Komi.green - App design

Create the next sustainable digital community, where both farmers and consumers benefit from having a direct connection and access to information about the products displayed, allowing producers to be paid fairly for their labor and consumers to make better food choices. 

Prices for produce in supermarkets have been going up in the past few years, but that increase has not benefited the farmers, who are now in a vulnerable position because of global warming. 

Consumers want to eat better and have access to high-quality produce in more convenient and direct ways.

There’s a lack of transparency about the origin of the produce we consume every day.

Steve Cang, the CEO of the start-up, did a thorough job of analyzing the market and the different types of possible consumers that our project could tackle. While initiatives like La colmena que dice que si and Farmer Direct aim to offer consumers a more direct farm-to-consumer experience, they still lack a more sustainable and stronger connection to the users. I was part of some of the interviews that were done with farmers to hear about their experiences and what we could do as an initiative to help them, allowing me to empathize and create user personas that would be used for the project.

Easy use: Consumers want to spend less time shopping for groceries and receiving them directly at their homes.

Human: Farmers loved the direct interaction that they had with their clients on social media.

Transparency: Consumers want to know what type of produce they are getting and where does it come from.

We started the project with the development of the user app, so we could get one of our main functionalities of the ordering process tested and perfected. Komi bases its shopping method with a list format, that allows the user to quickly create their produce list and buy it in a short amount of time by saving it. We had a close beta testing with a group of users in Barcelona with 2 different farms from the area, where feedback came from that was applied to the app. Seven months later, we started to develop the farmer app, to allow seamless integration between both core groups.

Komi was an ambitious project since the start, and being the Lead UX designer was a rewarding experience, to say the least. I’m proud that the project and the team have been rewarded with the Special Future Award of the Year by We're Smart World in 2022 for establishing the bridge between small local farmers who strive to take care of the land without compromising nature and those who support them. In the future, Komi wants to expand to different parts of Spain and Europe, to create a bigger impact in the food industry.