Cattlemax
I chose to do a case study over Cattlemax's online program to create a more effective internet presence and functionality of the program for the users that increases brand recognition. Cattlemax is an online program used by cattle farmers/ranchers to help maintain the record keeping of raising cattle for profit. The creators and current site operators/support team are also cattle farmers.
The goal of the site is to provide a simple, organized record keeping option that is portable, secure, and multi-user friendly. The program started on a floppy disk, upgraded to a CD, then a downloadable program, and has finally settled into an online account system. Throughout the program updates, the creators took feedback from many of their users in making the program better. I am only going to look at the current version with a reference or two to changes that may not have been for the better. Overall, the site, design, and functionality are very simple and useful. There are a few changes that could improve the capabilities of the site for the "heavy users".
We will start with the beginning, the signup page. They keep the page layout and design very simple and easy to read. Since most of their users are forty to sixty year old farmers, functionality over glam is important. They do a great job with contrast, bringing your eyes to the items of most importance as you scroll through the page.
The real problem here is that you cannot log in from this page. When you creat an account, you are given a new domain to use for your login page. After you have created this account, you are redirected to a request page with each new device you log into. There you must input your email which sends a link to your new domain to the email associated with the account. Only by checking this email and following the link can you access your account. You are again required to log into your account from the new page. Separately, if you have been to the link on your device before, you are redirected to that domain to login, eliminating the email process for a recognized device. This can be very frustrating for the user. It creates three extra steps in the first login attempt, checking your email, and logging in again in the new domain.
This is what currently happens when logging in on a new device:
This is intended to be a safety feature, allowing the account user to ensure no one is trying to use the account. It would be more effecient, however, to allow every user to login from the company's home page, like a bank does. A user could memorize their new domain, much like they would memorize "cattlemax.com", but this also means that the site creators must create a new domain and essentially a new site for every new user. It also takes something away from the brand presence because the user no longer remembers "cattlemax.com", but now remembers their domain "companyname.cattlemax.com". This does take some value away from the idea of Cattlemax and brings in the memory of the individual's ranch/farm. It is a small change, but it causes some confusion and more work for the user by requiring an emailed link when logging in on an unrecognized device. The real solution would be a login allowance like nearly all social media sites and online banks. The email can still be sent to notify the user of the new device use to keep some of the security. The login button on the home page, "cattlemax.com", should proceed to the login for every account when the log in information is input, even on a new device. This can be changed in the HTML/CSS coding to allow the site to proceed as follows.
The next issue I came across was while inputting a health treatment, breeding or pregnancy check. When a group of cattle are vaccinated, it is rare to have the same batch of a vaccine used on the entire group. You may finish off a bottle, on some of the cattle and have to start a new bottle. A similar issue occurs with a breeding, using different bulls for the breedings, or a pregnancy check with cows at different stages in the pregnancy. When inputting the treatment to Cattlemax, you select the cattle numbers you need from a listed group, input the information including serial number, and click "create treatment". If not all of the cattle in the previous page were selected (they were given the same vaccine with a different serial number), there is no way to get back to that list page. The user is asked if they want to add another treatment to the current group, and if not, they are taken back to the home and forced to find the listed group again. If the user clicks the browser's "back arrow", it undoes the treatment that was just created. The problem also arises when changing something on an individual animal, like an Ear Tag number ( you can see in the lefrmost column of the listed group). The images below show the order of progression in screen views.
A previous version of the site had a "back to groups" button. This allowed the user to complete the treatment, and go back to the previous listed group. Replacing the "close" button from the last page in the sequence, or on the page of an individual animal would eliminate extra steps for the user, and make adding a treatment/measurement/breeding/etc. more efficient.
A third problem is the lack of treatment inventory, or vaccine inventory. Cattle are capable fo contracting a myriad of diseases that can be prevented by vaccines. The recording of these treatments was addressed above. To input a treatment on an animal, you must know the amount of medication, route, time it takes for the medicine to withdraw and need booster, as well as the serial number, expiration date, and manufacturer. These are all pieces of information that will be requested if a farmer is ever audited. The easiest way to maintain and access this information is to keep an inventory. The program has an inventory for semen, but not for vaccines.
A very similar model, if not an exact replica of the table used for semen inventory, could easily be implemented to inventory vaccines. A simple table that keeps track of mL instead of a whole number units, along with the previously mentioned attributes to a vaccine woul dbe very easily managed. A category for the vaccine name, with a subcategory for the serial number. All other information would be subsequent to the serial subcategory.
Another issue comes in when adding a breeding. To prevent inbreeding, you must keep record of every sire and dam combination. You can also use this to select certain phenotypes desired in the offspring. Cattlemax keeps record of your semen tanks, the semen in them, as well as your breeding records for your cows. The CD version of the program would remove a semen straw from the take inventory as you input a breeding with the selected bull. The newest online version does not automatically do this for you and requires the user to make a secondary step to delete the used semen from the inventory. The solution would be to add this feature back into the program. This could be achieved by linking the bull in the breeding sheet with the bull in the semen thank. When breedings are added for the cows, it would delete the semen from the tank. This would simplify the inventory process for the user.
The final problem I have found in usability of the program is on the reports page. On the page there is a section labeled "$ Financial" in the bottom right corner of the page. The list is rather short in regards to all financial elements involved in raising cattle. In addition to the image below, there are vaccines, vet bills, AI services, feed, hay production/sales, hay purchases, and pasture fertilizer. That doesn't include any equipment that is used, repaired, or depreciated in raising cattle. Pickup trucks, ATV's, trailers, tractors, and fences to name a few.
While this would add a lot of data input to the program, the financial section is not fully utilized if a farmer is required to use an alternative program for the remaining financial elements. Adding a financial table, similar to what you could find in QuickBooks would greatly increase the usability of the financial reports feature. Quickbooks probably has more features that are needed in this case, but the idea of being able to manage a chart of accounts without having to create and input each change yourself is a necessity in any business for profit. Implementing this change would greatly increase the brand presence and usability of the program for farmers. They would no longer have to use an alternative program for financial control while using Cattlemax for all other record keeping. This would potentially require writing another program, but it could double the Cattlemax brand presence on the web.
As there are not currently any other online programs available, there isn't much to which a user could compare this company site. The creators of this program actually address this issue in their "Why Cattlemax" page. The alternative options to this program for a farmer trying to keep records on their cattle herd are: a paper notebook, spreadsheets similar to Office Excell, and the computer program versions similar to the older versions of Cattlemax. They are the only online option for cattle record keeping. This alone helps the online brand presence.
After a few small changes, the program could expand its functionality. The most useful change would be adding more to the financial aspect of the program. This would allow major expansion and usability where farmers are currently having to go to other programs. All other changes are minor in comparison and would only provide minor improvements. Overall, the page is very clean, well designed, and very easy to use. The site is responsive to multiple devices. This allowed for the elimination of their app and better usage on a table or phone, which could be used on location and would not require alternative access at a later time. The program functions well, and has certainly come a long way even when looking only at the previous online version on the archive.com. They have definitely created a functional interface.