 I really don't have to do much. Thank you, Satish, to actually talk about it and set the stage for why I would really urge for designers to think rural. So till just last December, I was doing UX for users who are technology experts, sitting in the data centers of the world. And then I decided to do something that can challenge me further, take design and use it to impact lives, use technology to actually make meaningful contribution to people who have either no or negligible exposure to it. In fact, people who are yet to see its benefits. So why do we really need to think rural? The number of people I'm talking about, these people are mostly living in rural areas. Can you tell me really why do we really need to think rural? Why should we have rural perspective in mind? The very important thing, about 68% of Indians still live in the rural areas. And it's only 32% of us who are urban population. And the rural population is big, of course, because India is largely an agrarian country. That means most of its population is still using agriculture as a primary principle means of livelihood. Right? So do you know what percentage of rural households are dependent on agriculture? Any guesses? It's 70%. It's 70% of rural households are still, there is only one occupation that they have. So at the same time, we know that internet population is growing. Rural India is supposed to be contributing to 109 million internet users by the end of this year. And interestingly, lots and lots of people are using phones. There is need of communication even among them. Can you guess what would be the most used app in, say, among farmers? Let me wait for this. Awesome. Awesome. Yes, one out of four farmers today uses WhatsApp. It's primarily, it's, of course, driven completely for the need of communication. And that means that the internet class of 2018 is going to be more rural, more mobile, and more vernacular than the counterparts of today. They're going to be really using internet for lots of different new things that we haven't envisioned at all. And so how is technology impacting their lives? How are we, as designers, are really impacting their lives? What does the future hold for them? So at EggroStar, we are specifically focused on using technology to improve the lives of farmers in rural India. And we are taking one step at a time. Today, we are able to help them to get the agree inputs at affordable prices directly delivered at their doorsteps. At the same time, we're also providing them real-time information through these phones. And also be able to make them talk to experts, talk to, have expert advice available to them. So let's meet a farmer. He's Ramesh, he actually lives in Mansa, which is very close to Ahmedabad, 52 kilometers from Ahmedabad. And he has 12 big land, grows three to four crops in a year. That means, say, he actually grew cotton last season, maybe black gram, a couple of vegetables. He makes around three to four laks, which is also not very steady income every year. It's not just exactly the same. He has his wife helping him. And he has kids going to the private school. He himself can read and write Gujarati. At the same time, the wife goes and helps with the livestock and basically contributes to the family income. In the evenings, say, he is meeting with other farmers. He's very conscious of his produce. He's always finding ways to improve, right? And he's exposed to technology. He knows what's really going around in the world, what's really happening in the world. And can we really say that we can impact his life? This is the question what design at AgroStar is trying to solve. How do we use technology to meet the agree needs of the farmer so that he can grow healthy crops and in turn make a little better life, better living? And trust me, I'm a design addict and I'm a design thinking addict and I really believe the design can do wonders in India. How many of you really believe the same? Raise your hands. That's amazing. That's really awesome. This is exactly what the AgroStar's technology team, everybody at AgroStar, say operations or anybody around, is trying to do it. We do believe that user experience is as important to a rural user as it is important to anybody who is sitting in the urban environments, right? And we want to envision how will the technological inputs really be used by this person? We don't have to really just create simple, easy to use products, but also magical experiences for him. He hasn't had those experience with you and me and have already having, right? So we're trying to envision that. Of course, it's gonna be really slow and we are taking simple, very small steps at a time. When we started, you have to really believe me. Like any commerce or MCommerce group of people wanted to try to reach out to these users. We had product catalog from our partners who also wanted to reach in our farmers because we didn't have to really reinvent a wheel. Things are there, already there. There are good quality products just that they don't reach the farmers. So what we did, we started with that, right? But it was very interesting to see farmers' expectations were completely different. He was thinking in terms of his annual season, his crops, the whole thing revolves around his one year cycle. And we went back to the table and of course, we laid really lot of emphasis on making sure that he is part of the design cycle. And being there on the field, literally, being there on the field and doing iterations only helps in actually making the right solutions for them. So what I have to also say that lot of participatory and co-creation with the farmer has been, that is the only way that we have been able to make him an active member of our business as well as design solutions, right? Design any process that we follow. And currently, we have around 100,000 farmers from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, NMP transacting with us on our platform. And of course, reaching out and at the same time, we are using quite lean processes to make sure that we have an idea, we quickly prototype it and see if it is working. That's how we work. Let me give an example of how actually we had one of the ideas right from the field and how, where it is today. So this is one of the problems. Here it is, how might we provide an ability to a farmer to solve a new problem which he just discovered in his crops by remotely guiding him. I'll have to tell you a story. So first of all, you heard, in fact, it's very interesting, you heard some of it yesterday when the IT minister talked about it. And I was like, wow, he's talking about something like this. So, this thing is