The all-in-one platform for crop nutrition
Overview
Business Context
Yara aimed to unify its fragmented farming tools into a cohesive product suite to support farmers across planning, monitoring, and analytics.
Problem
- Users juggling 3+ tools for field planning
- No unified task management across farms
- Lack of offline capabilities in remote regions
Opportunity
Design a single scalable platform that simplifies workflows, supports offline sync, and aligns with agronomy data models.
Product Goals
- Design a cohesive UX for task planning, execution, and review. Integrate all Yara apps into one suite.
- Integrate weather, soil, and crop data for smarter insights
- Optimize for on-the-go usage
Success Metrics
- +50 increase in multi-feature usage
- +40% task planning efficiency
- +30% increase in recurring users
Primary Users
- Agronomists managing >10 farms
- Mid-scale farmers (10-200 hectares)
- Yara internal sales/support teams
Stakeholders
- PMs (Product Vision)
- Agronomists (Domain Expertise)
- Engineering (Feasibility & Infra)
- Regulatory/Compliance
KPI
Design Process
Present throughout the design lifecycle.
Being part of the discussions with PO & PMs.
Assisting with Roadmap.
Discovery & Research
Methods Used
12+ user interviews (farmers, agronomists)
We wanted to know how the users were using the legacy tools and what were they expecting from a product suite. These interviews provided some valuable insights.
Journey mapping
to visualize and analyze the steps our users take when interacting with the legacy products in order to improve the customer experience, increase empathy, identify pain points and optimize touchpoints.
Feature audits (Yara legacy tools + competitors)
were integral to see how we should unify Yara's disjointed legacy tools. This helped to have a bird's eye view of what was lacking and how we should marry the tools into a unified experience.
Heuristic evaluation
was performed to identify and fix usability issues in the legacy product's interface, ensuring a more intuitive design for YaraPlus
Storyboards
helped in communicating problems and solutions in meaningful, story-driven, easily digestible format. I use Procreate/iPad and my own characters to illustrate these storyboards.
Challenges during this phase
- Yara has a large backlog of user research data accumulated over several years. Times change and so do user feedback.
- User interviews were mostly with German, UK and Spanish markets and we needed a native speaker to conduct the interviews
- Yara legacy tools were vast and already being used by thousands of users. We needed to find a way to migrate all those users to YaraPlus.
Solution
- Consolidating past research and comparing it with current user requirements to assure we are designing the product that the users need.
- Being present in user interviews and leveraging translation for taking notes.
- Seamless migration of current users and user accounts prioritized and differentiating between current and new user onboarding for a delightful migration experience.
- Comparing featureset of the legacy products improving the same for YaraPlus, our main aim was not to deviate the experience abut from the legacy products experience.
Concept & Ideation Exploration
Cross-team workshops: Ran multiple Miro workshops with stakeholders. I wanted to include not just PMs, but also developers, QA testers and Marketing so that we are all working towards a common goal. Feedback was of prime-importance here.
Initial design explorations: Sketches, IA variants, component-level ideas. Using Miro and figma, we went onto create user journeys, wireframes and user flows, we also explored different concepts, from rough sketches to low-fidelity prototypes.
Follow-up meetings: the feedback and the concepts were presented to the stakeholders before proceeding to explorations
Early concepts tested: Testing early with users and stakeholders were crucial so that we all are still on the same page.
Cross-team workshops
Multiple Miro workshops with all stakeholders including developers, QA, and marketing
Initial design explorations
Sketches, IA variants, user journeys, wireframes and user flows from rough to low-fidelity
Follow-up meetings
Presented concepts to stakeholders before proceeding
Early concepts tested
Testing with users and stakeholders to ensure alignment
Challenges during this phase
- Having stakeholders from Product, Marketing, Engineering and Design meant there was a lot of feedback.
- Conflicting marketing needs vs user requirements.
- Working with legacy tool teams to bring everything under one umbrella
Solution
- Prioritizing feedback that lend to user requirements and keeping the rest for backlogs and nice-to-haves
- Pushing back with Marketing favoring user requirements and with user testing and analytics at a later stage to prove the same.
- Albeit time-consuming, worked closely with the legacy tools' teams to further streamline the migration process.
Solution
YaraPlus the all-in-one platform for fertilization.
YaraPlus is the culmination of
Dashboard
Unified dashboard providing overview of all farms, fields, and tasks
Solution cards
Modular approach allowing farmers to select relevant tools
Farm Switcher
Easy switching between multiple farms
Farm Management
Comprehensive farm and field management tools
Field overview (map + list toggle)
Toggle between map and list views for field management
Unified Farm & Field Creation
Streamlined creation flow for farms and fields
News & Events
Stay updated with agricultural news and events
VRA Maps (Atfarm)
Advanced mapping and field analytics
Collaborator Management
Invite and manage team members. Currently a WIP. You can find the wireframe for the same in the Concept Section
Mobile App
One of the key insights we had received during the user interviews that farmers/agronomists would like to manage their farms and fields on the go. A native mobile app was the solution
Handoff
Comprehensive design system and component library delivered to engineering team.
Deliverables
- Complete Figma design system
- Interactive prototypes
- Component documentation
- User flow diagrams
- Responsive design specifications
- Accessibility guidelines
Outcome
YaraPlus successfully launched across 10+ countries with strong adoption rates and positive user feedback.
You can find the live version here https://app.yaraplus.com/home
Results
- 85% adoption rate among target users
- 40% reduction in user dropoff
- Deployed in 10+ countries
- Improved task completion efficiency by 35%
- Positive feedback from agronomists and farmers
Learnings
Multi-market research is complex but valuable
Working across different markets with language barriers taught us the importance of having native speakers and cultural understanding in research.
Legacy migration requires careful planning
Migrating thousands of users from legacy tools required a delicate balance between innovation and familiarity.
Cross-functional collaboration drives success
Including developers, QA, marketing, and product in design workshops led to better solutions and smoother implementation.
User requirements over marketing needs
Standing firm on user-centered design principles, even when facing marketing pressure, ultimately led to better outcomes.
Impact
The platform launched successfully across 10+ countries, achieving an 85% adoption rate among target users and reducing user dropoff by 40%. The intuitive design and data-driven approach helped farmers make better decisions, leading to improved crop yields and more sustainable farming practices.
“The YaraPlus platform transformed how we approach crop nutrition. The interface is incredibly intuitive, and the insights are invaluable.”
— Agricultural Professional, Netherlands
The Challenge
YaraPlus Challenge