The Good Eggs

The Problem

Currently, 58% of local farms, which you might see advertising produce on signs displayed at the side of a road, have no online presence at all. They often lack the time, money or skills to connect with local consumers who care about fresh, high quality and traceable produce but struggle to know where to find it. This ultimately leads to consumers spending in big name, chain supermarkets instead as it is simply the easiest option.

Research Insights

Several members of our team travelled around Norfolk to speak to local farmers, to find out exactly what they thought. We spoke to farmers with signs advertising their produce to understand their perspective:

“We know our customers love our produce, but we just need to get the word out there – we need a way to let the locals know that we are here!”

– Nick, Paddock Farm

We also found out that 1 in 5 UK farms are operating at a loss. For every £1 spent, the farmer receives less than 1p. Farmers are struggling – and supermarkets taking 99% of the profit are partially to blame.

User Flows

Having determined with some certainty the way we wanted the customer experience to work, we mapped out a set of user flows from both the consumer and the farmer perspective.

We intended to have a consumer facing site as well as a farmer dashboard, where farmers would update their stock and manage payments – the Good Eggs would process all payments on behalf of farmers.

One challenge of working in a team of ten against a 54 hour clock is that ideas change and evolve quickly. Therefore, we decided on one journey to prioritise designing – highlighted in red.

Low Fidelity Design

We began developing the first iteration of the homepage structure, browsing for produce and finding farms on a map.

During this process though, group discussions made clear that the better user experience would be to focus on finding local farms as opposed to a produce-first approach. In theory, a produce-first approach may lead to customers having to drive between many individual farms to complete their pickups.

We decided it was better to focus on showing consumers what is available close to them, reorienting to less of a 'shopping list' style approach and instead allowing customers to browse a farm's offerings.

Brand

Working from the foundation of wanting to play on the egg idea, we set about looking for a bold yolky yellow which would serve as a primary brand colour, complimented by a pale, toned-down eggshell and contrasted by a bold blue. An earthy brown assists with backgrounds, and a vibrant green acts as an eye-catching secondary colour for icons and buttons.

Our logo mark was designed by talented team member Jacob Bryant, and we looked at a broad range of fonts which could compliment and match its fun and playful energy – criteria which Caprasimo fit nicely. Despite only having a singular weight, it works well as a secondary font for bold, short pieces of copy.

For all other text such as body content, we chose Poppins for its rounded and friendly appearance, yet complimenting Caprasimo with its simplicity.

High Fidelity

On the third day of the event, we turned our focus to putting everything together and turning low fidelity into high fidelity. The structure of the homepage prioritises the main search feature at the top, with content further down explaining the concept of The Good Eggs, as users are likely to be unfamiliar with the concept, so instilling confidence and trust is important.

Farm Search Results

The farm search is the core of our idea: entering a postcode or location would display farm information alongside their produce stock, their proximity to you and an identity for the farmer selling – contributing to a feeling of community, authenticity, and trust.

On Route Search

Additionally, an 'On Route' search toggle switches the location search to an origin and destination input. Working with a Google Maps API, this feature would plot a route on a map and highlight farms along the route. This could be a one-off trip, or simply your everyday commute to work.

The 'Wheelbarrow'

Once selected, items are added to the 'wheelbarrow' – a fun farm-themed play on the usual digital basket. This is where users choose when to pick up their produce, with a reminder of locations. Farmers would have full control over their availability, allowing them to select times convenient to them, requiring minimal extra effort to sell their produce through The Good Eggs.

Order Confirmed

Users pay online through the website, keeping things as simple as possible for farmers. Users receive a collection code via email, with instructions provided by farmers for collection.

The Final Presentation

After pitching our MVP to the judges on Saturday afternoon, with myself leading design presentation, the final evening of the event saw our team leader Neringa pitch the idea backed with our designs concepts and prototypes to the audience and judges.

The Good Eggs won the People's Choice Award, an achievement I'm really proud of especially given it is my second year running being part of a winning team.

The opportunity was another valuable experience working with such a diverse range of collaborators from different industries, including working with full-stack developers who gave insightful context as to how certain things could be implemented, or, in some cases, not!

Thanks to our whole team, and our wonderful mentor Katherine. The pitch can be watched on YouTube here.

Sync the City 2024 – People's Choice Winner

UX & UI Design