User Interface | Zumvet
Lean UX Case Study — Expanding appeal of online vet services
Toolkit | Paper, Pen, Business Model Canvas, Lean Survey Canvas, Google Form, Value Proposition Canvas
UX Techniques | Business Analysis, Survey, Desk Research, Proto-persona, User Stories
ZumVet provides access to affordable veterinary care through video calls and house calls with medication delivery and home-based services. Users will book an appointment on site and communicate with the vet online with access to their pet’s digital records.
Pet ownership has been on a rise since most people are working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more pet owners are treating their dogs, cats and even hamsters as part of the family, therefore veterinary care has been on demand.
The case study was done using ‘Lean UX Approach’, based on assumptions to create hypothesis that enhance the solution by exploring both business goals and user needs.
The Strategy Plane
I started with what I think the business would want to achieve and what the users would like to gain out of it.
Based on my assumptions, I assumed the business goals are:
• To increase the appeal and awareness of online veterinary care in Singapore to meet increasing demands.
• To provide services where users are able to fulfil in the comfort of their home
Product Objective
As the use of virtual doctors visitation gets common among humans especially during the pandemic, the idea of online veterinary care is still relatively new locally. The challenge would be to educate and increase the awareness and benefits it can provide and to provide accurate assessment for the pets and pet owners.
I created the following Business Model Canvas using hypothesis to better understand how the business function:
Proto-Personas
With my assumption, I did a Proto-personas to have an estimate of who would benefit from the product.
After which, I plan an online survey using a Lean Survey Canvas before sending the survey using google forms to 10 pet owners over a period of 2 days to validate my assumptions and gain new insights.
The survey findings confirmed some of my assumptions, refreshed some of my assumptions and provided new insights and ideas to what the users need.
From the findings, I brainstormed for some opportunities that may arise:
1. How might we help pet owners decide when the behavior requires an immediate visit to the clinic?
2. How might we assist the pet owners to have a seamless end to end experience with the use of technology?
3. How might we create a stronger bond between the vets and the customers on board?
The Scope Plane
With the understanding of business goals and user needs, I came up with some ideas of how to address them. Value Proposition Canvas was used to ensure my ideas are aligned with what users need.
Feature Hypothesis Statement
“I believe this insightful tele consultation will be achieved if pet owners successfully achieve emergency assessment with access to vets immediately.”
I proceed to rank the solutions based on the business requirement. I noticed quite a number that can be done almost immediately. I narrowed down again based on user needs using MoSCow framework.
The Structure Plane
After defining and prioritizing the requirements from users and business goals, I moved on to develop the structure with a clear picture of what to include in the final product.
Interaction Design
The platform
Being a relatively new idea in the local context, users will take time to get familiar with the brand. Taking into consideration that users are not keen to download an app until they are familiar with the brand, that app must be able to assist them with a number of problems that they handle on a daily basis before they would download an app. Therefore, I will focus on developing a mobile friendly site.
Brand Personality
Positivity — Users that will look up or visit the site would be coming in with concerns, it is important to express positivity for them to feel assured and relieved.
Sincerity — Users tend to choose vets that they can connect with. An important factor is when they feel the vets genuinely love their pets like their own.
Community Building — It is a close community for pets owners where everyone cares about the well-being of another pet like their own, it is important to carry that attitude within the brand.
Information Architecture
I did an open card sorting with 5 users to find out how users would use the site and ensure that the way the site is structured is created according to the information users would need.
This is how the updated sitemap look:
The original site was too simplified and lacked information, the updated solutions will include more information breakdown, shop and services that the brand would be able to offer.
The solution
To meet the business goal of appealing and awareness
1. Vets/Clinics on board
The current site does not have a specific page that users can look up regarding who the vets available are, and which clinics are involved in the program. These are some of the important information users want to know before committing to a regular vet. With the new page, users would be able to consult their preferred vets, or vets from the same preferred clinic, to boost the confidence of users to trust the site.
2. Blood Donation
Blood donations have been relatively challenging to achieve due to lack of common data to consolidate blood type and pet sizes, therefore whenever there is an emergency, the users would have to appeal online for other users to assist and it can be a race against time. Users that want to help would need to bring their dogs for blood tests and it may not be a match. With this new feature where users can keep track of blood type and sizes of users that are willing to donate, it would help speed up the process of the search.
3. Shop
Despite having home test kits available for some months, the site would also be offering other products that are exclusive to vet purchase only. These products would be useful as some vet recommended products are only available for purchase with vet’s approval. With the medical record on site, the vet can easily communicate and assess to endorse the purchase based on individual pet’s needs which would in turn be convenient for users.
The shop function would also be a good feature to reach out to new users that may be searching for specific products and chanced upon the site to discover all the service it is offering.
