the user flows and journeys, taking into account the demographics of the users we were building for. We wanted to provide a solution that can thrive in areas without great internet. From research, we were aware of the fact that a lot of the farmers used low-tier mobile phones. Most of the farmers were also not really tech inclined. Accessibility was a top priority.

Signing up

I designed a simple and straightforward sign up system for users. Only the most important information is asked for.

Once a user completes the sign up process, we present to them a screen that asks for what they intend to do in simple clear words.

Connecting a device

Once a user completes the sign up process, we present to them a screen that asks for what they intend to do in simple clear words. They have the option to connect their hardware meters, access resources on Post-Harvest Losses, or set up their account to sell their farm produce.

I also used colours to differentiate the different activities so it's easy to remember.

Measure

Farmers and warehouse managers are able to easily record their moisture readings for future use.

Learn

Apart from being able to measure moisture level in grains and receive recommendations, users have access to resources to equip them with knowledge on how to tackle post-harvest losses

Sell

One of the biggest issues that local farmers face is access to buyers. This can result in long storage of farm produce in the farms for longer durations than needed and result in post harvest losses. During the ideation phase, we saw the opportunity to tackle this problem for the farmers. So I designed a simple interface for the farmers to be able to upload information about their products and get connected to potential buyers. This feature was so well received that it was later moved to its own standalone.

Feedback

The app was love by users. We received a number of valuable insights that helped us improve the experience over time.