<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Vierbeiner
Veterinary clinic app to help people to easier schedule an appointment to a veterinarian
<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Project description
Project duration:
Project done over 12 weeks
April 2022- Juni 2022
My role:
On this project i was working as
UX designer, UX researcher, UX writer
Responsibilities:
User research
Interviews and Competitive analysis
Wireframing
UI design
Prototyping
User Testing
About project
Around 1.39 million households in Austria have pets, 22% of Austrians own a cat, 13% have dogs, 5% have reptiles and fish (statista.at). For all petparents their “babies” are precious and they want to provide them with the best and it has become much easier with technology being at their disposal.
These days more people are doing searches on smartphones and tablets than desktops and laptops. Users have apps on their phones for a variety of things and a app of a veterinary clinic can be a valuable tool that can help its clients to make appointments, check on clinic hours, get emergency instructions, find information, store a pet’s medical information, refill prescriptions and more. It can also help the clinic to promote itself.
The problem
When choosing a veterinarian, people face various difficulties. Trying to find a right vet pet owners need to browse multiple websites, to google reviews and to look for services that concern their choices.
Currently in Austria there are no apps that provide veterinarian services such as scheduling an appointment to a veterinarian online without calling the clinic.
The goal
To create a service that helps to find a needed veterinarian and get an appointment to easily knowing before ahead approximately how much it will cost.
Competitive analysis
The first thing I focused on was user research.
I started from competitive analysis to see where my competitors were currently successful and what can be improved and to understand how my App could be better.
I identified 5 direct and indirect competitors to reveal their strengths and weaknesses in relation to my product
PetStory
The app offers live online vet consultations and Wellness plan subscriptions
Bond
A chain of walk-in veterinary offices that provides urgent care for cats and dogs
Domvet
Mobile application for calling a veterinarian or caregiver at home
Dogorama
Facebook for pets, emergency consultation
SmartMed
Indirect competitor. Online consultation with doctor 24/7, home call
Interview
After conducting competitive analysis I interviewed target audience in order to empathize with the users, find out about their habits and motivation and also get a deep understanding of their needs, feelings, behaviours and thoughts.
Participants
I interviewed 7 participants:
5 females and 2 males between the ages of 30 and 50.
6 people are not German native speakers.
5 participants are dog owners
1 participant is a cat owner
1 participant is exotic animals owner
4 participants with full-time jobs
1 participant does not work
2 participants are freelancers and have a flexible schedule.
all pets owners visit veterinary clinics more than once a year.
Methodology
Location: Vienna, Austria, remote (2 participants were interviewed via Zoom )
Date: Sessions will take place April 15- 21
Length: Each session will last 20 to 35 minutes, based on a list of questions
Pain points
After analyzing the user interviews, were exposed the key pain points faced by the users.
Trust
Participants can’t trust their “babies” to a random veterinarian
“My dog had an operation to remove a tooth under general anesthesia, during the operation the doctor realized that it was necessary to remove 2 more teeth. But she did not do it right away, and informed me only after the operation. Now my dog needs another anesthetic for the extraction of teeth, although everything could be done in one go”
Participant M
Money
Participants don’t like to pay more than they expected
“My dog needs anti-allergic injections 2 times a year and I already know how much one injection costs. But once the doctor did not have the required dosage and he used a larger syringe, for which I had to pay an extra 40 euros.”
Participant E
Time
Participants need to spend a lot of time to google specialists they need and then to schedule a visit to in appropriate time
“Before I make an appointment with a veterinarian, I google reviews about doctor on all possible pet forums, then I go to Facebook and look for reviews about him in groups there.”
Participant K
User personas
By on the data that were obtained from research, were drawn up 2 user personas that reflect the app’s users I am going to design for
User jorney map
I created a scenario where the user has goals and expectations in using veterinary applications and this user journey map helps to understand how users are thinking, feeling, seeing, hearing, and doing. And how to make it easier for users to achieve their goals and how this opportunities could be developed in the designing phase further.
Scenario
Rita is from Serbia and lives in Vienna for 5 years. She is not fluent in German, and wants to get consultation either in English or in Serbish.
