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Rooted

A mobile app that enriches the experience of student volunteers at the University of Washington Farm.
Product Design
Masters Capstone
Mobile App
UX Design
My Role
Design Lead, Motion Graphics, & Video Editor
Team
Angela Goldberg
Cristabel Otero
Emily Shu
Timeline
: 6 months
Background
Rooted is a capstone project from my Master's program in Human-Computer Interaction and Design at the University of Washington (UW). The project involved six months of in-depth research and end-to-end product development.

My team and I partnered with the UW Farm to enhance the experience of their student volunteers.
Project Overview
As a result, we saw the opportunity to
Produce a more robust, ongoing volunteer base that is better able to meet the farm's production needs.
Challenge: UW Farm’s Student Volunteer Retention
Every ten weeks, a number of inexperienced student volunteers arrive at the UW Farm* to fulfill class a requirement. The turnover of volunteers that come each quarter slows down the speed of the farm’s production because the staff will have to take extra time to train new volunteers.
*The UW Farm is a 1.5 acre student-powered urban farm & educational facility located on the University of Washington’s Seattle Campus.
The Solution: Enriching the Student Volunteer Experience at UW Farm
In this video, we introduce a character named Sally, who is a service learner (a student volunteering at the farm for a class requirement). The Rooted App augments Sally’s volunteering experience by helping her understand the why’s behind her tasks, manage her volunteering hours, and keep track of all the memories she’s made on the farm.
Splash Screen
Dashboard
See list of today's tasks
View all crop cycles
Add memories to timeline
Log hours and shift sign up
Research: Interviewing Those Connected to UW Farm
We started our research by volunteering at the UW Farm. This helped us to get connected with the farm staff and other farm volunteers.

We spoke to 5 people from the UW Farm Staff:
  • Farm Manager
  • Production Manager
  • Food Security Lead
  • Operations Manager
  • Founder of the UW Farm

We also spoke to 7 farm volunteers which ranged from service learners, interns, and returning volunteers.
The Process
Interviewing the Farm Manager
Volunteering at the Farm
Analyzing the Research Data
We collected all of our transcripts from the interviews and put them together in one workspace. Our next step was to analyze the attributes of the data and discover hidden patterns. We did so by parsing through our data twice.

First we wanted to find patterns in big groupings. We focused more on the big themes that were brought up, which included topics like: expanding the farm, types of tasks, types of volunteers, and much more. This was our first pass over the data.
For our second pass, we focused more on how each big grouping could be divided into smaller, more specific subgroups. An example of this was added the subtopics of ‘farm as an educational space’ and ‘the joy of farming’ under ‘UW Farm’s value to people’.
Ultimately, we conducted this analysis to come up with a set of themes that we can use to guide us in the creation of our product.
Our data yielded the following findings:
  1. Service learners are mostly extrinsically motivated and repeat volunteers are intrinsically motivated.
  2. Repeat volunteers are reliable because they are autonomous, productive, and can lead newer volunteers.
  3. Farm staff wants a source of information that is going to be conveniently accessible to students.
Specific Features of the App
While making our storyboards, we also decided on what we wanted our app to do for the students. The following list of app features were chosen based on how we thought the feature would add to the student experience on the farm.
Specific App Features
Managing Shifts
Currently, students must complete a Google Form for shift sign-ups and manually record their volunteer hours in an Excel sheet. This feature combines shift sign-ups and logging hours (which came later) into one, easily accessible location.
Viewing Tasks
One research participant spent three weeks to dig trenches for planting potatoes, prompting her to question the task's significance and wondering about other tasks. Thus, we developed this feature to explain the significance of menial tasks.
“So when you guys were there, that was like our last day of potatoes, and we did that for like 3 weeks.”
Uploading memories
This feature was created in hopes to help student volunteers feel more connected to the farm and to other volunteers so that they can see the impact they’ve had on the farm.
“It's a really good workout. But I don't think I'll do that more in the future, just because I have other things I want to do.”
Revisiting the Layout
After having explored a number of design ideas, we decided to build off of the more colorful concept, the cut-out illustrations look. What we needed to do next was to make sure that the UI elements are easily recognizable as items that can be interacted with.

