AgScouts
Cargill Hackathon (Summer 2023)
Timeline
May 2023
Role
UXUI Designer
Team
Robin Hazard (UXUI Designer),
George Atkins (Market Researcher)
Learning Outcomes
UX Research, Concept Development, Branding, Prototyping, Figma, UX Design
AgScouts conceptualizes how to introduce today’s youth to agriculture. During this 2.5 day long hackathon, my team was prompted to explore current digital first educational and agricultural experiences and use these insights to imagine “AgScouts,” an experience for children anywhere to inspire them to dream big about AgTech. From here, we developed an educational game, integrated with lessons and labs, as a method to introduce youth to agriculture.
Our Objective
During our 2.5 day hackathon…
Inspire today’s youth to explore the future of AgTech through a digital first experience.
Preliminary Research
Competitive Analysis
Agriculture Based Games
Educational Platforms
User Persona
For our competitive analysis, we looked into two different types of platforms: Agriculture Based Games and Educational Platforms.
From this research, we found that agriculture based games allow users to simulate farm life, but it may not be 100% accurate, while educational platforms encourage the youth to learn through gamification. While we found these types of platforms, we did not find a digital-first agricultural based platform for children to learn from.
Initial Design Stages
User Flows
Before designing, we worked out two different user flows
Youth: Main part of the game where children can learn through interactive videos, activities, and an optional lab
Parent: To cultivate their child’s interest, parents can sign up for a newsletter that brings together a community of “AgScouts”
Final Designs
Entering the Game
Gameplay
Newsletter
When the user enters the app, they have a choice to choose between Play and Newsletter.
After hitting play, the user can choose between different areas in agriculture to learn about, or enter their profile.
Character Customization
If the user were to enter their profile, or home, they can see different rewards they have unlocked to customize their character. These rewards are unlocked after completing different modules as an incentive to continue learning through AgScouts.
When entering an location, the user can choose between different modules of different topics. They are then prompted with educational videos, activities to practice knowledge, and an at home, affordable lab, that is optional. After each part of the lesson, the user also unlocks a new item of clothing that they can customize their character with!
After learning through AgScouts, if the user wants to do more than just what is provided on the app, their parent can sign up for a monthly newsletter.
This newsletter serves as a way to bring together AgScouts in the area, or even around the globe, cultivating a community of new agricultural learners.
Next Steps
Usability Testing, Feedback Implementation, Expansion to New Regions (Outside U.S.)
This was my first ever Hackathon, and first time working with a younger audience in mind. With this prompt, my team and I had to quickly ideate over different solutions addressing a younger audience’s needs. With this, it was challenging to find a balance between what will be engaging for children, still educational, but also easy enough for them to digest.
This short Hackathon also put my design skills (and speed) to the test. While this was over the course of a few days, we were constrained to working on this project during the typical work day hours. We also had to prepare for a presentation for a company wide Hackathon, and since this was our first days on the job, also adjust to new software and presentation styles.
Overall, this project was especially fun and outside of my comfort zone. From this project, I have learned how to design for new audiences, and work on a user experience that was mostly graphic heavy. With this, I also found value in my prompt. This was truly an immersive prompt for me, and has sparked me to explore more game design in the future.