Digitalisation and environmental protection in harmony with the Seedico app
The idea of solidarity farming is simple: people pay to run a farm instead of paying for their food. In return, they receive regional and seasonal food from an ecologically and sustainably working farm. Only when it comes to the distribution of the harvest and the collection there are always disagreements, because this is where precise and targeted communication is needed.
As part of their joint Master's thesis at the Faculty of Design at HAWK in Hildesheim, specialising in the field of Digital Environments, VWGIS colleague Lydia Lütgering and her fellow student Susanne Kolbeck asked themselves to what extent digital services can improve the processes within the Solawi.
Seedico is a multi-device platform with a digitalised infrastructure, i.e. a holistic social-ecological service design concept. With the app, pick-up appointments can be arranged conveniently on the smartphone, the harvest share can be viewed at any time and goods can be exchanged within the community.
Qualitative and quantitative research as a basis
The idea to design a solution originated with Susanne Kolbeck, who was already actively involved as a member of a solawi. With their experience from the processes and targeted research, the duo was then able to develop proposed solutions for solidarity farming.
"The app for mobile phones or smartwatches enables consumers to communicate with farms and receive goods via smart shelves. The design of the solution is comprehensive and based on qualitative and quantitative research. The jury was particularly impressed by the thorough and comprehensive scope of this unique solution," says jury member Sabine Berghaus, explaining the UX Design Award.
Sustainable business through digital service design
Our VWGIS colleague Lydia Lütgering is very pleased about the award:
"In my everyday professional life, I develop solutions on complex topics for GIS. So Seedico was one of my last freelance works in a completely different context and I really wanted to take the chance again to enter it in the UX Design Award. Thanks to my whole team and especially to Philipp Woywod and Christian Lenkeit for their support last year."
Dear Lydia, we are proud of your success and thank you for your commitment also outside VWGIS!