Participatory Design Process of a Supportive Digital Platform to Enhance Local Urban Food Systems

Digital tools have emerged as one promising strategy for supporting local food systems and strengthening access to food. However, top-down approaches often encounter resistance or low uptake of digital platforms among underserved users because of limited digital literacy, mistrust, or misalignment with on-the-ground realities. We employed a four-phased participatory design process for AgriShare NYC, a digital platform that documents diverse forms of food production across New York city. Through in-depth interviews with 17 growers and three participatory design workshops (n = 21), and the development of design criteria, growers’ priorities, capacities, and concerns shaped the platform’s evolution. Growers’ capacity to monitor data was constrained by labor, time, digital literacy, and organizational structure. Simplicity was a guiding principle for the design of this digital platform for urban growers. Thus, the participatory design shifted the purpose of the digital platform from a production-focused data repository towards a connectivity, mutual aid, and advocacy-oriented platform designed to strengthen grower-to-grower connections, meet tangible needs, and make structural gaps visible.