Auafarm: Farm & Travel App
Developed as an MSc thesis at Politecnico di Milano. A service-design response to how small rural producers lose income to middlemen — and what a fairer, low-bandwidth marketplace could look like.
Intro
Problem
Small rural farmers and herders lose up to 30% of their income to middlemen. When trade runs through layers of intermediaries, the people doing the work capture the least value.
Solution
Auafarm — "Truth First" — is a managed marketplace built for low bandwidth. It connects producers directly to buyers and removes the layers in between.
Outcome
MVP with distribution
an MVP designed around distribution from day one, not as an afterthought
−30% tax
designed to eliminate the 30% middlemen tax on rural producers
The Result Model
a repeatable model for a fairer, resilient rural marketplace
Methodology
Navigating Complexity
De-risking innovation through the Double Diamond — diverging to understand the rural context before converging on a single, defensible model.
Strategy over Aesthetics
The work led with strategy: the value model and the service logic came before any interface polish.
Discover & Define
Global Benchmarking
Steppe ethnography, shattering assumptions. I benchmarked agri-marketplaces worldwide to map what already works, what fails in low-connectivity settings, and where the real gap sits.
From Tool to Ecosystem
The strategic pivot to a managed marketplace: from a single tool to a managed-marketplace ecosystem — infrastructure, trust and distribution, not just an app.
Ideate
The Offering Hierarchy
Engineering the service logic. A tiered offer — "Rooted", "Grow" and beyond — matching different producer needs and levels of commitment.
Stakeholder Visibility
Mapping every stakeholder — producers, buyers, local agents — so the service stays visible and accountable to each.
Prototype
Connectivity Resilience
High-tech for low-bandwidth realities. A "Low-Bandwidth First" UX designed to work where connectivity is scarce and intermittent.
Strategic Choice: Localized Transaction Model
A localized transaction model with trust-sync — verifiable offline and reconciled when the connection returns.
The solution
High-tech logic behind a low-tech-friendly experience — built for the realities of rural infrastructure.
Outcome
Defining the Future of Rural Resilience
An MVP with distribution designed in from the start — a repeatable model for a fairer rural economy.
Strategic Success Metrics (Hypothesis)
Hypotheses for success — adoption, income retained by producers, and reduction of the middlemen tax.
Project Scope
MSc Thesis, Politecnico di Milano, 2025. Solo — research, strategy, service and UX/UI design.