She is an owner of 2 adopted dogs. They are 7 and 12 y.o. The old one has a problem with teeth and now needs teeth implants and she would consult a specialized vet dentist about how difficult it is and how much it costs in Austria. She wants to have the opportunity to make an appointment with a vet whom she could trust wholeheartedly, to see reviews about veterinarians and to know the price (at least approximately) before a visit.
Working from the persona insights and the pain points highlighted in the user journey I came up with a problem statement
Problem statement
Rita is a non-german speaking owner of 2 dogs that lives in Vienna, Austria and needs opportunity easier to contact veterinarian because her dogs need special treatment
User flow
By creating the user flow, I visualized how the user would navigate through the app to reach their goal. It helped make a clear way for the user to achieve its goal without much effort.
User flow was made in Miro.
Digital wireframes
After creating sketches, gathering multiple insights, and prioritizing ideas together, I started doing the low-fidelity wireframes on Figma
Clean design with good readable elements helps users to have a clear path to achieve their customer’s task
Usability studies
In the next stage, I did usability testing to find out if the main user experience, finding and scheduling an appointment to veterinarian, is easy for users to complete. I’d like also understand the specific challenges that users might face in the searching, scheduling, and reservation processes.
I conducted usability tests with 5 users.
Research goals: Determine if users can complete core tasks within the prototype of the veterinary clinic app. Determine if the app is difficult to use.
Research questions
- How long does it take a user to find and schedule an appointment to veterinarian in the app?
- What can we learn from the user flow, or the steps that users take, to schedule an appointment to veterinarian?
- Are there parts of the user flow where users get stuck?
- Are there more features that users would like to see included in the app?
- Do users think the app is easy or difficult to use?
Participants
Participants are all pets owners with full-time jobs and who visit veterinary clinics more than once a year.
Three males, two females, between the ages of 30 and 50. 4 people are not German native speakers.
One participant is a person with a reading disorder.
Methodology
Location: Vienna, Austria, remote (each participant will complete the study in their own home)
Date: Sessions will take place on May 27 (normal business hours) and May 28 (Saturday)
Length: Each session will last 5 to 10 minutes, based on a list of prompts
Research insights
Then I identified design problems based on users’ feedback
Notifications
Users need broad notifications settings, so notifications can remind users about important things.
3 out of 5 participants asked about notifications, because they help them to keep an eye on important matters like immunisations and appointments to the doctor.
Credible
Users need filters that help to find preferable information in the app
2 out of 5 participants asked if they could choose a preferable veterinarian to schedule an appointment to.
User-friendly
Users need lightweight screens, that can increase the chance of successfully completing a mission
2 out of 5 participants were confused by the amount of fields when they were adding a new pet.
After evaluating the user’s feedback, I came up with follow recommendations. And then I modified the low fidelity wireframes according to recommendations.
Recommendations
to broaden notifications settings, in this way notifications can remind users about important things.
to add filters that help users and to increase a doctor’s profile and to add feature Leave feedback after visiting.
to divide information that is needed to fill, and transfer part to other screens.
Style guide
Before designing Hi-fi wireframes I created the application style guide that consist of colour palette, typeface, style and icon set.
Onboarding process
I created simple, and minimal onboarding, the user will not be bored and proceed easier
Main screen
The primary goal is to attract users to schedule a visit to veterinarian on this screen. I highlighted block “Scheduling visit to veterinarian” and made it the main part of the screen.
To avoid crowding this screen, I created sliders with boxes (above and below).
Also, showing the user’s name made this screen more personalized.
Choosing a specialist
For pet parents it is very important to entrust their pets to professionals. In the App users can choose a veterinarian based on specific needs or reviews.
Review about specialist can leave only registered users that scheduled an appointment through the app and visited the specialist.
Keeping records about pets
Users can keep medical records such as immunisation dates etc. in their pet profiles. It helps to keep an eye on important matters.
Users also can set notifications to be informed about upcoming vaccinations and appointments
High-fidelity prototype
I made a prototype consisting of several frames and there are tasks that users can do such as scheduling visit to veterinarian, reading reviews, looking for doctors/clinics in an area and using filters, adding pets, creating profile and others.
What I learned
- User Research is more about getting to know users than testing designs
- Set a deadline
- Do not blindly chase perfection
- Be open to criticism and be open to being wrong
- Working fully through the project taught me the importance trying to think intentionally about every element of the project and how it can contribute to the end result
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