2020
Agtuary
UX collaboration / UI design
UX/UI Designer
Agtuary's overarching aim is to harness the power of satellite technology to promote data-driven agribusiness, with the hope of bringing this transparency and certainty to agricultural production between lenders and farmers.
To facilitate efficient financial transactions, data management and simplify loan process with banks
User Research
Research Analysis
Prototyping and Usability Testing
Using the Golden Circle for user research about a financial management platform helps ensure that the platform is purpose-driven, user-centered, and effectively communicates its value in a competitive landscape.
Accounting has been around for a long time but there are hassles to maintain and retrieve data manually. Angus, the CEO of Agtuary hopes to help out with inefficiencies by removing the friction and time wasting elements in agribusiness management. It was noted that the online presence of Agtuary was not clearly aimed at a specific market, thus our goal is to find the right go-to-market and help to facilitate the connections between farmers and accountants.
We set up a meeting with Agtuary Team - Angus (CEO) to understand business needs and constraints well.
Then Pouyan (frontend developer) of Agtuary showed us the free beta testing program so we get a better understanding of how data were display and stored on Agtuary.
During the meeting, they explained that they are looking for the right product fit-market, potentially the accountants in regional areas.
From there, we are able to identify the current challenges they are facing and note down the client’s desired MVP, which is to help them find the brand’s position.
We started by cold-calling and emailing many regional accounting firms and we got turned down many times.
As it was a peak season for accountants when our project was happening, we widened our focus to interview accountants through connections. I interviewed a total of 3 accountants and 1 auditor. At the same time, I ran a few rounds of usability testing with them to ensure we make full use of the time they have. By putting a quick survey out there, we were able to get 8 other accountants to confirm that:
1. There is still a lot of paper based record keeping
2. There is a lot of time wasted on manual data entry
3. MYOB, Xero and Quickbooks were correctly identified as the top digital accounting tools
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Given the remote work conditions imposed by COVID-19, sharing the insights from user interviews with my team via this method was the most effective way, and my colleagues played a pivotal role in organizing the information and formulating "I" statements to comprehend each user's experience.
Accountant 1
“I have 800 clients to manage and organising their documents takes up time. I rather be solving the real problem than doing repetitive administrative tasks.”
Accountant 2
“We spend a lot of time waiting for clients to send over a checklist of documents that are required to compile, whether it is for bank loans verification or ATO for tax refunds.”
Accountant 3
“I received a Woolies bag full of invoices and a book with handwritten bank transaction; it was time consuming to manually enter the data and there was a lot of human error.”
While accountants often have numerous responsibilities, they are also caught up with too many repetitive tasks that are causing the main job to be neglected and inaccurate. To drive a business forward, accountants are hired to to handle all aspects of accounting accurately and more importantly in a timely manner, as well as to avoid costly downfall.Time is very precious as accountants are all paid based on hourly rate, and this is important for business owners to minimize their cost of hiring an accountant.
To gain a better perspective of all the users, we created Julie and what she experiences as an accountant on a daily basis.
Julie collected documents from a long-term client, who is a farmer. The documents she received were pretty disorganised - half digitised and half hand-written, and all in different locations.While she was manually entering the data, she realized the farmer made some mistakes and she spent the whole day cross checking information between excel sheets and financial statements.
1. Juggling many clients at once
2. Manually filling up and editing different type of forms
3. Uploading and downloading documents
4. Importing and exporting data
5. Scanning and copying
Repetitive Data Entry: The need to manually input the same data multiple times, which is time-consuming and increases the risk of errors.
Repetitive Tasks: Frequent, monotonous tasks that can be automated for efficiency and accuracy.
Fixing Human Errors: Dealing with mistakes made during manual data entry or task execution, often requiring time-consuming corrections.
Waiting for Information: Delays caused by waiting for requested information to be provided or retrieved.
Learning and Migrating to New Software: The challenge of adapting to new software tools, which can be time-intensive and disrupt workflows.
Managing Hardcopies: Dealing with physical paper documents and the need for storage and organization.
Reading Handwritten Reports: Difficulty in deciphering and extracting information from handwritten documents.
Inputting Handwritten Reports: Manually transcribing data from handwritten reports into digital systems.
Processing Receipts: Managing and processing a large volume of receipts, which can be time-consuming and error-prone.
Time Savings: Streamlining processes to save time and reduce manual effort.
Effective Client Communication: Utilizing effective means of communicating with clients.
Accuracy: Ensuring data and information are accurate and error-free.
Client Information Access: Easy access to various clients' details for efficient service.
Workflow Optimization: Enhancing workflow through secure central document storage.
Information Retrieval: Efficiently searching and filtering information/documents.
Organization: Proper naming and organization of folders and files for easy retrieval.
Integration with Accounting Software: Connecting with existing accounting software for seamless data transfer.
Loan Rate Analysis: Analyzing and finding the best loan rates for clients' needs.
Automation: Implementing automated reminders and tasks to manage client interactions and deadlines more effectively.
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Financial Data and Display
“I would like a greater breakdown of how the statistics are displayed and able to change the input.”
Competitors
“There are well established platforms such as Xero and MYOB, is this a system I can trust?”
Administrative Tasks
“If this software could help them out with admin tasks or everything could be pre-filled, there is less room for human error.”
Direct Connection with the bank
“Is this directly connected to the bank? Am I able to apply bank loan and manage my banking through this portal?”
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By mapping out a simple user flow before looking at the bigger picture, we are able to visualise how the users are going to travel through the platform with every page interaction. We are also able to improve the basic user flow with navigation bar refinements, sequence adjustments and content reorganization.
With a handful of ‘How Might We’ statements, we did a few rounds of Crazy 8’s sketching sessions. The examples we used are:
● How might we centralise documentation for agribusiness financing and accounting?
● How might we simplify financing for agribusiness?
Ultimately, we chose to move forward with the idea of Agtuary cloud - a drive that sync with farmers financial details, but for accountants.
While Benita focuses on compiling the secondary research and set up the presentation slides, Adora and I quickly jumped on Figma to transfer the sketches into a clickable prototype. This first prototype has definitely helped us to discover some major issues.
Major Issues we discovered
“Is Agtuary going to apply the bank loan for me?“
"I don’t need to see my TFN while applying for loans.”
“I want to see which bank is able to offer me the best rate in terms of percentage.”
Positive feedback
“That’s easy! I don’t have to manually fill in every application form.”
“No other softwares has a recent activity function. It will be good to track activity history and who was the last person who edited it.”
We went on to refine the prototype as there are a few content that was confusing to the users.
• Changing “apply loan” to “prepare loan” and “submit” to “save”
• User button positioning
• Breadcrumbs were underlined to match industry standards
• We made adjustments to the term "upload" in certain instances to ensure clarity, emphasizing that documents and generated forms were "saved" on the Agtuary cloud system.
Using our tested iteration of their MVP, we categorised the global navigation (hamburger menu) and redesigned the website navigation. By looking for patterns and trends from user testing results, we are able to gather insights and update the information architecture so to provide clear support to the client.
Design System
Build a versatile design system with grouped elements for efficient updates, enabling quicker and easier prototyping, particularly when collaborating within a team.
Niche Market
Identifying participants within a specific user group poses a challenge, necessitating the development of a more effective strategy from the outset.
IA
Establishing a clear Information Architecture in advance, comprehensively communicated to the team, not only informs design choices but also fosters a more productive collaborative environment during prototyping.
Product Market-fit
Identifying participants within a specific user group poses a challenge, necessitating the development of a more effective strategy from the outset.
