PODS - Soil Health
Refining a grant submission MVP from
the findings of user research
the findings of user research
This work is under NDA, but I can speak to what I took away from this project and what it entailed at a high level.
Our clients within the USDA needed a way to allow grant applicants to submit related data. These applicants range from non-profits, universities and farmers with a range of technical literacy.
I joined my team when the product Producer Operations Data System - Soil Health (PODS-SH) was already built as an MVP. Together with the two other designers on my team I performed user testing to assess the usability of the MVP and how easy its content was to understand. We conducted initial interviews with the users to understand their context and then had them go through asynchronous testing sessions of our product. Here I took on a large role in drafting the asynchronous instructions as well as reviewing the footage and taking notes for synthesis later. After running user testing we synthesized our results and ranked concerns that could be acted upon for next steps with our clients and project leads. Many of the key issues that came up from this research had to do with not providing enough context about what needed to be done to users as well as a lack of information architecture that showed users how to accomplish what they needed to do. From there I took on the task of redesigning the MVP so that functionality was retained but the information was laid out in such a way that the user was guided through the process of submitting their information.
I gained further experience advocating for the need of a design perspective in strategic and technical discussions that may affect the products future direction.
While working on this product we were instructed to adopt the FPAC design system in our work. I redesigned POD-SH using this system and rebuilt the design system in XD so that others throughout the company could benefit.
I had the opportunity to conduct secondary research on the subject matter of our product and constructed a method for users to go through a complex application process without getting lost.
Throughout this process I collaborated with the developers in my team and needed to pivot designs due to platform limitations.
Next steps for this project would definitely be to do another round of user testing while we program these designs to assess usability and the reactions of end users. I have already created research protocols for testing this design as well as learning more about different types of users. The research just hasn’t been done as of writing this. From there we would most likely move to refine this product further and assess future objectives with our client.
This was a great chance for me to conduct research as a part of a team and collaborate on synthesis. Most of the research I had done professionally up until this point was driven by me, so by taking a secondary role in the research it was an opportunity for learning more about how others may approach research. Taking the time to work solo and restructure an entire platform was also a unique experience as it truly challenged me and required that I communicate with stakeholders and developers throughout. Working on developing PODS-SH past MVP felt like a great follow up after working at BAM where my primary focus was to create an MVP.
