Year
2019
Client
Olam
My ROLE
principal designer
Product Duration
4 - 8 Weeks
Olam Direct is based on our decades of experience and interviews with thousands of farmers, which gives us a deep understanding of the structural impediments to their success and resilience. It disrupts those limitations by connecting smallholder farmers directly with Olam, giving them greater visibility and control over the decisions that impact their productivity and profits.
Farmers in remote areas face several obstacles:
Difficulty accessing markets due to geographical isolation.
Dependence on intermediaries, leading to reduced profit margins.
Lack of transparency in the procurement process, affecting trust and traceability.
Limited access to real-time market information, impacting their ability to negotiate fair prices.
The closed group UX interviews with farmers and farmer leads provided critical insights into their challenges and workflows, shaping the design of the Olam Direct app. Participants highlighted barriers such as limited market access, reliance on intermediaries, and a lack of pricing transparency. Real-time price updates, offline functionality, and traceability emerged as essential features. Farmer leads, pivotal in coordinating procurement and training, emphasized the need for streamlined communication tools. These findings directly informed the app’s intuitive, role-based design, ensuring it addressed user needs and empowered farmers for better productivity and profitability.
Olam Direct is a mobile phone application aimed at simplifying and streamlining the procurement process for farmers.
The app was designed with the following key features:
Direct Market Access: Farmers can directly offer their produce for sale to Olam buyers.
Price Setting: Farmers have the autonomy to set their own prices, allowing them to negotiate better deals.
Immediate Payment: The app facilitates prompt payment for produce, improving farmers' cash flow.
Transparency and Traceability: By bypassing third parties, the procurement process becomes more transparent, ensuring fairer dealings and better traceability of produce.
