Mobile app · redesign · visual identity
Screens are a 2026 redesign of my original 2023 designs, rebuilt in Figma. Names, farms and numbers in the screens are sample data.
The 2023 app covered the right tasks, but it was hard to read, spent a fifth of each screen on a header, and never told workers what to do first.
Audited my own 2023 files, gave each brand colour a job, and rebuilt the app around one next step, a scan button and large number entry.
24 screens, a component library and a clickable prototype of a full shift. It has not been tested with workers yet.
The problem
Vertical Field grows herbs and leafy greens on vertical farms. Its operators use an internal app to log the day: opening checks, harvesting, planting, sowing, packing, waste and service calls. I designed that app's interface in 2023. Three years later I went back to it.
The 2023 app modelled the work well. It just didn't help anyone move through it.
The task structure was sound and stays: daily tasks by action, then by farm, then by crop. What got in the way was the surface on top of it.
I'm assuming operators use the app standing up, often in gloves, under coloured grow lights. Hypothesis I haven't observed a shift, so the redesign treats this as a working assumption.
Audit
There was no research budget for a self-initiated redesign, so I started with what I could measure: the original design files.
artboards in the 2023 prototype file, read one by one to map every screen and link
of the screen height taken by the curved header, on every screen
contrast of white text on the 2023 header green. WCAG AA asks for 4.5 : 1
screens that tell the worker which task to start with
The core idea
One next step.A worker in the middle of a shift shouldn't have to navigate. Every screen should answer "what do I do now?"
Process
The project began in 2023 with a design task: two wireframes from the client, to be turned into UI that follows the brand guidelines. The redesign in 2026 started from those same files.
Client wireframes, four versions of the daily tasks screen, then the full app in Adobe XD.
Every artboard and prototype link in the XD files, plus the brand guidelines.
Colour, type, shape and icons, turned into variables and styles.
Buttons, task cards, crop rows and a tab bar, then 24 screens built from them.
A full shift, from log in to shift closed, clickable in Figma.
Evolution
From a list of equal rows to a screen that picks the next task for you.
Swipe →
From a list you tick off to a list you type into.
Swipe →
Design direction
Vertical Field's guidelines already had what the app needed: five colours, two typefaces and a distinctive logo. The logo and the brand green stay. Everything else gets a job.
#0B3A2C for text, dark surfaces and the main buttons#21B893 as a surface for primary actions, never as small text#F6F2EA background, borrowed from the brand's kraft packaging#7665A0#FFD141#21B893#60D1E0#A85D61#C9A66B, addedThe five brand colours become a task code. Each task type owns one colour across cards, tags and progress.
The logo mark is a circle with one pointed tail. Cards, tiles and the Scan button borrow it: three round corners and one sharp one. It flips to the other side in Hebrew.
Ubuntu, from the guidelines, for titles. Heebo for body text, labels and numbers, because it covers both Latin and Hebrew. The script typeface stays out of the app.
34 icons on a 24px grid with a 2px stroke. They replace the detailed line illustrations from 2023, which lost their detail at 24–32px.
I checked each text colour against the background it sits on. All pairs used for text pass WCAG AA (4.5 : 1).
The check also caught two of my own choices: a tertiary grey and a warning red that failed. I darkened both before writing this.
| Pair | Use | Contrast | AA text |
|---|---|---|---|
| AaCanopy on Kraft | Titles, amounts | 11.4 : 1 | Pass |
| AaInk 600 on Kraft | Secondary text | 6.2 : 1 | Pass |
| AaInk 400 on Kraft | Small labels | 4.6 : 1 | Pass |
| AaWhite on Canopy | Dark cards, buttons | 12.7 : 1 | Pass |
| AaCanopy on Real Green | Primary button | 5.0 : 1 | Pass |
| AaCanopy on Real Joy | Harvest tag | 8.7 : 1 | Pass |
| AaWhite on Real Soil | Waste tag | 4.8 : 1 | Pass |
| AaWhite on Real Green | Not used | 2.5 : 1 | Not for text |
The app
24 screens cover the same work as the 2023 app. These are the moments that changed most. Click any screen to see it full size.
Start
Operators tap their name and enter a PIN instead of scrolling two dropdowns. The Today screen opens on a "Next up" card with a due time and a single button; the rest of the day sits below as colour-coded tasks.
Harvest
Amounts are entered on a number pad that slides up over the farm screen, with ±1 and ±10 nudges and a "Hit target" shortcut. Totals update as soon as an amount is confirmed, and an amount below target is flagged in place.
Scan, plant, sow
Scan sits in the middle of the tab bar. Scanning a tray opens the right task with crop and destination filled in. When several trays are needed, a three-slot tracker shows what is still missing.
When something is off
If fewer plants go in than planned, the app asks why and says what happens to the rest. Service calls show who is waiting on whom, and a call reads as a conversation with one primary action: close it.
Pack and close
Packing lists become checklists you weigh into, sorted by when the truck leaves. The closing check mirrors the morning one, and finishing it closes the shift with a summary of the day.
Hebrew
The Today screen has a full right-to-left version: layout, progress bars and arrows are mirrored, the leaf corner flips, and the logo watermark stays as it is. The log in screen also proposes a language switch for mixed crews. Proposal
Key decisions
The three-arrow bar came with the client's wireframe and I kept it in 2023. It moves through history, not through the app.
The 2023 app used green for nearly everything. Giving each task type one brand colour lets the day be read from across the screen.
In 2023 the amount screen replaced the list. In a sheet, the farm stays visible behind it and the worker never loses their place.
Waste was a separate area on the home screen. Now the crop that came in short opens the report with crop and farm already filled in.
Outcome and reflection
This redesign is a design proposal. It is built and clickable, and it has not been in front of a worker yet.
screens, rebuilt from the 2023 artboards
prototype links covering a full shift, from log in to shift closed
icons, plus buttons, task cards, crop rows and a tab bar as components
reading directions: English and a mirrored Hebrew screen
The brand already had the colours. They just needed a job.
Brand colours, typefaces and logo: Vertical Field brand guidelines v2, January 2021. Contrast ratios calculated with the WCAG 2 formula.