Perma Farm

Recognition—2016 AIGA Flux Blueridge, Identity

The Deep Dirt Farm Institute teaches students basic aspects of permaculture, a system of agricultural and social design principles that concentrate on building the sustainable future by learning from the way eco-systems interact in nature. It’s based on belief that humans can become the most positive element in the environment instead of constantly harming it.

The owners believe that eco-conscious way of living does not mean sacrificing comfort or putting extra effort into everyday activities. Hands-on learning at the institute empowers students to create their own sustainable projects when they return home.

Challenges

After collecting a survey from students, it became clear that the institute is lacking a way for students to learn more about the curriculum, stay in touch with each other, and share tips and thoughts about their projects—something one would expect from the organization that values community and knowledge sharing. Institute's current name, Deep Dirt Farm Institute, is hard to pronounce and remember. There is an opportunity for branding that communicates their believe in eco-conscious living with comfort.

Proposed Solution

An app was designed to allow students to share their knowledge and have a sense of community before and after their engagement with the institute. It also helps to raise awareness about the institute on social media. Condensing and refining the conducted research helped to identify two primary personas from different age groups. It also helped to determine key features of the app.

I also created a recognizable brand that helps raise awareness about the institute and the learning opportunities that it offers. It is fun and light-hearted to appeal to students.

Prototyping and Wireframing

Usertesting Findings

1. 1. Paper prototype stage: On the home screen, the list of people participating in the group was more confusing to users than helpful. Users thought that the class schedule was a nice feature but not necessary to be seen all the time. It was clear that the information needs to be hidden but accessable when needed.
2. 2. Wireframe stage: It wasn't intuitive that the class enrollment status was clickable. As the solution, the status was changed from clickable text to a button with a downward arrow to indicate a dropdown with more information.
3. 3. Wireframe stage: Users thought that a pop-up with the class schedule was disctrating them from the home screen. The pop-up was changed to a drop down to keep the user on the home screen.
4. 4. Wireframe stage: Users didn't realize they can click on a project to read more information about it. It was clear that there needs to a be a signifier for that allowance. An information icon was added to the bottom right corner of every project to solve the problem.