Highlighting the Human Aspect in the Edgemere Farm Website Redesign

Redesigning the zero-profit farm’s website to drive empathy, facilitate support, and offer clear information

Overview

Project Summary
Edgemere Farm is a zero-profit urban community farm with clear missions, solid community work, and humble resources.
We redesigned the desktop website of Edgemere Farm by improving the information hierarchy, providing multiple engagement entries, and immersing viewers with community stories.

My Role
UX Consultant —
UX research
Stakeholder communication
Interface design

Duration
4 months

Team
Shivani Kolte
Kiyo Yang
Jiayi Jiang
Anne Kuo (me)

PROBLEM

Complex information under the disguise of simple visuals

The single-page website looked simple and sleek at first glance, but we soon uncovered a lot of different information cluttered in one huge block of text.

Specifically, the problems are:

The lack of storytelling

The long paragraphs requires extra focus to read through, and the photos are not immersive enough.

Hard to spot CTA buttons

Important actions like volunteer sign up are buried a sea of texts. Without clear visual cues, it’s easy to miss the opportunity to engage.

Ineffective communication

Information like farm stand hours, and volunteer slots are not easily found on the website, leading the farm operator to answer these questions on social media over and over again.

SOLUTION

A redesigned site with engagement opportunities and community stories

Spotlighting community stories and images

With the use of portrait photos and quotes from the community, we brought the humans of Edgemere Farm to the digital world.

Offering alternative actions with every CTA

We present different levels of engagement opportunities to serve a range of users with different willingness to commit.

Refined IA that serves newcomers and members

We balanced Farm introduction and engagement opportunities on the site, so that newcomers can get to know the Farm and members can easily engage with different activities.

PROCESS

How we got there

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

We conducted thorough research to get familiar with Edgemere Farm and to understand how similar organizations present their work.

Stakeholder Analysis

  • We understood that long-term volunteers run the Farm, and they are mainly looking to engage more contributors and present their identity to visitors and governmental grants.

  • We found out that visitors have a lot of different ways to engage with the farm, from purchasing produce to dropping off compost.

Social Media Audit of 200 Posts

  • Social media is the easiest way for the Farm to make timely announcements. Their social media account provided the latest information about produce sales, events, and other announcements.

  • We noticed that common questions people asked can be listed on the website to lift the burden of repetitive explanation.

6 User Interviews with Community Members

  • We got to experience the humanitarian nature of the Edgemere community by listening to stories from the co-founder, long-term volunteers, artists, and cooperating restaurants owner.

  • We further understood their mission of creating a sustainable farming cycle and provide accessible fresh produce for people on the peninsula.

30+ Website Audit and 15+ Literature Review

  • We researched websites and articles of urban farms, parks, winery, non-profit organizations, and more to understand how they tell stories, present events, and encourage volunteer and donations.

  • We concluded several visual and content guidelines, such as focusing on individual stories and provide alternatives for call to actions.

DEFINE

How might we tell moving stories, promote engagement, advocate for food justice and sustainable farming for users to understand and engage with the Farm?

IDEATION

Translating design goals to information architecture that serves newcomers and community members

As we identify two main user groups — newcomers and community members, we were able to translate their needs into categories of information.