Highlights from my time as a UX designer in the Technology and Innovation Network at John Deere from 2013 – 2017.

GrainTruckPlus

Auto-generated description: Five green combines are harvesting a large wheat field under a cloudy sky.

Photos of harvest season tend to depict perfect arrangements of combines plowing through fields in unison. What could go wrong?

Semis waiting at a grain elevator.

In reality it’s a logistics nightmare of combines, grain carts, semis, and long wait-times at grain elevators. All orchestrated by walkie-talkie.

The problem farmers face is knowing where all their vehicles are and which grain elevators are busy.

Wireframe diagrams of onboarding screens and core interactions of the app.

To solve this problem we built an app, a database of grain elevator locations, and a wait-time algorithm. With an iPhone or Android device in every vehicle we could provide farmers with real-time location information and crowdsourced wait-times at elevators.

Three phone mockups showing a map with markers, a list of elevators with wait times, and a list of team members.

Considering the stressful nature of harvest season, we designed an incredibly simple experience. The map shows nearby elevators colored and sorted using wait times. The Drivers tab lets you build your team by pairing with other users.

We met with customers throughout the development process to ensure we were focused on the right problems and got to test the app by riding along with customers in the cabs of semis and combines. The team I was on received an internal innovation award for the project for its unique infrastructure and simple design.

GoApps

Auto-generated description: Two instructional app screens show step-by-step guidance for installing tractor equipment, including text instructions and illustrations. The left uses iOS 6 styling and the right is iOS 7 styling.

I helped take photos, build content, and design the interface of our GoApp series of apps. It was a mobile-friendly, swipeable version of an Operator’s Manual (shown left in the photo) for accomplishing common maintenance tasks with your machine. There were maybe 8 or 10 of these for a variety of product lines: GoHaul (articulated dump trucks), GoCotton (cotton pickers), GoHarvest (combine harvesters), MowerPlus (residential lawn mowers), GoBale (balers), GoSpray, etc. I personally took many of the photos — including traveling to Germany, France, and the Netherlands to capture region-specific machines.

Around the release of iOS 7 release we did an update to the UI (shown right) which definitely “modernized” it, but looking back I feel the iOS 7 craze went overboard I ended up removing a lot of the character of the app.

Mobile Standards

Auto-generated description: A mobile app interface displays a John Deere mower with options for equipment details, updates, and maintenance information.

Before the modern “design system” moniker, I helped designed the design standards for John Deere mobile apps.

Auto-generated description: A user interface segment shows a Slide to Start button with options for adjusting settings labeled Native and Custom.

This covered elements like colors, controls, when to use default controls and when to deviate.

Auto-generated description: A collection of John Deere-themed icons, each representing different equipment, services, or concepts related to the brand.

I illustrated several app icons (outlined in green) and maintained the guidelines for a growing collection of App Store icons.