Project: myKubota App Redesign
Role: Lead Designer
Kubota Corporation is a large Japanese multinational producer of Agricultural equipment technology.
I was the Lead Designer of the new “myKubota” mobile application, which sought to bring telemetric hardware-integrated capabilities to a native iOS experience.
The Modern Farmer
Kubota’s user, the modern farmer, needs to be able to assign, location track, and manage maintenance services across smart equipment and fleets.
User Segmentation
This product needed to consider three different user types: Light, Heavy and Dealers, with unique features sets mapped to each.
Discovery
We made a UX analysis into the existing website and application, as well a review of previous designs created to learn how and why they were unsuccessful.
We noticed the navigation was particularly problematic, overly complex, and deviating from web norms.
Market Research
For a sense of context in the marketplace, we performed a survey of competitor apps in the smart-agriculture and transportation space.
Feature Roadmapping
We helped the customer bucket desired features into “short term needs” verse “future enhancements” to plot a more feasible product roadmap for the the future.
User Flows
Each major feature set had a unique work flow and corresponding user segment, we needed to completely unpack each workflow step to understand and simplify.
Collaborative Wire-framing
I facilitated weekly design workshops in an white-boarding program called Miro, to brainstorm and ideate with stakeholders and users.
User Testing
We performed user tests on a variety of navigation methods, in a testing platform called Maze to help us validate the best directions with real data.
Clarifying Ambiguity with User Research
We had a few areas of uncertainty that we wanted to shed light on, so we did the logical:
Ask users the user directly!
Telemetric Capabilities
One of the most complex screens, was the ‘My Equipment’ page, which required prioritized information architecture, with the most critical metrics available at-a-glance, with the ability to drill into detail on others.
Service Tracking
Another area we provided innovative thinking was with regards to the servicing of the machines; previously the user could only see due maintenance - the user can now track past, present, and future with linkage to service manuals for reference.
Geofencing
The GPS-enabled ability to create virtual “fences” around particular machines, required a first-time-use user walk through aid.
