Pet Link
The veterinary system in India provides private and hospital-based practices. There are well-known vet hospitals in metropolitan cities of India, but most veterinarians in 2nd or 3rd tier cities run a private practice by relying on traditional online tools, thus limiting their outreach to scale their customer base.
I focus on this disconnect between vets and pet parents to simplify the process of finding certified veterinarians in India.
Collaborators
Nainika Verma (Mentor)
Role
Ideation
Research
UI Design
Prototyping
Tools
Pen and Paper
Figma
Timeline
Sept - Dec 2021
Problem
Pet owners in non-metro cities of India lack a dedicated resource for finding certified veterinarians. Search engines like Google provide limited search for smaller cities.
How can we improve the pet owner’s experience of searching the veterinary services in India?
Pet care challenges in India as reported by “State of Pet Homelessness Index”
Outcomes
I proposed a mobile app that can connect pet owners and veterinarians on one platform. There are two main highlights of the application.
Improved experience for pet owners:
People can search for location-based veterinarians and find available slots for booking in-person or video appointments.
A flexible option for scheduling and canceling appointments makes the process more approachable for pet owners.
Digitized pet records:
The application provides an option to fluidly exchange notes, prescriptions, and vaccination records between veterinarians and pet parents.
Thus, it helps to store and scan pet records without the hassle of documenting physical pet records.
Project Goal
My main objective was to understand how people search for and interact with veterinarians to fulfill their needs for pet care and health.
Process
I used research methods to understand the current market space of the pet industry and pet owner’s wants and needs that helped develop the platform.
Competitive Analysis
Starting with market research to find the unique value proposition of the platform...
The Indian pet market is relatively unsaturated but spans different categories. Many competitors primarily provide services such as pet training, grooming, and pet retail products. But Pet Link narrows the scope by easing the process of finding veterinarian services for pet owners.
By diving further into the issues of veterinarian services, I started with the broad research questions:
Why is there an unmet need for online vet consultations among users of the existing pet service providers?
What can be done to improve how pet parents connect with veterinarians?
There is a gap between pet owners and their need to find certified veterinarians.
Insights from Competitive Analysis
With competitive mapping, I categorized the service offerings of multiple pet providers into four sectors.
Medical - Veterinarian services, such as appointments and vaccinations.
Retail - Pet accessories, food, and merchandise
Service - Grooming and training of pets
Social - Pet breeding and companionship
I found that three competitors, namely, Petzzing, Pet Nest, and Vedic are the direct competitors offering similar services in the “Medical” category of pet care. A thorough feature evaluation of these competitors helped gain insights into their limitations.
Limited and outdated listings of veterinarians, access to only company-specific affiliated veterinarians, and limited reach in small cities were common weaknesses of the competitors.
Interview Insights
My insights from the interviews led me to discover gaps, problems, and missing links that pet owners previously experienced. Surveys and interviews conducted with 10 pet parents revealed a preferred pattern of connection with the veterinarians
There has been a growing need for retail pet services in large and small cities. However, the need for search and availability of veterinarians follow a traditional route, where it is difficult to find qualified vets.
How might we?
Further, I also found that there is a gap between access to certified veterinarians and pet owners’ expectations in the form of appointments and waiting time at the clinics.
Armed with user insights, I defined the two problems into How Might We questions to further narrow down my scope of outcomes.
Mapping a pet parent’s journey
When Rohit moves to a new city, what options does he have to find a veterinarian for his dog?
Both channels serve Rohit’s end goal, but Pet Link can serve as a better option!
Final Solution
Business Needs
I realized that other pet services are equally important. From the point of business needs, I proposed the inclusion of other pet services in the platform.
Listing other services such as trainers and groomers: Helps in building a brand image with the veterinarians who can recommend auxiliary services to the users.
Managing pet profiles: Helps in sharing the pet medical records with the veterinarians.
Personal Learning:
While working on this project, I started to think about how Pet Link can commercially strategize itself as a service company in the future. The Pet Link's strength lies in deepening the network of veterinarians, but there may be other methods of scaling the business. Hence, I added a proposal for developing the auxiliary networks of pet services. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I did not conduct additional market research to justify my proposal, but I have included the design idea in my current wireframes.
Conceptualizing the design: A mobile-based approach
According to the StatCounter Global Stats, the mobile market share in India is higher at 54.1% than the desktop market share (43.72%). The small city population has more increased access to mobile devices than other screen devices because of the cheap internet rates provided by the leading communication companies.
Therefore…
I designed Pet Link as an app-based platform because users are more inclined to use their mobiles to search for veterinarians.
Design Ideation
Starting with a simple pen and paper sketch, I developed the low-fidelity wireframes. I focused on the information structure of the app content, and user flows for the basic flow from the launching of the app to the process of scheduling the appointment.
Initial sketches of the app
Information Architecture
Next, I worked on creating the sitemap and user flow of the application. Here, the primary goal is to persuade the pet owner to explore the veterinarian’s profile and book an appointment for their pet.
Design Iterations based on two user feedbacks
Final Experience: High-fidelity prototypes
Verified onboarding
Users verify their mobile number with a one-time-password to ensure quick and hassle-free login.
Accurate Listing of Vets
The veterinarians are listed based on the user’s location which allows them to book appointments.
Documentation of pet records
Users can store, scan, and access pet medical records and personal history of the pet. This allows them to share the pet's details with the veterinarian.
Next Steps and Learnings
As my first product design project, it was not an easy journey.
I delved into understanding the design principles, such as color theory and design components, which needed improvements.
Each phase of the project needs constant feedback. I spent more time perfecting the design than seeking feedback from the users. Therefore, the next step would be to conduct usability testing and refine my designs.
As the sole researcher and designer, I developed foundations in user experience. However, my project impact could have improved in a teamwork environment.