Work

Case study 02AgriTech

Rwanda

Imara Farms is a farm-management platform for commercial farms, cooperatives and agro-traders across Africa. With fellow designer Omotade, I designed the product from scratch.

Industry
AgriTech
Role
Product designer (contract)
Team
Me and designer Omotade, with a PM and engineers
Timeline
Jan to Jun 2026
Platform
Web and mobile
Scope
Research · IA · User flows · UX/UI
Status
Live · imarafarms.com

3 min read · 2026

Today's farm at a glance: a walkthrough of the product

The 30-second version

For busy readers
A The goal

Replace notebooks and spreadsheets with a traceable record that buyers and payroll can trust.

B What I did

Mapped seven modules and three user types, then designed one platform that adapts to each.

C Outcome

GPS-verified attendance, batch traceability and photo-proof grading, across 200+ screens.

01The problem

The numbers never matched, and nobody knew why

Attendance went from notebook to spreadsheet to payroll, and weeks later nothing added up. Export buyers wanted proof of where a batch came from, and handwritten pages cost farms the sale.

150
workers across three sites, tracked in one notebook
02My role

We designed the whole product, starting with the map.

  1. 01 · research

    Mapped every module, user type and action before drawing a screen.

  2. 02 · design

    Designed onboarding, dashboards and workflows for web and mobile.

  3. 03 · handoff

    Delivered annotated Figma specs, components and edge-case states.

Team: Me and designer Omotade, with a PM and engineers

03What I learned

Three users, one database, different jobs

Each user type needed the same data for something else.

  • Insight 01

    The farm manager

    Wants harvest numbers that match the cold room.

  • Insight 02

    The cooperative

    Tracks 200 members and wants faster payments.

  • Insight 03

    The agro-trader

    Needs batch tracking and documents EU buyers accept.

04Key decisions

The calls that shaped the product

Onboarding asks who you are first

Most modules were irrelevant to any one user.

Shipped

Farms, cooperatives and traders each start in their own world.

Why grading needs a photo

A grade decides what a batch is worth.

Shipped

A little extra work that opens premium markets.

05The screens

The flow map became the most used thing we made

Field agents tap activity logs instead of writing them. Attendance is GPS-verified before payroll, and any batch traces from intake to dispatch in three taps.

  • Modules mapped first
  • GPS and photo proof
  • Edge cases designed
06The process

From notebook to handoff

~/imara-farms/releases

→ git log --releases

  1. 01MapEvery module on one map
  2. 02OnboardRole-aware setup
  3. 03CoreLogs, attendance and grading
  4. 04HandoffSpecs and components delivered

✓ Live at imarafarms.com.

07Results

A paper trail people can check

  • 3user types, one platform
  • 7operational modules
  • 200+screens designed

Attendance is verified before payroll, and every batch can be traced with documents attached.

08Reflection

What farming taught me

Agriculture has more moving parts than most products. Once the vocabulary clicked, every screen had a reason.
  • What I found interesting

    Learning how plots, blocks, sites and seasons relate, and watching the architecture fall out of it.

  • What was challenging

    Keeping one product coherent for three users who want different things from the same data.

  • A mistake I made

    We showed the flow map to each user type too late. Earlier reviews would have caught gaps sooner.

  • What I learned

    Map the whole system before screen one. I start every complex product this way now.

Where it's at: Live at imarafarms.com.

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