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pet vet case study

THE PROJECT

The problem:

​Pet owners need to call their vets for an appointment. Most of the time, they leave a message then get a call back with the vets’ availabilities which makes it a long process. They are confronted to the vets’ fees only once the appointment is done.

The goal:

Offer a simple booking experience for pet owners which also provides an overview of vet fees while giving vets more information on their patients.

The product:

Pet owners want an easy way to book appointments with their vet, find a new vet and get answers to common questions. Vets need pet owners to provide info about their pet. My design is based on the needs of both to offer a quick complete booking experience.

Responsibilities:

UX Research Interviews

Paper and digital wireframes

Low Fidelity prototype

High Fidelity prototype

Testing & Usability Study

Iterating designs & responsive design

Project duration:

July 15th to August 4th, 2021

My role:

For this project, my role was to complete all steps of the design thinking process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype & Test. However, I’m a team player and I’m eager to collaborate with others!

User research

For this project, I conducted interviews which targeted pet owners who visit the vet at least once a year. I wanted to understand the process of booking an appointment, pain points and how to better their experience. I prepared empathy maps and documented the user journey. I found out that booking vet appointments is very old fashioned and includes a lot of back and forth. I also found out that pet owners are always scared of the price of the visit as they have no idea what they will pay.

User research: pain points

Old-fashioned booking process

Pet owners find the process of booking an appointment long and complicated.

Weekend appointments cost a fortune

Pet owners are scared their pet will become ill on the weekend as emergency clinics cost a lot more.

Fearful of vet' prices

Pet owners are wary of the price they will pay as they are only informed when the appointment is complete.

Pet owners are not always tech-savvy

Pet owners that are not tech-savvy think online booking would be complicated.

Personas

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User Journey

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The process of booking an appointment with a vet is long and pet owners don’t know how much they will spend. We need to simplify the journey and make it more predictable.

sitemap

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Based on my competitive report, most vet websites include a virtual vet feature and a book an appointment section. I have added two sections to offer more flexibility: Find a vet which enables users to find a vet within their budget and Renew meds to avoid unnecessary calls.

PAPERWIREFRAMES
desktop screen

For the home screen, I started by brainstorming my paper wireframes then used my favorite features to bring them into one screen. Originally, the sections where listed one under the other and there was no navigation bar. Then I drew all the other wireframes for each screen.

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Paper wireframe
mobile screen 

For the mobile version, I decided to list the sections one below another to fill the screen and offer more scannable content. I’m going to have to reflect on the design to see how to keep accessibility in focus.

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DIGITAL WIREFRAMES
desktop screen

My goal is to make it easy for pet owners to book their appointments and choose vets within their budget. My website design is simple to reduce cognitive load and help users achieve their tasks quickly. I repeated the same words and different entry points to help users find what they need.

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DIGITAL WIREFRAMES
mobile screen

When creating my digital wireframes, I focused on designing a simple UI to help users get their tasks done quickly. I tried to keep tasks light and reduce the cognitive burden.

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Low-fidelity prototypes

I connected all the screens together and after receiving feedback from my colleagues, I added connections from the logo to the homepage.

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usability study

Parameters

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Usability study findings

Home screen is overwhelming 

Users found the home screen overwhelming and repetitive.​

Journey needs to begin with sign in & profile

Most users wanted to sign in and create a profile at the beginning of their journey.​

Lack of guidance and confusing navigation

Some users are confused by navigation and don’t know where to start.

Affinity Diagram

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Refining Mockups post-usability study

To address the feedback of users about the home screen being repetitive and overwhelming as well as the fact that users don’t know where to start, I added text to guide the user towards a user flow that is adapted for his journey. I also removed the top navigation bar which was just repeating what was below.

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Because users wondered how to login and create a profile, I added a few screens that lead to the homepage. These screens are meant to capture the profile information which will later populate forms when booking appointments so the user saves time by entering the info only once.

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Mockups screens (Desktop)

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Mockups screens (Mobile)

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high-fidelity prototype

When connecting all the screens, I added the switch to mobile view for mobile users. I also realized I had 2 booking confirmation screens so I removed one and linked both booking screens to the one left.

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accessibility & key takeaways

Accessibility

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  • To offer accessibility for assistive technologies, I have applied the Gestalt principle of hierarchy throughout all my screens. All my headers are above images and in a larger font size.

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  • ​I chose high contrast between the text color and background to enable users with color vision deficiency to navigate the website easily.

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  • I used landmarks & iconography to enable users to navigate without reading everything.

Key Takeaways

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Impact

My design aims to simplify booking pets’ appointments. I hope that it will help veterinarians and their clients save time and book more efficiently while responding to their budget concerns.

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What I learned

Sometimes less is more and sometimes more is necessary. My low-fidelity prototype was built with not enough words to really get the user where he needed to go. Basically, trying to be too lean made the user flow not functional and confusing. I have learned that moderation is better than less or more!

next steps

First, I would suggest conducting a second usability study to see if all user concerns are addressed and if they are able to easily complete their tasks.

I would propose a design review with the stakeholders to see if the design needs more corrections and if there are extra features they would like added.

Case study deck

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