Designing a Dashboard to Provide Farm Data for Fortune 500 Brands
Designed a 0-1 experience for a data management platform in the sustainability space, consolidating farm data into a comprehensive view for global retail brands to support their sustainability commitments. The project aims to reduce farm data processing time by 80%.
Client
VeriFi
Scope
Design a North Star vision and a 0-1 experience for a data management platform to accelerate venture funding for VeriFi
Timeline
06/2024-08/2024
My Role
UX Lead
SUSTAINABILITY
〰️
DATA MANAGEMENT
〰️
UX STRATEGY
〰️
NORTH STAR
〰️
DASHBOARD DESIGN
〰️
SUSTAINABILITY 〰️ DATA MANAGEMENT 〰️ UX STRATEGY 〰️ NORTH STAR 〰️ DASHBOARD DESIGN 〰️
01
Project Background
In today’s market, brands will soon be required to provide credible data for claims over their sustainability practices. My client VeriFi is a new marketplace for brands to buy this data that’s collected directly at the farm, through the supply chain, and to the brand.
Although the value exchange primarily occurs between brands and farmers. Several entities are involved in facilitating this market. Program partners (like Terra Genesis) help brands with designing, implementing, and operating these sustainability programs to help drive their corporate goals. And Terra Genesis (TGI) works alongside manufacturers selling data to their Fortune 500 brand customers. This data will be used by brands to support EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) claims and regenerative production.
VeriFi will be focused on providing solutions for our Program Partners to effectively manage farm data and operate their programs.
02
The Challenge
The current system for program partners to process and validate farm data is disjointed, relying on spreadsheets, Google Colab notebooks, and PDFs for managing farmer profiles. This fragmentation results in verification processes that take hours rather than minutes. There is a pressing need for a unified digital platform to streamline data entry and validation, enhancing efficiency and reducing time delays.
03
Project Outcome
Successfully delivered a proof of concept within a condensed two-month timeframe to demonstrate VeriFi’s capabilities in managing and validating farm data. The PoC was well-received by program partners, as it is projected to reduce the time required to process farm data by 80%. It will be showcased in upcoming investor meetings to secure funding for further research and feature development in the next phase.
“Right now, I spend several hours each week sifting through data to spot issues. Having this dashboard would be a game-changer—it would make things much easier for us, both from a program and brand perspective, by quickly highlighting any exceptions.”
Alex, Program Operator at Terra Genesis. He is responsible for validating and governing the farm data that will be provided to the brands.
04
How might we make Alex’s life easier with VeriFi platform?
Look into the complex verification process today to get a better grasp of what I'm designing for and the overall scope.
Given the tight timeframe for this project and limited access to users, I didn’t get the chance conduct a full-scale discovery as I hoped. However, I gathered existing research materials, spoke with key stakeholders, and consulted with a program coordinator like Alex. Despite the small scale, this effort still helped me gain great insights on what I’m designing for and the overall scope.
This is the workflow we envisioned for program operators like Alex to achieve with the VeriFi program platform.
05
Scope the Work
Created lo-fi wireframes to understand and align on the scope with the key stakeholders:
Within this 2-month project, our goal is to communicate capabilities, not build a working product off the back of the design. After a prioritization workshop with key stakeholders, we narrowed down the scope to show capabilities for program operators and brand administrators to:
Monitor farm data
Monitor farm sustainability performance
Review and resolve data quality issues at scale
06
Dashboard Design
Review Farm Data
Cooperative List View (V1)
Left Navigation Panel
Indicate user name / brand name with different user-level permissions
List of items based on the PoV scope: “All tasks“ for issue management; “Data & Monitoring“ for farm data review; “Supply Chain” as a coming-soon feature for data purchasing marketplace.
VeriFi Updates Section
Highlight VeriFi branding
Provide users with an easy access to platform updates
Secondary Tab Navigation
3 different tab options to view programs, cooperatives, and farm info
The icon designs indicate the hierarchy between the 3 entities: farms report to cooperatives, and cooperatives to programs.
Search Bar
For users to easily locate a specific program, cooperative, farm or an issue
Cooperatives List
List of cooperatives
Expand to view the farms under each cooperatives with issue number and last updated time
Filter, sort by and display options for users to customize the list
User Feedback & Iteration
Need an easy way to tell between the PGS-Compliant vs Non-Compliant Cooperatives
To expedite the workflow, the users would like an easy visual way to tell the difference between the PGS compliant vs non-compliant cooperatives.
Need more detailed farm data within the cooperative list
Users would like to see more data points that close to raw data for the farms under each cooperative. This is also very important to showcase that our platform has the capability of storing all those information.
