This project is inspired by my time & designs at Rocket Doctor and a direct competitor to this project: Vester. My knowledge comes from listening to physicians & staff by conducting primary research, and competitive analysis at Rocket Doctor on understanding what elements are required for virtual health. While I can't share the research outcome with readers, I can discuss my process and show a design that takes into consideration of my research.

Length of project: 1 week
Members: Myself
Deliverable outcome: Persona, User Journey, User flow, sketches, high-fi, prototype
Purpose: To showcase my process after research, a competitive analysis & requirement gathering has been completed.
Designs for: Booking your first appointment at Orange Cat Care on a computer

The roles that this design would impact the most are the pet owner, vet & patient . The primary user will be the Pet owner while taking into consideration of the vet's pain points, and frustrations because the pet owner's experience will impact the vet heavily. It can be challenging to find a balance between having both users happy. That is why I ensure that we have both perspectives heard and their absolute necessities noted.

Developing a persona, and user journey map always aids me in making user-flow decisions. This is because it breaks it down into large main steps and helps organize what the user will encounter or see in each step. It leaves out the guesswork when I'm producing the user flow. In addition adding the pain points and frustrations , allow me to think more in-depth when creating the user-flow.

For example , the need to gather more info for the vet so that it'sless likely the vet will want to cancel or request more information from the pet owner, thus saving time from going back and forth.

Another example is the pet owner won't have to wonder if their pet's ailment is appropriate for virtual health at the start of the flow. I also allow them to explore their options before deciding to create an account, as studies show that users are less likely to drop off if they don't have to create an account first .

Not every scenario requires it but with larger new designs I always tend to sketch first.

Why? Because while it's not the final design, and may not be where every element is located, it helps to remind what needs to be on the page, and what it could look like when doing mid-fi, or high-fi. It also saves time when doing the final design, knowing the direction it needs to take. For this sketch I've decided to do visit reason, select vet & pet info as something like payment is less of a complicated design and my focus is on these main parts.

Tones, Colors, Font & more

I chose to make the tone friendly and leaning towards casual. Orange is often used in virtual health and a big company that does this is Maple. Orange represents energy and happiness. Most importantly, on social media orange cat energy is chaotic energy; the stereotype is that they get themselves in trouble often, thus: Orange cat care. I've added tones of pinkish red as it helps stand out from the competitors. My font choice is geometric as it geometric fonts are known to appear more friendly. Design-wise, I chose to use rounded corners as it also appears more friendly. The sharper the corners the more firm or formal it feels.

I always choose a san-serif font that is over 16px as it's known to be the most readable for digital media. The colors I choose also pass the contrast test to ensure it's readable. In addition to language, it's important we don't use big words or jargon that are difficult to understand. The rule is: it must be at least below the eighth-grade reading level. Another rule that I follow is to never use the darkest black with the whitest white. I myself find it difficult and painful to read, and there are many others that also find it problematic. This is normally a problem when in its dark mode but, not using a straight-on black is also more visually appealing and less harsh on your eyes.

Is this suitable for virtual care?

There's always a bit of concern from both sides from pet owner to vet if the concern is suitable for virtual care. The solution I've narrowed down to reduce the pain point is for the pet owner themselves to verify that their cat does not need immediate attention. This helps vets worry less if the pet owner is coming for an issue they will need to tell them that they must go to a local vet.

Pain points solved: Uncertainty, Expectations

Empower pet owners with easy decisions?

For vet selection, I've provided 4 options for the pet owner to choose from. Normally odd numbers are best, but making it feel like they have one more option could help in case the 3 vets they see have requirements they're not sure they can fill. It's important that the pet owner themselves understand what theVet requires from them to make the appointment as simple, informed, and clear of uncertaintyfor both users.

Pain points solved: Uncertainty, Time-consuming, Uninformed

Be Inclusive & gather required information

After the pet owner selects their time slot , the time slot will be held for 15 minutes and are required to sign up. At this point we require their province & postal code (by default it'll be prefilled with Ontario as the user selected it previously), which will be used to pick up prescriptions. We ask for a phone number in case a staff member of orange cat care needs to reach outto them. We also have a field for their pronouns so they are addressed as they'd like to be addressed as.

Provide quality care

In order for a vet to provide quality care, they will require key information. When creating the design I gathered questions vet's ask new vistors. In addition, I also referenced Vester but even Vester was issing some information, such as allergies, medications, vaccinations, and outdoor/indoor(which is very important when it comes to cats). After working at rocket doctor, I understood the importance of physicianshaving this information available as it's very difficult for them to feel confident in their diagnosis if they don't.

Pain point: Pet info, Uncertainity

View the full user flow

To view the full Userflow, including payment plan & purchase, please click the link below:

This project was taking into consideration of my work at rocket doctor and using Vester to help navigate pet care with my own personal experience in taking my own cats (Storm Trooper on the left, Snowball on the right) to the vet. I felt that there should be cat-specific care online, just like dogs and other pets they have their own unique set of problems and questions to ask. There was certain information even some vets weren't too aware of, like our Bengal kitten whose at risk to have a bad reaction to a certain drug. Thus, I believe cat-specific virtual health care would be useful one day.