We also digitally wireframed our screens to test out different layouts.
Wireframes
Logging hours and signing up for a shift
Dashboard and Task List
View All Crop Cycles, Selected Crop Life Cycle, and Add a Memory
Crop Life Cycle
  1. Favorite crops to keep track of.
  2. Uncover crops at various stages of the life cycle.
  1. View memories shared by the Farm community at each stage of the cycle.
  2. Discover the growth phases.
  3. Nurture & trace the life cycle.
Students can see the importance of their impact on the farm through every stage of the crop life cycle.
The Final Design
Today's Tasks
  1. View shift details.
  2. See produce being worked on.
  1. Understand the importance of the shift's tasks.
  2. Short demo videos on how to do complex tasks.
Promotes students' reflection on the 'why' behind tasks and highlights the importance of even the most mundane ones.
Specific App Features
Shift Management
Assists student volunteers with logging their hours on the farm and signing up for shifts.
Remembering Memories
Shows students the significance of their farm contributions by allowing them to see each stage of the crop they’ve impacted.
Learning About Tasks
Gets students to think about the ‘why’ behind their tasks and allows them to see importance of even the most menial task.
Understanding Our Product’s Role in Lives of Our Target Audience
We understood the product’s integration into a service learner’s life through storyboarding.
Storyboarding was a tool to...
1. Consider when our app makes impact.
2. Define the key moments of interaction within the app
Revising the story sequence
Specifying the features of the app
3. Refine the user flow & specific features of the app
4. Decide which scenes were relevant for our product video
Planning shot of Sally on the bus
Planning shot of Sally at the UW Pantry
Sally, our fictional character, uses the app to upload images of her memories at the farm. She’s also able to see the impact she’s had on the farm when she’s notified that the crop she worked on has been sent to the UW Food Pantry.
Ideation Sprint and Initial Idea
The next step was to generate multiple ideas that focused on better engaging the student volunteers with the farm. This could come in the form of more education, community-building and even learning about tasks ahead of time.
After the process of downselection, we came up with an initial idea to transform service learners, who lacked intrinsic motivation, into repeat volunteers. Our aim was to connect volunteers to every stage of the crop's lifecycle to enable them to recognize their impact on the farm.
Reviewing all of our ideas
Downselection process
A mobile app that would have
Interactive crop “lifecycle” showing progress.
Memorabilia through personal “diary” entries.
The app will
Support shift sign-up and logging hours.
Leverage moments before and after shifts.
Concept 1: Journal Metaphor
The next step in our product development was to explore design concepts. For the first concept, we wanted to include elements of recording memories and things learned from the farm. Thus, we came the moodboard and style guide we made are akin to keeping a field journal.
JOURNAL METAPHOR
#000000
Black
#0E3724
PNW Green
#A7CC5B
Lettuce Green
#D1E07B
Spring Green
#FFDF28
Corn Yellow
#000000
Black
#0E3724
PNW Green
#A7CC5B
Lettuce Green
#D1E07B
Spring Green
#FFDF28
Corn Yellow
#ECA340
Potato Orange
#F6B992
Salmon
#F2E8C0
BG Beige
#FBF7E9
Dairy
#BC9D7B
Seed Brown
#ECA340
Potato Orange
#F6B992
Salmon
#F2E8C0
BG Beige
#FBF7E9
Dairy
#BC9D7B
Seed Brown
DESIGN TESTS
Feedback from teaching staff: Although the metaphor was clear, the UI elements were not cohesive. The journal elements did not mesh well with the look of the button components. It was as if we were forcing two different things into one world.
Concept 2: Cut-out Illustrations
For the second concept, we wanted to explore a more colorful approach. We were inspired by the Eric Carle’s books and leaned heavily towards cut-out shapes and bright colors.
Cut-out Illustrations
#0E3724
PNW Green
#E8D0E6
Lavender
#FCF9F2
Milk
#F1E9D5
Custard
#FB5C2C
Tomato
#0E3724
PNW Green
#E8D0E6
Lavender
#FCF9F2
Milk
#F1E9D5
Custard
#FB5C2C
Tomato
Feedback from teaching staff: Bold colors and graphics confused users about interactive elements on the screen. Furthermore, some UI elements, such as the sun, had sharp edges that didn't align with the nature of the intended interaction.
Design Tests
Shift Management
  1. Favorite crops to keep track of.
  2. Uncover crops at various stages of the life cycle.
  1. View memories shared by the Farm community at each stage of the cycle.
  2. Discover the growth phases.
  3. Nurture & trace the life cycle.
A centralized way for volunteers to manage their shifts.
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