coffee&climate Toolbox
coffee&climate toolbox Webapp
Overview
The coffee & climate toolbox is an interactive web app on climate-smart coffee cultivation for smallholder coffee farmers, trainers and experts worldwide.
Client
Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS)
Project Type
Webapp
What we did
Creative Concept,
User Experience,
User Interface Design,
Development
Awards
Red Dot Award 2025,
iF Design Award 2025
“It's crucial to equip farmers with the necessary knowledge and tools to adapt and thrive in the face of climate challenges.”
Problem Statement
In many rural regions heavily dependent on coffee farming, the effects of climate change, such as prolonged droughts and unpredictable harvests, are severely impacting agriculture. This has led to rising food insecurity and a growing migration trend, as young people abandon farming. The long-term sustainability of coffee production is at risk, and while farmers are willing to adapt, they often lack the necessary resources and knowledge to do so.
To ensure a sustainable future for farmers and the coffee sector, a fundamental transformation in farm management is essential. This requires adopting innovative practices that boost resilience to climate change, enhance resource efficiency, and support sustainable livelihoods. It also means shifting towards diversification and improving food security. Beyond just modernizing agricultural techniques, it's crucial to equip farmers with the necessary knowledge and tools to adapt and thrive in the face of these challenges.
A climate smart web app
The coffee & climate toolbox is an interactive web app designed to provide climate-smart coffee cultivation practices for smallholder coffee farmers, trainers, and experts worldwide.
The toolbox is openly accessible from anywhere in the world, on any device, with an offline mode included for areas with limited connectivity. Developed in collaboration with farmers, technicians, and some of the world’s leading climate experts, it ensures practical and effective solutions for real-world challenges. The app consolidates more than 25 adaptation and mitigation practices, which are constantly reviewed and updated to reflect the latest in sustainable farming. Additionally, regionally optimized tools and content in various languages provide tailored guidance for smallholder farming families, ensuring relevance and accessibility across different regions.
Design decisions
The design concept draws inspiration from the natural world of coffee cultivation, creating a visual experience that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional. The font chosen is versatile, with a clean and even appearance that ensures readability across different platforms. Its simplicity enhances the overall user experience by making information easily accessible to a broad audience.
The color palette takes cues from the rich, earthy tones of the coffee-growing landscape. These colors are not only visually appealing but also highly practical. With their strong contrast, the hues are designed to remain vibrant and clear even under direct sunlight, ensuring that text and other elements are easy to read in outdoor settings, when in field.
In addition to typography and color, the use of shapes plays a crucial role in the design. Rounded corners and "squirkle" shapes mimic the rolling hills of coffee plantations, bringing a sense of warmth and friendliness to the overall visual language. These soft, flowing forms seamlessly integrate with the illustrative elements, giving the design a cohesive, approachable feel that resonates with the natural beauty of coffee farming. The result is a design that not only reflects the essence of the coffee industry but also invites users into an engaging and pleasant visual experience.
Language and local versions
Coffee is grown in many areas of the world. Coffee and climate is active in almost all coffee-growing regions of the world in order to promote climate-resilient agriculture for the smallholders there. A decisive factor for the acceptance of tools and information is accessibility by the population. It is essential to provide all information in the native language of the farming families.
With the help of artificial intelligence and the support of local expert teams, the c&c Toolbox can be made available in almost all languages spoken in the world's most important coffee-growing regions. In addition to the languages, the instructions themselves often differ from region to region. For example, water management is practised very differently in Brazil than in Ethiopia.
The c&c Toolbox offers regionally adapted versions of the tools that are perfectly tailored to the needs of the smallholder family in the respective coffee-growing region. Together with language independent animated how-to films and a social function for sharing best practices within the farming community, the digital c&c Toolbox provides the best possible support for farmers to shape the future of their business in a climate-resilient way.
tool structure
The tools within the c&c Toolbox are detailed descriptions and instructions for the cultivation, growing and care of coffee plants, supplemented by soil, preparation, shading and water supply.
Efficient and cost-effective practices forfertilising and processing coffee plants are also presented. The focus of all tools is on preparing one's own business for the effects of climate change. Farmers are also introduced to the implementation of their own climate and environmentally friendly practices. The tools themselves are structured in an intuitive digital interface in various sections such as introduction, animations, video and a to-dochecklist divided into several steps, which is perfectly optimised for large screens such as PCs and tablets as well as for cheap and rugged smartphones.
Easy readability, clear steps and consistent operation should make it possible to use the toolbox as an aid directly in the field.
Illustrations
a universally accepted language for important information
Instructions for climate-resilient coffee cultivation vary greatly from continent to continent. But there can also be differences in the techniques and culture of small holder families between nearby coffee growing regions. As a universal and inclusive form of presentation, a special, coloured illustration style was developed within the c&c Toolbox, which is not only used in the chapter graphics, but also serves as the basis for all animated how-to films inside the Toolbox. This makes it possible to quickly make new practices available in the toolbox without having to organise a photo shoot on site at a farm. It also removes the focus from possible cultural differences or reservations.
An extensive icon set drawn especially for this purpose can provide important agricultural information, even if the user cannot read all the technical terms in the tool. The design has been optimised for particularly good legibility in small sizes and dispenses with abstract visual metaphors and instead uses visually simplified, real objects from the everyday life of small holders, such as coffee cherries, shovels or thermometers.