OXD worked with the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Food to improve digital weather monitoring services for BC farmers.
The existing online Agricultural Irrigation Scheduling Calculator helps farmers plan when, how long, and how much to irrigate their crops. Many farmers find this desktop tool hard to use. Since the launch of the calculator, the Ministry has learned that farmers have varying and evolving needs for weathering monitoring tools.
Using service design methods, our User Experience team worked together with the Ministry to uncover opportunities to better serve the needs of BC farmers. The information collected was used to build a mobile prototype that farmers could use during virtual usability testing.
The interactive prototype incorporated feedback from the farmers, including simplified dashboards highlighting critical data, an easier-to-navigate layout, and more educational support resources.
Building a digital prototype informed by user-research gave the Ministry of Agriculture and Food a more accurate picture of farmers’ needs. In the future, an improved digital weather monitoring tool will make farming decisions easier for all BC farmers.