About the project

NERACE – North Eastern Region’s Agri Commodity E-Connect is a digital marketplace connecting farmers and traders across India. Designed to simplify the buying and selling of agricultural and horticultural produce from the North Eastern Region, the platform ensures seamless transactions through a user-friendly mobile app. NERACE empowers farmers by providing better market reach and fair pricing opportunities.

Goals and Objectives

To digitize agricultural trading by creating a comprehensive platform. This platform aims to digitally connect buyers (traders) with sellers (farmers), facilitating the efficient and seamless sale of agricultural produce. The overarching objective is to empower farmers, enabling them to sell their crops to any trader in India through the convenience of a mobile app.

My Role

I led the design project by collaborating with the business analyst to understand requirements and align them with user needs (farmers and traders). I facilitated brainstorming and ideation sessions to address major UI and UX challenges, guiding the team in creating wireframes, interactive prototypes, and presenting proposals to stakeholders. Developed high-level design solutions and ensured a smooth handoff of designs and final assets to developers. Throughout the project, our design team prioritized iterative improvements based on feedback to deliver a user-focused solution.

The Process

Wireframes

Design

Prototype

Note: Press Keyboard ‘T’ to proceed with screens with input fields.

Seller Mobile App

Buyer Mobile App

Challenges

Challenge 1

Challenge: On-site business analyst, along with the client, provided a wireframe where all product details were grouped into a single section without categorization, making it difficult for users to navigate the information efficiently.
Solution: Designers proposed a tabbed layout to segregate the details into two categories: “Product Details” and “Other Details.” This approach streamlined the information presentation, ensuring primary details were immediately accessible while secondary details were organized in a separate tab. The updated wireframe was shared with the client after receiving internal stakeholder approval, significantly enhancing usability and clarity for the target audience.

Challenge 2

Challenge: There was a need to clearly distinguish between the various stages of the bidding process for both buyers and sellers (farmers). It was important for users to know the current status of a product, such as: – After a product was posted for sale by the farmer, it moved to the “Bid” stage post-approval, where buyers/traders could place bids. – Once a farmer accepted a bid, the product’s status changed to “Sold.” – Products that did not receive any bids within 5 days were marked as “Expired.” – The “Completed” status indicated that the buyer had picked up the product, and the farmer had received payment, which was acknowledged by uploading a receipt.
Solution: To enhance clarity and usability, color-coded badges were introduced to represent each stage of the process. These visual indicators allowed users to easily identify the current status of a product at a glance, improving the overall experience and reducing confusion.

Challenge 3

Challenge: The client required a tabular format for price discovery, which involved a hierarchical structure. The price discovery process demanded that predictive price ranges be displayed alongside the historical price data for each produce. The challenge was to ensure clarity in presenting both predictive price insights and historical data without overwhelming the user.
Solution: A drill-down approach was implemented. The top-level table displayed the predictive price range for each produce, offering users immediate insights at a glance. Clicking on a produce row navigated the user to a detailed screen that showcased a comparison of predictive vs. historical prices, with additional analytics such as graphs and trends. This design ensured that users could explore data comprehensively while maintaining an intuitive and organized interface.