Stakeholder Participatory Design and Development of an Agri-Infotech Portal

Abstract

The Agri-Infotech Portal (www.celkau.in), developed by Centre for e-learning
of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) is an ICT enabled bi-lingual platform
for demand-driven technology information and advisory services in the agrifront,
covering agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and allied aspects. It
also acts as a platform for online course management in agriculture. As on
August 2016, the portal had nearly 16 lakh hits within four years, which show
a geometric progression. Besides, the portal won two international awards,
one national award and the Kerala Government’s e-governance award. This
paper analyses the methodology followed for designing and developing this
high-end utility web portal. To accomplish this, a basic research mode work
on user-centred design, testing, refining and launching of the portal was
adopted, as it would match the priorities of its end-users. The utility was
ensured by testing and fine-tuning from its designing stage itself. Creating a
working model (prototype) before developing the actual portal was the first
stage. To generate content, the information needs of the users were identified
and prioritized through questionnaires, brainstorming sessions, and focus
group discussions. Interpretations based on the priorities, suggestions from
the users, and desktop analyses of various similar portals across the world, led
to designing of the first prototype. This prototype was subjected to a process of
criteria/trait based evaluation by the end-users for further refinement leading
to the second prototype. This second prototype was demonstrated before
various categories of end-users and stake holders for final fine-tuning.