Providing Digital Agri-Solutions to Rural and Semi-Urban Farmers
- Company
- Growtech
- Industry
- Agritech
- Role
- UX Lead
- Year
- 2023
In a nutshell
Growtech partnered with IDEATE Innovation to redesign its farm management application with the goal of increasing conversion from free to paid users. While the platform already had traction, most farmers struggled to understand the value of premium features due to low literacy, limited tech familiarity, and low trust in digital agritech solutions.
The project focused on simplifying the experience, clearly surfacing paid value, and adapting the product to farmers' daily routines. By improving usability, localization, and accessibility — particularly through Urdu-first language and audio-based reporting — we strengthened adoption and improved the perceived value of Growtech's paid offerings.
My role
I led UX efforts across design and research, working closely with another designer, a researcher, and my manager.
Responsibilities included:
- Leading the UX audit of the existing application
- Conducting field research and user interviews
- Synthesizing insights into actionable design direction
- Designing and testing lo-fidelity prototypes
- Contributing to high-fidelity designs and information architecture
Research
To understand both user and business constraints, we combined stakeholder alignment, desk research, and field research.
On the business side, a researcher and I interviewed agritech experts to understand Growtech's revenue model. We learned that satellite analysis alone was difficult to monetize, and paid adoption typically required clear add-on value and strong trust signals.
On the user side, we conducted field research with farmers in rural Punjab — 8 qualitative interviews over 2 days, including usability testing of early sacrificial concepts.
Participants included paid users, free users, and non-customers, helping us understand barriers across the funnel.
Problem snapshot
Key Pain Points.
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Low literacy and limited tech experience among users.
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English-heavy and overly formal Urdu language.
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Complex farm creation and management flows.
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Farmers too busy to read long reports.
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Low trust in digital recommendations compared to personal experience.
Design decisions
Onboarding and registration
Since early engagement was critical to long-term adoption, onboarding needed to immediately demonstrate value. We streamlined the registration flow and introduced incentives to create a farm immediately after sign-up, increasing early product engagement. Clear, simple language and guided steps reduced hesitation and drop-off for first-time users.
Home and navigation
Farm-related tasks are central to the Growtech experience, yet they were previously buried. We redesigned the home screen with simpler illustrations, clearer iconography, and a reworked bottom navigation that kept farms front and center. This helped users quickly access the most relevant information without navigating multiple layers.
Reports and value creation
Reports were one of Growtech's key paid features but were difficult to consume. Reports were redesigned for vertical scrolling instead of PDFs, content was simplified and clearly differentiated, and audio recordings were introduced — allowing farmers to listen while working in the fields. This significantly improved report accessibility for low-literate users and reinforced the value of paid features.
Farm management
The farm management experience was restructured by improving information architecture and hierarchy. All farm-related data points were clearly connected to the main farm view, reducing confusion and making ongoing tracking easier for low-tech-literate users. Larger cards, clearer typography, and familiar Urdu fonts further improved usability.
Outcome and impact
The redesigned experience aligned Growtech's product with the realities of its users' daily lives. By prioritizing accessibility, trust, and clarity of value:
- Paid features became easier to understand and use
- User engagement with reports and farm tracking increased
- The platform became more approachable for low-literate farmers
Long-term conversion metrics were owned and tracked by the client post-handoff.
Team