like typically what the farmers would do if there is a pest or a disease in the crop, they would have to contact either one of the farmers, other farmers, or they will have to talk to the local retailer and the treatment would be less than perfect, one size fits all approach kind of a thing. So as we started making relationships and we started being, you know, having connections with them and being able to talk to them often, they started contacting us. They started, you know, sharing their issues through WhatsApp, sending images, and that's exactly what triggered. And today, we have a team of people made up of agronomists, developers, designers, and business analysts sitting with users, trying to identify a CD-like system which can actually provide recognized issues in the crop instantaneously and provide solutions to the users. So at that, I really want to mention this. One of the key things that we have to remember, these users have relatively less knowledge and skill of using digital devices as compared to us. And when I say that a simple example to that is, say for example, search for you and me, it's gonna be just a Google text box and a clear statement and there you go. But for these users, even the typing it out is added efforts, right? So it's not as simple as just designing, you will just carry forward those things. But these users are definitely eager to know what technology can do for them. And it was very interesting. I thought that it's very important to share those lessons today with the vast group of user experience people right here. So I'm gonna do that, solve the most crucial problem first. Look for those non-negotiable implicit requirements which you cannot not work, right? So trust me, we had no UI for two years. That means we had our 1,800 number on which farmers were giving us miss call. It went to viral and we were still able to solve, right? Second, be conscious of perceptions. That means that really understand what the system should really do for them, how they perceive how it should work. That also helps us to go closer to their real needs because the more you get closer to them, the more you understand them. Design for the user's inhibitions. Trust me, one MB of data means more money spent. That means every time you are taking out a rupee from the pocket, you have to give three-fold value back. You got me? So it's not, there are always these, there are always these things that you have to do, conflicting problems to solve, richer experience versus data consumption. And I would have to say, of course, I have to look at what the user can really spend on, right? So really if he's spending on, it has to be very, very valuable for him. For nothing is obvious. I would really say that make it more explanatory, avoid using jargons. We really don't have to use those terminologies which we use in urban areas. Understand them first. Many of the current trends are not familiar. They're not apparent at all. And see if actually mobile as well as web user interface has these, it has a language, right? And we have to design for non-speakers. We have to design for people who don't speak that language. That means widen our, we have to really make sure that our assumptions cover broader perspectives. There are new mental models which we have to discover and follow models that are currently existing in their real life incidents. Adapt to local circumstances and local language. I think we really don't do enough justice to the fact that there are so many languages in India and we don't design for those languages. The moment we start designing in languages other than English, we will be able to really know this 68% of the population. And for me, I have to give you a very simple example. So cotton was Kapas in Gujarat and in Hindi, right? And in Gujarati. And in Marathi, it was Kapos. And in Rajasthan, Kapas didn't ring a bell. And trust me, we all will think that Rajasthan is a Hindi speaking language state. It should definitely be understood. It was Narm for them. We learned it a very hard way. So trust me, if you really need to know them, know what they speak. And make it easier to learn and reach, teach, when I say that, that means that our users feel great when they really figure out things by themselves. At the same time, we have to give them tricks that work everywhere, everywhere. And there is a lot of mediated culture in these places. Lots and lots of mediated culture. We should definitely leverage that. When I say that mediated culture, they don't feel odd when she would explain me something or I could explain it to her. And it's quite normal. It's really, really normal for them. So basically, I feel that designers have this, it's only us who can bridge the gap between that digital divide that exists between rural and urban by providing them really great experiences and great experiences are simple. Simplicity means clarity, nothing else. It's not about volume. And of course, doing simple is not always easy to design. It only appears that way, right? Yes, we are optimists and we are eagerly tracking, learning from our solutions as the farmer is towards his journey of having a safer and stronger line of work, a better future. Quite deservingly, the future must belong to them. They have been feeding us from yours. Thank you. Questions, anybody? Okay, I don't think that's the only solution. That's one of the main solution that can do lot of things. Today, we are doing soil testing for them. Today, we are doing image processing to understand the diseases. Isn't it technology? It is impossible to not use technology. Even for two years, when we were using the missed call basis, just to read the right agronomist so that he really hears the right solution for his problem, it was technology. We have a lot of field staff out there. How are they talking to the agronomist? Because we can't have so many agronomists actually going and meeting the farmers right there. So we have this model in which we are, it's like an Uber model. If you are having a phone or you have a bicycle or a bike, that's all we are making entrepreneurs in every village who can be the main person to reach out to the rest of the farmers. So trust me, even there, we need technology to be able to make him an entrepreneur, that one person in that particular village. So I think it's combination of many things, but at the end of it, at the core level, it is definitely some bit of technology. We have to give credit to it. Aspect and everything else will be peripheral? It is about human relationships, first of all. I would say, like once we develop that, only then we can make use of those technologies. Unless we