Overview
Fertiliser Rake Discovery is a feature on the FarMart app that helps agri-input retailers find fertiliser rake availability in their district and nearby areas, so they can get fertiliser in time and plan inventory.
It shipped in the 2022 chapter of the FarMart app, when we were still building for agri-input shop owners (fertilisers, seeds, and other inputs), not for today’s agri output traders. I designed it as part of that first wave: community, SMS marketing, and this rake discovery tool.
Who it was for
Agri-input retailers who need to know when fertiliser rakes are available near them. Searching was time-consuming and confusing. People changed location again and again to check nearby districts, with little guidance on where to look next. That friction made it harder to get fertiliser when they needed it.
What the research showed
Through user research and desk research with CleverTap, we saw that retailers (and farmers using related flows) struggled to discover fertiliser rakes.
Data showed frequent location changes as soon as people landed on the rake discovery page. Customer support followed up with power users, who said they often switched districts to check neighboring areas when nothing was available locally. That pattern drove a clearer flow for cross-district discovery and navigation, instead of forcing people to hunt district by district.
The constraints that shaped the design
Literacy and low-end Android. Same constraints as the rest of the early FarMart app: the UI had to stay readable in Hindi, on modest phones, in a busy shop.
Empty states matter as much as success states. “No rake here” is a common answer. The product had to teach people what to do next (try nearby areas) instead of leaving them stuck on a blank district.
Location switching was the real pain. The metric that mattered was not “more rakes listed.” It was fewer forced location changes to find the same information.
How I worked on this
I designed this feature end to end on Android as part of the FarMart app’s year-one work. If it shipped in that first wave for agri retailers, I designed it. There was no separate design team chapter for this module yet; that came later across FarMart products from late 2023.
What we built
Zero state
Educates users about the feature and asks for their location before search.
Rake not available
Shown when no rake is available in the selected district, with a clear path to try nearby areas.
Rake available
Shown when a rake is available in the district, with the key details up front.
Rake list view
List of available rakes in a district so retailers can compare options and act quickly.
Outcomes
- 80% fewer location changes on the rake discovery flow after the redesign.
- A clearer path from “nothing in my district” to nearby options, instead of blind district hopping.
- One of the early FarMart app tools that made the agri-input retailer chapter useful while we were still building community and trust.