Weather Data

This work was created for Aegro, where, at that time, I was working as a Lead Product Designer. Aegro is a Brazilian SaaS company that focuses on developing digital solutions for farms.

For this project, I worked in a squad setting with developers (mobile and web), and I was the only Designer. However, I could always count on my fellow Product Designers coworkers, Gabriel Freitas and Larissa Miranda Batista, for insights and brainstormings.

Apple Store | Google Play | Web App

Challenge & Requirements:
> Aegro has a feature that enables farmers to input weather data only on the web app. The user base satisfaction around this functionality was low, and the number of weather data inputs from accounts decreased significantly;
> Our main objective was to increase feature adoption and user satisfaction around this functionality as weather data is crucial for farmers, and only a small part of the user base was taking advantage of it;
> There was a lot of anxiety in the Sales and CS team, and part of our job was to manage expectations.

Role & Responsibilities:
> Lead the discovery phase, perform remote research (user interviews and survey);
> Frame the solution considering user needs and development constraints;
> Create user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes.

redesign-simplifiedArtboard 40 copy 2@2x

Above, I am showing an example of pluviometer and weather station and their placement on the fields

Weather is essential for farmers: plants need certain weather conditions to grow properly, and some activities depend on the right weather condition. Because of that, many of Aegro's clients have weather stations and pluviometers to gather specific weather information from their land. Some of these weather instruments, especially pluviometers, are rudimentary and cannot send the data collected to the cloud. Thus, someone needs to go where the weather instrument is located and register the data on a notepad. And, after some discovery, that is where we decided to focus on improving this feature.

Discovery & Framing the problem

At that time, Aegro only allowed weather inputs on the web app, and there was a lot of pressure from other departments (Sales and CS) to implement this feature on the mobile app. As every Product Designer, one of my primary responsibilities is to identify the problem that needs to be solved and take a step back before working on a solution.

How the process looked like*
*We decided to work on the Android version first because most field workers use smartphones with this operational system. After we analyze the results on Android, we decided to work on the iOS version.

The first thing I did was look for users' feedback on Intercom conversations and notes from the CS team. Most parts of the feedback mentioned that Aegro needed to create a way to register weather inputs on the mobile app to make their process of gathering and keeping records of weather data more uncomplicated.

After that, we still needed to dive a little deeper to identify the problem and how would be the best way to solve it. I decided to reach out to some clients who left feedback and run User Interviews with them.

PROFILE OF THE INTERVIEWERS:

3 Rural grain producers (from 900ha to 1000ha) & 1 Rural consultant (customers total +20,000ha)

MAIN FINDINGS

No employee is only responsible for collecting the weather data from the stations or pluviometers on the farm. The person who gets the data has many other responsibilities that vary from management to operational field tasks. In other words, who register the weather data is someone who, for some reason, is in the proximities of where the instrument is installed.
All interviewers presented difficulties to maintain the regularity of collecting weather data. In many cases, they collect data when it rains (sometimes, only when it rains a lot). The recommendation is to do it every day.
Precipitation is the type of data that interviewers mentioned the most.
Weather data can influence micro-decisions - like pesticide application - to macro decisions - like crop planning, best harvest period, productivity estimation.
There is no standard ratio among the interviewers between the number of pluviometers and weather stations per area.
Mobile apps like Clima Tempo and YR help farmers make daily decisions, even though these apps don't have precise information about their specific location.
Some interviewers asked about the possibility of integration between Aegro and modern weather stations, so they wouldn't need to input any information.

After the User Interviews, I wanted to know the average number of weather instruments (weather stations and pluviometers) that our user base had and how often they collect weather data. So, I could see how big would be the reach of our solution and design something accordingly. Also, I would like to confirm some of the findings of the User Interview. As the user adoption of the weather input on the web app was low, I needed a quantitative method to discover the approximate number. We decided to run an online survey using the Intercom chat. It was directed to all our user base (including trials and free).

General numbers of the Survey

Results of the Online Survey

MAIN FINDINGS

The user survey confirmed many of the findings from the user interviews: all interviewers presented difficulties to maintain the regularity of collecting weather data; precipitation is the type of data that interviewers mentioned the most; there is no standard ratio among the interviewers between the number of pluviometers and weather stations per area.
In most cases, one pluviometer or weather station covers more than one field.

After this, I shared the research with the rest of the team, and we decided to go with something simple on the Mobile App. Even though our user base seemed to be interested in this new feature, the user interviews showed that what the users say they do is different from what they actually do (attitudinal versus behavioral). This new feature on the mobile app wouldn't ensure an extremely high adoption from our users, as we were expecting from the beginning of the discovery. Going with something simple and see the numbers afterward would be less risky.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

How can we facilitate the manual collection of weather data from weather stations and pluviometers?

Mobile Weather V1

Screenshot from Figma

Some of the mobile screens

As precipitation was the type of data mentioned the most during the User Interviews and in the survey, we decided to show some data output on the mobile app. In the list of cards, and when you click on a card to see more details, we show the accumulated precipitation of the selected crop.

Screen recordings of Aegro App | Inputting weather data into the mobile app

Screen recordings of Aegro App | Adding a new weather equipment/ instrument

Screen recordings of Aegro App | Filtering list by equipment/ instrument

Web App improvements

Screen recordings of Aegro App | How the information appears on the web

Results & Outcomes

The increase of the feature adoption (number of farms using the feature) was 175%. In the beginning, we were expecting something even more aggressive. Currently, the number of farms utilizing this feature represents a little more than 25% of our user base. For now, this number remains solid, as you can see on the infographic below.