Overview.

A collaboration between researches from the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre and machine learning specialists from the School of Computing and Mathematics at Charles Sturt University (CSU), successfully created a prototype powered by AI, which analyses vine nutritional disorders using visual symptoms.

“An Artificial Intelligence powered smartphone app will give growers accurate, immediate and affordable diagnosis on the cause of various grapevine disorders.”

-Dr Suzy Rogiers, Project Leader

Assessing user pain-points.

What we heard from grape growers across NSW:

“Petiole tests are costly- I don’t want to do it unless I have to.”

“The cost goes through the roof when you bring in a consultant or agronomist to review the report.”

“I want to be able to target nutrition to a specific vine- not apply it to the whole block.”

“The time required to get results back from the lab means you may have missed an opportunity to correct it.”

Seed funding.

The opportunity to create such a sought-after app was possible thanks to a round of seed funding from Wine Australia; a research development corporation. 

This initial round of investment allowed the team to develop a fully functioning prototype, which included version 1 of the user interface.

So, where does design come in?

Over the last 4 years I worked as a lab technician at the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre under the supervision of Dr Rogiers. Therefore, I was able to be involved with the project from its earliest stage in 2018. From taking over 1,000 photos of varying leaf symptoms for the AI system, to sitting in on usability testing sessions in the vineyards, I was able to gain a thorough understanding of the application’s goals, strengths and weaknesses.

However, as a designer, and someone who acknowledged the importance of UX and UI, I couldn’t help but notice the potential of the app from a more creative perspective.

During my spare time, I decided to create a coherent set of icons for the interface, and design an official logo and name for the brand. These were passed onto the developers for version 2 of the user interface.

Commercialisation.

Team leader Dr Suzy Rogiers, a Principle Research Scientist in Plant Physiology, later pitched the idea to The Gate; an incubation and acceleration program run by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) for ag-tech ideas. Version 2 was used for the presentation, and in a number of articles about the new prototype.

Upon successful entry into The Gate, the app is now in its final stages of commercialisation.

Though version 2 appeared more refined, I knew it needed a complete make-over, and with a number of investment meetings for VitiDoc fast approaching, I decided to start working on version 3.

Starting from scratch allowed me to envision a prototype that would carry out all of the same functions as version 1, yet integrate additional options for the growers to make it more engaging and user -friendly. Combing features that the users mentioned following the first round of usability testing was also a priority.  

Objectives:

• Intuitive interface

• Interactive and engaging

• A sense of brand identity

• Cohesive graphics

A success.

VitiDoc was pitched to a number of international investors early last month, and gained a huge interest from all parties.

Last week, two competing companies presented their business case and vision of how they hope to commercialise the app to the VitiDoc team and Australian investor parties, such as CSU, DPI, and Wine Australia.

Upon a successful decision, VitiDoc will now be partnering with another agritech startup, to develop the technology and service for a global audience.