CASE STUDY

Mobile application design - User Research - Prototyping on Figma - Usability Testing

DISCOVERY & RESEARCH

It started with an idea. An amazing one.

An aggregator platform for pet owners to find pet hotels when they needed to find someone to make sure their pets don’t die while they're travelling.

In the same way that you would find accommodation when travelling overseas, pet owners would be able to search for available hotels, view ratings and reviews, and make reservations and payments seamlessly. One premium suite for Princess Snuffles for 3 nights, coming up!

It was a wonderful idea. It was excellent. It was perfect.

Except…Nobody wanted an app like that.

DATA SYNTHESIS

Insights drawn from interviews with pet owners

Instead, what I found through interviewing pet owners was that most of them didn't like the idea of having their pets caged up in a pet hotel.

Fortunately, there were still problems to work on. Pet owners
- often tried to find vet clinics that were near to their homes and convenient to get to, and
- often get frustrated with waiting in line outside the clinic for long periods of time.

What pet owners really want

It became clear that pet owners need a way to find good, easily accessible medical care for their pets, so that they can get their sick pets treated as soon as possible, no matter where they are or what time of day it is, by vets whom they can trust.

This meant that I should instead focus on helping pet owners
- locate available vet clinics closest to them, not just when they are at home, but at any point of time;
- figure out if a vet clinic gives attentive, unrushed, gentle, and professional care;
- feel reassured that their pet will be in good hands; and
- minimise waiting time at the clinics.

So that’s what I set out to solve.

SKETCHING & IDEATION

Initial wireframe sketches of how users would use the app

So, putting aside my initial brilliant idea, I was now designing a vet clinic aggregator app: VetWhere.

It would allow pet owners to
- find the closest clinics according to their location;
- see which clinics are currently open;
- view the live queues;
- read reviews from other customers; and
- make appointment bookings of their own.

How the app works

So, putting aside my initial brilliant idea, I was now designing a vet clinic aggregator app: VetWhere. It would allow pet owners to find the closest clinics according to their location; see which clinics are currently open; view the live queues; read reviews from other customers; and make appointment bookings of their own.

Low fidelity wireflow (made on Figma)

When I had my first draft done, it was important to run a usability test to see if VetWhere was an app that pet owners would actually use.

PROTOTYPING & TESTING

Happily, the reception of the prototype was pretty good! All of the usability testers were able to successfully complete the process, and found it intuitive to navigate.

Naturally though, there were still plenty of improvements to make.

For instance, putting in an actual map background so that app users know what they're looking at when they land on the Home page.

Secondly, they wanted more details in the booking success message, so that they knew their appointment had really gone through.

Many of them also tried to click on the reviews to read more.

LATEST VERSION

Since then, VetWhere has been much improved. Seeing it now in full colour and with increased interactivity makes me so glad that my initial idea was debunked, and that I had the opportunity to work on this instead. After all, UX Design isn't about creating the journeys that seem best in our own heads, but for what real people truly need.

Keen to take a look?

VIEW PROTOTYPE

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