Overview
Produce Posse examined how students aged 18-23 engage with the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Through interviews and fieldwork, we explored how atmosphere and novelty drive visits—while lack of real-time information prevents regular attendance.
In this project, I worked with Alexa Jacobson (user research) and Kyle Samonte (user research) as part of a three-person research team.
Goal
Learning how students digitally engage with the farmers market, and identify opportunities to improve the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market’s student engagement.
Findings
We intercepted people and scheduled interviews to learn more about their engagement behavior.
The interviews surfaced two primary visit modes (Mission and Leisure) and revealed opportunities to improve student engagement through better digital and physical touchpoints.
Novelty emerged as a key driver of repeat visits, with memorable vendors and rare products forming mental maps that students rely on when navigating the market over time.
The frequency bubble chart reveals that students strongly associate the market with being “lively,” “chill,” “fun,” and “sunny.”
Insights
Students visit when drawn by novelty, uniqueness, or time-limited experiences. They prioritize the market's social atmosphere over groceries, rely on social networks rather than its website, and stay engaged through vendor interactions and environmental cues.
Suggestions
Restructuring online engagement opportunities for students while emphasizing novelty and social atmosphere.
Implementing a real-time interactive market map on the website for easy way-finding.
Future Directions
Editable OCR workflows would let users review and correct receipt extractions before posting. A native mobile app would enable in-context scanning, push notifications, and location-based food sharing.
Reflections
I translated technical constraints between developers and non-technical stakeholders, aligning priorities so the team could move quickly. We built trust under pressure, delivered a cohesive concept, and won both a cash prize and a $30,000 pre-seed investment offer from VeChain.