Need a way to easily export data
Users need easy access to not only view the data, but export and share the data with others.
Design Iteration
Cooperative List View (V2)
Export Data
Added “Export“ button so that users can easily export and share the data with others.
PGS & Non-PGS Sections
Segmented cooperatives into 'PGS' and 'Non-PGS' categories, reducing information overload and making it easier for users to distinguish between PGS-compliant and non-compliant cooperatives.
Detailed Farm Data in Table View
Introduced a table view that mirrors the familiar spreadsheet format, enhancing the user experience by aligning with their existing workflow.
Here is a quick comparison of the before & after:
Before
After
06
Dashboard Design
Validate Farm Data
2. Farm Ethos Compliance Tab (V1)
This view showcases a farm's compliance performance on Ethos. The data visualization is designed to provide brand administrators and other users, who may have limited data analysis expertise, with a clear and straightforward understanding of the farm's performance.
*Ethos was developed by Textile Exchange that provides tools and guidelines for brands, retailers, and farmers to implement and monitor sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices.
Secondary Tab Navigation
The Ethos tab view offers data visualization tailored for users like brand administrators, who may have limited data analysis experience, while the Data tab provides program operators, such as Alex, with detailed access to raw data for an in-depth examination of farm specifics.
Farm Media Gallery
A geo-map that allows users to expand and view the specific locations of the farm's plots
An image carousel that provides users with a comprehensive view of the farm through a series of images
Program Performance
A visualization to help track the farm's compliance performance trends across various metrics, such as soil health, biodiversity, and more
Products Overview
Designed a color system for different products, e.g. Natural rubber, durian, etc.
A line graph was created to help users quickly visualize trends in farm product performance over a specified period
Program Adoption
A funnel graphic to illustrate the farm's adoption of sustainability practices, allowing program operators to quickly identify and address problematic farms.
Cooperative Info Overview
Quick overview of the cooperative to provide context and point of contact info.
We have a problem…
Need to Scope Down
We always want to deliver the best we can - the features the users would need tight 2-month deadline requires us to narrow the design scope to ensure sufficient time for developing the proof of concept.
Design Iteration
2. Farm Ethos Compliance Tab (V2 Scoped-down Design)
Added Ethos Status Upfront
Display a block showing farm’s Ethos compliant status on top of the page.
Removed Geo-Map Feature for now
Left out Geo-Map feature from the media carousel to reduce the development work load.
Added Farm and Farmer Info
Added farm and farmer info on top of the cooperative info overview to provide more context
Replaced Data Visualizations with Ethos Requirements Section
Simplified program data visualization sections into Ethos requirements block which still provides users with a concise overview of program performance
06
Dashboard Design
Issue Management
Issue Overview Page
This page allows users to overview farm information, identify and address errors or inconsistencies in the validation process, manage issues, and communicate with other users about these issues.
Left Panel Navigation with Issue Count #
Under 'All Tasks,' categories such as Ready for Approval, Pending, and All Issues are listed, each accompanied by an issue count.
Farm Name with Total Issue Count #
Added the total issue count next to each farm, allowing users to quickly assess the farm's overall performance history.
Farm Info Overview
High level overview of the farm with issues to provide info about:
Data collection details
Satellite imaging
Geospatial information
Farm photos taken by data collectors
Navigate to Next Active Issue
This feature enables users to easily navigate through all active issues.
Issue Activity History
Provides users with the history of activity on the issue, including details such as who created the issue and who commented on it
Enables users to interact and collaborate on the issue
Governance Panel
the key stakeholders
people assigned to the issue
06
Dashboard Design
Mobile Designs
Responsive design based on breakpoints to demonstrate the platform's adaptability across various devices.
07
Final Takeaways
The Outcome
Successfully delivered a proof of concept within a condensed two-month timeframe to demonstrate VeriFi’s capabilities in managing and validating farm data. The PoC was well-received by program partners, as it is projected to reduce the time required to process farm data by 80%. It will be showcased in upcoming investor meetings to secure funding for further research and feature development in the next phase.
What I’ve Learned
The timeline for this project was quite tight. With more time, I would have conducted more thorough user research in order to gain a deeper understanding of how various features impact users' workflows. This would have allowed us to prioritize features more effectively, ensuring that no key elements were sacrificed due to time constraints.
However, unlike most of my longer-term engagements, this project taught me the importance of flexibility as a designer. I learned to pivot quickly, balancing user benefits with business needs to deliver the best possible outcome within the deadline.