App Design · Summer 2024
Farm Inventory.
Tablet application for agricultural inventory collection.
Designed the tablet application and field interface for the moss sensor kit. Built around one constraint: field workers wear gloves, work in direct sunlight, and do not stop moving to interact with software.
Engineering Intern · Moss · Summer 2024
field discovery · Oregon
A week in the field first.
Before any interface decisions, a week-long deployment to Oregon farms established what field workers actually needed. The manual inventory process was observed firsthand. Existing field tools were tested for brightness, button usability with gloves, and general ergonomics. Color-signal testing with field workers mapped LED states to intuitive meaning before any color was finalized.
user research · 3 roles · 8 interviews
Three roles, three different needs.
Owns the data.
Needs live counts, percentage-of-take metrics, and mass updates without row-by-row entry. Recounts the same rows up to six times per season when issues arise.
Dispatches crews from paper lists.
Needs farm, section, block, row in that order, with deadline and operator tracked per mission.
Checks the screen only when something is wrong.
Operates in gloves on an ATV. Needs current speed, rows remaining, and time to completion. Nothing else.
hardware selection
Why standard tablets did not work.
Consumer tablets were disqualified on three counts: touchscreens fail with gloves, displays wash out in direct sun, and IP ratings are insufficient for field conditions. Candidates were evaluated on physical button availability, brightness under direct sunlight, IP67 rating, and ATV mounting compatibility. The selected tablet connects to the sensor kit via a tethered cable, a deliberate choice based on field worker preference for wired over wireless during active sessions.
- Physical buttons
- Required for gloved operation without touchscreen dependency.
- Display brightness
- Validated against direct Oregon summer sun conditions.
- IP67 rating
- Sealed charging port, independently verified.
- Wired connection
- Tethered cable to sensor kit, field worker preference over wireless.
tablet application
Six functions. Nothing extra.
The application covers exactly what a field worker needs during a collection session.
- 1
Start and stop data collection
- 2
Enter field information: farm, section, block, row
- 3
Monitor sensor kit battery level in real time
- 4
View active errors from the sensor kit
- 5
Follow the row-by-row mission timeline
- 6
Manually log individual plant records
All critical actions work without removing gloves. Error states surface in plain language, not codes. Large tap targets and physical button shortcuts throughout.
status indication
Status visible from the driver's seat.
Exterior LED indicators on the sensor kit communicate system state without requiring the operator to stop or dismount. Color assignments were validated with field workers before finalization.
Green solid
Active data collection.
Yellow solid
Processing.
Yellow flashing
Transitional, not collecting, not in error.
Red flashing
Error requiring attention.
Blue flashing / solid
Flashing on boot, solid when ready.
outcome
Remove the clipboard, not add a screen.
Every decision, tablet selection, LED color, button placement, cable choice, traced back to a field observation or interview finding. The goal was to make the technology disappear into an existing workflow, not add to it.