know what problems we are solving, so those human relationships help us to identify the real problems to solve. And the moment we do that, we then use technology to find out what we can do with that. We don't start, definitely, I think none of us should start from technology at all. I hope that's okay. Thank you. I have a question here, like when it comes to a rural area and farmers, so how they are connected with the technology? Are they are the ratio increasing when we give a mobile application to solve a problem to them? How they are friendly to use the devices and are we going with a different approach in terms of building a mobile application considering UX as a term for a rural area and their space of knowledge? How they can adapt to the technology? A very good question. Actually, I have to tell you how much we have to not do what we are doing like a typical UX, right? Like user experience, especially in the mobile world and mobile apps. So what we are not doing is more important than what we are doing. So even, say they have never bought online, right? So we are actually not selling online at all. They don't really know a concept of cart, right? So what our app is doing, it's triggering a call to us. That means we are knowing this farmer needs the help on this particular crop and this particular disease, say for example, as simple as that. So when you ask, did I understand your question, Will? Could you just? My other part of question was like, what is the ratio of people using it? And is that increasing or is that stagnant? Okay, good question. I'll tell you what, we have more farmers. Okay, roughly we have three million farmers right now calling us, of course, much lesser through the app. There is somebody in the family who has a phone. It can be smartphone or it can be a normal phone, like just a dialing old phone. We still get more of our calls from the missed call number than the app, but we are improving it and we are making sure that, of course, it's not for all the farmers. I can't say that we are solving for everybody. We're solving for say, progressive farmers plus people who are joining the gang. There are a lot of farmers who have their kids helping. So kids like you and me are gonna be doing it for our parents and parents are the real farmers. And that's quite interesting. Like I said, lot of mediated culture is there. So again, it's not for all the farmers, but we are getting more and more farmers on board, thankfully, because we have started entering into each village and making entrepreneurs within those villages. Yeah, farmers are little tough personas if I consider because they're not tech savvy and when it comes to selling a mobile app to them, it's really tough. So when we design enterprise products, we look for wow factor. And how do we end up with that wow factor is like we bring fancy interactions and all and try to convince our customers. So when it came to farmers, what were your USPs when you were designing the UIs? Every day was amazing. It's been a year, actually little less than a year. Yeah, almost a year. And trust me, every day has been like, whoa, really? I have to give you an example. So one of the key things that I saw was when the app raised a call and in a few seconds, he got a person talking to him from AgroStar and we know which crop you're growing and where you are, what problem you had. That was seriously, you already know what crop I have. So it's amazing the way people didn't know that technology can do as little as this, right? And the fact that we are able to give them a bill because trust me, all these local retailers, all this while have not been like, it's not their fault and whatever. We're making it as simple as that. Or if we give them instructions on how to use it in his language with images, he's like, I don't need to go to someone else to ask, right? And the good thing is, as simple as Tarpaline, you know, Tarpatri, so there was always these cuts, I'm not talking about UX on mobile and all these, we are doing UX to that last point, that product that came to him and how does he use it and how long he needs to use it and all of that. So it used to get cut, right? And whenever I used to go to field visit, I'd be like, when did he buy it? So I will figure out when did he buy it? And then I'll see that, oh, it gets cut. There has to be some solution as in, can I help him to prolong its life? And therefore we figured out that in, with every Tarpaline sheet that we are sending to a farmer, we are giving him instructions on like, these are the five things how you can increase its life. And none of these, and it's not, it's nothing that I just, I just Googled it, frankly. And I made up proper this thing, which I chapified on top of it. And it goes with every Tarpaline that we sell. And isn't that amazing? Then the farmer calls back to agro stars, this thing that, oh, you sent this too, that's great. You send me five, I tell my friends to send them too. So we're like, yeah, next time that guy will come to you, he'll send it to you. The thing is that we started small. I know it's not so easy to scale it, but we are doing it. It's not impossible. We're already in four states. Looks like it's possible. Thank you. Yeah, just one small thing. But farmers are actually from different age groups. So when you were designing your UI, you kept home as the target. Okay, for this one is the one based on that. Maybe this is the simplest thing I'll do with. Awesome, very good question. And I have super challenges, right? So we have a lot of farmers who are above 65 and all, right? We keep it till around 47 years of age, six, 50 years of age. But also, trust me, there are older farmers who can be taught and they learn very fast. Like if I, the simplest thing I've done is make it easy to tell someone how to use it. Like, okay, select your crop, select your issue, select your product. It's as simple as that. I mean, it's not, I know it's not rocket science that I'm doing, but the point is that we restricted ourselves to younger farmers because we already knew that we have people like us who have someone in the family, like who the elder farmers always had someone in the family who is tech savvy, little bit. Like they have phones and it's not, like I told you, farmers one out of four farmers are using WhatsApp. They're conversing with us using those of just, they don't want to write, right? Because they don't know really to write. But they can send us pictures, they can send their own voice. There are lots of things out there to do for those set of people, but yes, we restricted ourselves. Because otherwise it was impossible to design for everybody.