This article is only available in Dutch 🇳🇱
Acorn helps small farmers in developing countries disproportionately disadvantaged by climate change to transform their farming practices into sustainable agricultural practices through agroforestry. Four months after the start of this project, our UX-Designer Bas was on a plane to Kenya to field test the app we developed with real end-users in the real context of use.
The main purpose of the trip was to identify usability issues and improve the usability of the app. This usability tests were carried out with fifteen users. Usability tests lend themselves perfectly to gaining insights within a short period of time, with a small user group.
The group of testers consisted out of data collectors without any experience with the app. To do this, we visited local coffee farmers to onboard them in the actual context for the Acorn project, using the app: The real thing. By having them perform different task scenarios, several usability issues were uncovered.
The results brought great insights. We discovered not only usability issues within the app itself, but also context-related challenges such as poor network connections, outdated and damaged smartphones and bright sunlight reflecting off screens. We also got to know the users very well, which made it easier to empathise with their motivations and needs.
With the key insights we gained, we focused on improving the user experience. Within one day, Bas designed a new prototype that could be tested again. From the observations and feedback we received, we were able to conclude that the new design was much more intuitive. The research in Kenya was therefore a valuable step towards optimising the user-friendliness of the app.
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