Expanding the reach of the internet

WeFarm is a knowledge sharing platform for farmers without internet access which started life as a project of the Cafédirect Producers Foundation. Members can share farming tips, ask, answer and rate questions all via SMS. This is all translated via a web-based user interface and shared with farmers around the world.

What we did

Manifesto developed a responsive multi-lingual interface that calls on an API to display all SMS activity. It enables farmers to replicate the SMS functions within the app while facilitating translations and user management.

How it went

In April 2014 we travelled to Kenya to undertake 3 days of user testing with farmers in the field which included live translations and answers from a team in Haiti.

The product was extremely well received. A wealth of feedback was gathered and fed back into the project. A soft launch in four languages in July 2014 was swiftly followed by a win in the Google Impact Challenge ,which guaranteed £500k of funding and support.

How this helps us on your project

Our experience of user testing on WeFarm has taught us a lot about delivering complex products to very specific audiences across oceans and language barriers.