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Pet Medical App

Challenge:  Knowing if a pet's health issues are critical can be difficult without access to a veterinarian, meaning hard-to-come-by appointments may not even be necessary. Furthermore, hard-to-access records create other obstacles, e.g. uninformed owners and transferring veterinarians. 

My role:  UX Researcher/Designer

The Team:  1 UX Researcher/Designer, 1 Mentor

The Timeline:  3 months (with 2 weeks of research)

Overview

The problem:  Pet owners lack guidance about when a situation rises to a critical level with their pet. Owners also have trouble tracking their pet's medical records (e.g., medicines), especially when owners have multiple pets. 

The solution:  Provide pet owners with a quick connection to the vet, specifically for assessment about whether an in-person appointment is needed. Allow vets to collaborate with owners by sharing medical records for access at any time.

User Pain Points

  • Difficult to know if an appointment was needed

  • No easy way to contact the vet

  • Wanted multiple types of communication channels

  • Tracking/updating a pet's records is time-consuming

  • Pet security was not self-driven and immediate

  • Desired billing and payments to be electronic*

*Due to the number of results and time constraints, the last one was discarded for

the first iteration.

Solution Values

  • Provide quick and easy access to the vet

  • Supplement connecting with the vet with regular appointment scheduling

  • Supply and maintain vet's information about owner's pets

  • Support real-time location tracking for emergency situations**

**Assumption:  Pet is chipped.

Design Process

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My Role

Researched challenges pet owners face when caring for their pet(s). Defined the problem space and requirements for the application. Developed scenarios of the two primary features. Created high-fidelity prototype of the app and its main features. Conducted usability tests and forged recommendations for future iterations based on the testing. 

Deliverables included:

  • Problem Space Definition

  • Field Research

  • Requirements Establishment

  • Review of Similar Apps (informal)

  • Scenarios (of Primary Features)

  • Hi-fi Prototype

  • Usability Testing

  • Recommendations for Future Iterations

Problem Space

  • Platform

    • Secure, mobile app

  • Users

    • Pet owners​​

      • With internet connection​

      • With smartphone

    • Usually primary caretaker of pet

Research

Interviews

Question Topics:

  • Familiarity with medical apps

    • Human​

    • Pet

  • Preferred collaboration method​

  • Other struggles with owning a pet

  • Desired features in a medical app for pets/pet owners

Requirements

  • Many ways to contact the vet

  • Appointment scheduling

  • Medical record/profile

  • Medication Information

  • GPS/tracking (for chipped pets)

  • Billing/payments information*

Scenarios

Scenario/Sketch 1

This scenario depicts how the application will function, specifically when connecting with the veterinarian via audio/video call about scheduling a physical appointment. The setting is a Thursday evening at a dog park in a medium-sized Indiana town where Mary takes her dog, Fisher.

Mary is a married female in her early fifties who is the primary caretaker to the pet(s) in terms of both veterinarian visits and finances. She and her husband are the only two people in the household now that their three children are grown. While at the dog park, Fisher started limping after he landed wrong on his back leg.

Sketch 1 - Video Call.jpg

Scenario: 

Mary sees Fisher fall as he jumps down from the seesaw. He lets out a whine when he lands and then starts limping away. Mary runs over to Fisher after he continues to limp around. She tries to look at his back leg, but he whines when she first touches it. He also growls and acts like he wants to bite her when she tries again to look at his injury. Mary steps away and opens her Pet Medical application on her smartphone to find out whether Fisher’s leg needs examined immediately.

Action:  Mary opens the Pet Medical app on her smartphone and navigates to the “Vet Connection” page by tapping the on-screen button. Once there, she has the option to email, instant message, or audio/video call Fisher’s registered veterinarian. Mary taps the audio/video call option, which prompts her to enter information about why she would like to chat with the vet. A few minutes later, she receives a call (through the app) from the vet and answers it. Mary explains in detail what happened to Fisher and shows the vet his leg. The vet recommends she bring Fisher into the office now for further examination as he thinks it could be broken.

Scenario/Sketch 2

This scenario addresses how the application will function when finding a lost pet. The setting is Josh and his wife’s home in a relatively small Indiana town early one Saturday morning.

Josh is a married male in his late twenties; he and his wife have two children. He acts as a secondary caretaker to the pet(s) in terms of veterinarian visits but the primary financial caretaker of the pets. One of his dogs ran away after squeezing through a hole in the fence the night before.

Sketch 2 - GPS Tracking.jpg

Scenario: 

Josh wakes up to find the family’s dog Bolt missing due to a hole in their backyard fence. After checking to make sure all the other dogs are accounted for, he pulls out his smartphone and opens his pets’ medical application, Pet Medical. The family had Bolt RFID-chipped last December, so Josh navigates to the GPS tracker within the application. He has already connected to Bolt’s RFID chip, and he finds Bolt is in the neighborhood a couple blocks away.

Action:  Josh opens his Pet Medical app, and he navigates to the GPS tracker map with a tap. Once on the map screen, he has the option to send a signal in order to find the RFID chip’s location. Josh also can choose which RFID chip he wants to send a signal out for. After tapping the on-screen “send a signal” button, he waits a few minutes for the signal to return the location of Bolt. The map then shows the location of his two dogs still at home as well as Bolt, who is thankfully in the neighborhood. The family finds Bolt hiding under a neighbor’s deck two blocks away, escaping the pouring rain that started as they were driving to the location shown on the app.

Prototype

See full prototype.

Pet Medical Application - Tracker.png

Tracker Feature

Pet Medical Application - VetConnect.png

VetConnect Feature

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Add Pet

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Home

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Account

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Appointments

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Scheduling

User Testing

Test Tasks

Quick-and-dirty method:

  1. Track any of the pets in the application in real-time.

  2. Video call the vet about the sneezing issues Stella has been having. 

  3. Schedule a physical appointment for Luna's vaccinations. 

Tasks were consider completed after the correct and exact action was taken. 

Recommendations

  1. Track a pet directly from their profile (Home page).

  2. Make language and terms consistent and clear.

  3. Clarify buttons, possibly by overlaying them. 

  4. Research and consider implications on the vet's end. 

Recommendations were considered crucial in future prototype iterations and eventual development. 

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