To provide services that users are able to fulfil in the comfort of their home
4. Annual Check up/Housecall
This would be extremely helpful for pets especially those that tend to be stressed when out in a foreign place. Even though this was offered on the site, there is a lack of information for what would be offered, which in turn prevents people from enquiring.
The improved service would allow users to book appointments for check ups to be done at home, collecting the samples and drawing blood done by professional housecall vets, with results sent via email once done. Users will alternatively be able to access the site to check on the result. Users would have the option to discuss the results with the vet should there be any concerns, after reading the reports and vet’s comments.
Other housecall services to include would be to collect samples after an online consultation has been done, to complete the session and follow up on issues that were brought up.
5. Allowing users to chat with a professional vet immediately
To include a new feature where users can chat with a vet immediately, enabling users to send photos or videos of the pet to discuss options or evaluate the level of urgency in some cases.
This feature would help to filter and direct urgent cases to immediate access for medical attention.
6) Option to convert online consult to physical appointment if condition requires onsite attention
This is another new feature for users to bring their pets to the clinic if their pet requires physical consultation within 48 hours after online consultation. Online converts would get a discounted rate off their physical consultation with priority for appointment with the same vet they met online.
With the previous research done, let’s moved on to the design of the interface, navigation, information and sensory.
The site is developed based on the following user flow of how users can explore the site. The focus is broken into 3 main categories: booking an appointment, blood donation, and shop. These are the key services users require.
With the breakdown of the 3 main categories, it will be the only 3 functions on the top menu to help users stay focused and easily navigate between options.
Use of colors choice
After applying the corporate colors of the brand on initial draft, usage of purple color limits and made it difficult for users to differentiate between functional buttons and other clickable links.
Therefore some complementary colors were introduced to differentiate hierarchies and purpose in the second draft.
Book an appointment
Locally, most users would carry doubts to this relatively new idea of tele consultation for pets, therefore a statement upon landing would help encourage and boost the confidence of these online services.
The main business is about making possible solutions for pets, therefore users can make an immediate booking upon landing. Taking reference from Jakob’s Law on how users make bookings from other sites, this booking system can be navigated all in a bar without going through the hassle of logging in or signing up. Availability can be checked immediately when in urgent needs.
The process of making your choice is highlighted by a shadow effect on the category, with the choice made in a darker shade of purple, and buttons in orange. This draws your attention to it where only selectable options will be available. It is then clickable to narrow down the suitable dates.
Upon clicking “Book an appointment” with your selected services, date and time, users will be brought to the “Booking confirmation” page for their booking information.
Upon checking their “Booking Details”, followed by a login option for members. Users are given the option to “Continue as guest” so they do not feel obligated to sign in to experience the service, while members can immediately confirm booking without filling in contact information or pet details.
Upon submitting the details, they will see “Booking confirmation” appearing as a pop-up to draw attention to the information which will also be sent to their email. Users would be notified of the vet allocated for their pet. The whole booking process is kept simple, straightforward and direct, without any additional steps.
Vets/Clinics on board
On board vets and clinics information for the programme are included on site for users to easily find them under the “About” page. As these are not essential for everyone, the information only caters to users that require more credentials. The direct link can be found under the footer or when they want to find out more about the services Zumvet has to offer.
Blood Donation
With the use of different banners for services breakdown, users will be encouraged to find out more regarding the blood donation programme on the page.
Within the blood donation page, they can check the requirement to become a donor either as a dog or cat using the chevron button at the side of the grey highlighted box. The page is kept straightforward for targeted audiences with specific needs in mind, to make a decision between signing up or requesting.
Shop
Another added feature would be “Shop”. Keeping consistency with the shadow effect used throughout the whole revamped site, the products are broken down into categories with simple information included. At the current stage, there will only be curated health-related products on sale and it will not heavily populate the site into a 100% health shopping site.
Chat
Within the site, the improved chat function available throughout the site will enable users to chat with a “Vet on duty” for immediate enquiry, before making a decision on their next step.
For all users that have signed up, they will be able to retrieve their information and convert their recent tele consultation to a physical on site appointment.
This page would be extremely useful for users to keep track of what was discussed during the consultation, with information on the attending vet and proposed actions.
Users are able to download health reports which are required when signing their pets up for activities requiring up-to-date health screening reports.
Within the page, they will be informed of their pets’ blood type and whether they are eligible for blood donation programmes, which may not be suitable for pets of all sizes.
Consistency after revamped
With updates in terms of style, some of the existing contents are reworked to maintain consistency throughout the site.
You may interact with the prototype here.
Mobile friendly
As the product is still in the process of gaining local awareness, the site is designed to be mobile friendly before it is developed into an app. The original site is designed for desktop which makes all content easily stackable from 4 to 2 or even 1 depending on the content.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this lean ux approach helps me to identify areas to improve for the site based on assumptions and questions before proposing ideas to tackle them. It helps to prioritize and plan areas to work on to generate more impactful results within the shortest time frame.
