AI-powered crop intelligence for the modern farmer
Digital Scientists designed and built Farmwave's React Native mobile app, connecting farmers, agronomists, and crop scientists with AI-powered image processing and a community platform — delivered as an MVP in just 3 months.
From vision to MVP in one growing season
Farmwave brings together a growing community of farmers, agronomists, crop scientists, and researchers who know that sharing knowledge can make all the difference. By applying the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning, Farmwave transforms field data into actionable intelligence.
Digital Scientists partnered with Farmwave to design and build the complete mobile experience — from destination workshops and user research through visual design, prototype, and React Native development. The engagement delivered a full Design Blueprint and working MVP across iOS and Android.
The app connects to university databases with over 35,000 crop and pest species, uses Google TensorFlow for AI-powered yield estimation, and provides a community platform for farmers to share knowledge and get expert advice.
3
Month MVP Delivery
35K+
Crop & Pest Species
2
Platforms (iOS & Android)
546
Development Hours (Phase 1)
Agriculture needs technology — but farmers need simplicity
Farming has always been about trust — trusting your neighbor's advice, your agronomist's diagnosis, and your own experience in the field. But existing tools were clunky, finicky, and hard to navigate. As one interviewee put it: "Our current app is old, and finicky, and awkward to get around."
Farmwave needed to solve three problems at once: automate manual crop assessment tasks using AI, connect farmers with expert communities for diagnosis and advice, and do it all in an interface simple enough for time-constrained farmers working from the cab of a tractor.
Privacy mattered too. As one farmer told us: "There is a little competition between farmers, especially the guy down the road. You don't always want him to know that you're having an issue." The app needed to support both open community sharing and private direct messaging.
Destination workshops to map the farmer's world
We gathered all Farmwave stakeholders for destination workshops designed to understand the long-term vision, unmet needs, and the product's future over the next two years. From there, we mapped the full stakeholder ecosystem and conducted user interviews with crop farmers, turf researchers, and farm managers.
Journey map: Out in field → Discovery → Connects to others → Next step
Stakeholder ecosystem centered on the Row Crop Farmer
User Interviews
In-depth interviews with crop farmers, turf researchers, and farm managers revealed that trust, privacy, and simplicity were non-negotiable requirements.
Comparative Research
Benchmarked IntelliSCOUT, Prospera, Plantix, Climate Corp, and other AgTech platforms across AI capabilities, UX quality, and community features.
Story Mapping
Created a comprehensive user story map organizing MVP features across five themes: Activity Feed, Direct Messaging, Events, Reports, and Settings.
Sarah Fairmont: The Innovative Inheritor
From our research emerged a primary persona — a fourth-generation row crop farmer with an MBA who expects the same technology solutions as other industries. She manages 1,000 acres and needs tools that improve productivity without adding complexity.
Sarah is highly tech-adoptive, manages a large farm, and grows a focused set of crops. She needs reliable data, expert connections, and a platform she can trust with her field reports — all accessible from her phone while she's out in the field.
Age
36
Farm Size
1,000 acres
Tech Adoption
High
Education
MBA
Designed for the field, powered by AI
Every screen was designed to be usable with dirty hands and bright sun. From geotagged field reports to AI-powered kernel counting, the app puts expert-level diagnostics in every farmer's pocket.
My Reports
Create, view, and share geotagged field reports with photos, notes, and weather data.
AI Kernel Count
AI-powered yield estimation using TensorFlow image processing to automate corn kernel counting.
Reports Map
Geotagged photos on Google Maps for accurate tracking of crop issues across the farm.
Three pillars of the Farmwave platform
Field Reports
Create media-rich reports with photos, videos, notes, and weather data. Share with communities, direct message to specialists, or download for offline use. Custom camera reticles enable AI-powered image capture.
Communities
Search, join, and interact with farming communities. Share reports, post updates, and connect with agronomists and researchers. Private and public communities support both open and confidential discussions.
Direct Messaging
Handshake-based connections enable trusted one-on-one conversations. Share reports privately, attach field photos, and get expert opinions without broadcasting issues to competitors.
Real-time, native-first, built to scale
We recommended React Native for its native performance, offline capabilities, and camera customization — critical for building AI-powered image capture reticles. The architecture follows a native-first approach, building for mobile and compiling to web.
Direct messaging and the activity feed use WebSocket-based real-time data federation via Redis Pub/Sub, ensuring connected users receive updates instantly through socket channels and rooms.
Real-time messaging architecture: Client → API → Database → Pub/Sub
A complete design blueprint and working MVP
Destination Workshop
Full-day stakeholder workshop to define the product vision, positioning, and 2-year roadmap for the Farmwave platform.
User Research
User interviews, journey maps, stakeholder maps, risk survey, and vision canvas to ground every design decision in real farmer needs.
Personas & Story Map
Research-backed personas for row crop farmers, dairy farmers, and specialists, plus a complete user story map organizing MVP features.
Visual Design & Prototype
Full visual designs for all mobile screens, a clickable prototype for stakeholder demos, and a comprehensive style guide for the development team.
Solution Architecture
Recommended React Native native-first stack with Node.js, Postgres, Elasticsearch, and real-time WebSocket infrastructure on Google Cloud.
2-Phase Development Plan
Phase 1 (Reports, 546 hrs) and Phase 2 (Communities + DM, 491 hrs) with detailed feature breakdowns and cost estimates.
From blueprint to beta in one growing season
MVP Launched at AgTech South
Farmwave launched in beta on July 25, 2018, at the AgTech South conference, available for download on both iOS and Android — just 3 months from kickoff.
35K+ Species Connected
The app connected to university databases with over 35,000 crop and pest species, putting decades of agricultural research in every farmer's pocket.
Platform for Growth
The architecture and roadmap enabled Farmwave to plan Phase 2 integrations with AgTech partners and additional AI-powered features for 2019 and beyond.
"As a company that works in agriculture, defining our audience or customer is very difficult. Agriculture is a tough industry for technology adoption. Digital Scientists was pivotal in taking the time to understand the personas of our customer-base and how that would translate to work-flows in our SaaS. It was incredible to go through this process with Digital Scientists. We as a team uncovered more insight into our users than we had before."
Craig Ganssle
Founder & CEO, Farmwave
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