Solving a Problem

The Problem

The most stressful parts of pet owners’ lives are often when they must bring their furry friends into the veterinarian’s office. These domesticated animals worm their way into our hearts and become integral parts of the family; when they have health issues, their owners scramble. Pets are an important part of the home, so their health and well-being remain a priority.

Thinking back, I can picture an instance when a family friend struggled to find diagnostic care for her older dog. When she smoothed her hand over her Labrador, she found a concerning lump on his side. As a single mother with her canine, Rex, as her companion, she immediately fell into a panic. Thus, her desperate searches for a reliable vet and calls to nearby offices were a natural reaction. However, these efforts were for naught. Google left her inundated with sponsored listings, unsolicited advice from forum posts, and destitute ideas of what the lump on Rex’s side could mean. She found herself drowning in unrelated guidance, scrolling through countless veterinarians’ websites and results that said the same unhelpful things. With little time to spare and an excess of information from her preliminary searches, she turned to our neighborhood’s Facebook page to crowdsource recommendations. She eventually contacted a vet through the public forum but felt incredibly disempowered by her initial investigation, which was meant to ease her anxiety but added more to her cognitive load.

Her reaction mirrors the experiences of other individuals in the community, where the neighborhood Facebook board finds requests for trustworthy veterinarians and local reviews daily. However, why does this microcosm favor word-of-mouth when the internet holds endless information? Pet owners who feel overwhelmed and anxious about their pet’s health need to find a veterinarian but face a staggering amount of options and a lack of comparison tools for choosing the right vet. Thus, the problem of finding timely care from a qualified professional poses a challenge for applying User Experience (UX) design to improve accessibility and satisfaction in the realm of pet care.

Background Research

With the clear necessity for accessible vet care, it is essential to understand the situation’s context, delving into the status of vet care and consumer pain points as users search for a qualified professional to care for their furry friends. In the United States, “most Americans (62%) own a pet…And nearly all U.S. pet owners (97%) say their pets are part of their family” (Brown, 2023, para. 1). These statistics show the necessity for solving accessibility issues in veterinary care. With so many Americans caring for a beloved pet, technology must adapt to the state of veterinarian clinics to serve a population that represents most of the United States.

We can best understand this problem through direct testimonials. Cindy Jen, a long-time large dog owner, has memories of slogging through endless search results to find a vet for her canine. Asking about her experiences when searching for a clinic, she stated, “Even though I live in a relatively organized suburban community, local results are often convoluted and mixed in with ads, Nextdoor posts, and bad reviews” (C. Jen, Personal Communication, February 21, 2024). Contextual questions revealed that Mrs. Jen’s connotation of veterinary visits has been historically negative because of her interactions with internet resources; finding the best veterinarian has made crucial veterinary appointments complex and painful. “I often spend hours on my computer, trying to find a vet. Even when I find a few that seem competent and have positive reviews, it’s even more painful trying to organize the results to compare them” (C. Jen, Personal Communication, February 21, 2024). While Cindy Jen’s remarks can only speak for her perspective, she shared that this experience is familiar to countless neighbors, family members, and friends who struggle to find the best care for their pets amid busy lives and emergencies.

With this background established, there are additional contexts to vet care—hindrances that are affecting the entire industry. During the pandemic, many households adopted pets. In fact, a Forbes Advisor Survey states that 78% of pet owners adopted new additions to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic (Megna, 2024, para. 1). The onslaught of pet ownership represents a quickly growing population looking for veterinarians to care for new family members. However, the increase in demand does not mean a similar increase in supply. Across the country, veterinary clinics struggle to keep up with appointment requests while ensuring the best care for animals. A sample of clinics in Colorado found that 67% of veterinary technicians and doctors of veterinary medicine (DVMs) were forced to turn away patients on a weekly basis or more (Niemiec & Champine, 2023, p.1). The patterns found in Colorado veterinary offices illustrate trends for clinics that fail to reach every animal patient in the wake of a pandemic surge in pet ownership. There are simply too many animals for offices to maintain standards of care, contributing to the persistence of difficult-to-access resources.

While it may seem easy to stew in the bleak reality of veterinary care, some institutions are working to illuminate the issue. The Veterinary Care Accessibility Project is one coalition advocating for pet care. By rating counties throughout the United States using an interactive map and their “Veterinary Care Accessibility Score (VCAS),” Dr. Michael Greenberg and Dr. Sue Neal illustrate disparities in access through visual representations of data. Their work has created a quantifiable means of highlighting the necessity for accessibility measures to help pet owners find care. While Dr. Greenberg and Dr. Neal’s work is not a tangible solution, their efforts are a sign that industry professionals and the public are beginning to pay attention to what pets and owners need the most.

Another way the veterinary care industry has started toward a solution is through vet telemedicine. Since its inception, search engines built to help humans have also come to aid them in taking care of their pets. Some examples of resources that pop up upon the first search are articles such as “Finding Reliable Internet Sources for Pet Care Information” (Weir & Buzhardt, n.d.). These precursory inquiries populate broad information from DVMs that advise owners to “Visit the sites of accredited veterinary organizations such as CAPC (Companion Animal Parasite Council), AHS (American Heartworm Society), [and] AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association)” but often lack the depth for emergency situations where pet owners are already too overwhelmed by their pet’s health to be directed to external platforms (Weir & Buzhardt, n.d., para. 4).

Nevertheless, telemedicine has advanced past general web searches. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recently published a guide on “Veterinary telehealth…the use of telecommunication and digital technologies to deliver and enhance veterinary services, including veterinary health information, medical care, and veterinary and client education” (American Veterinary Medical Association, 2021, p. 3). Connecting individuals to accredited professionals using online platforms is how vet telemedicine provides care to an increasing number of clients. From diagnosis to continued visits, telehealth appointments may be less intimidating for users wary of bringing their pet to a clinic or those searching for quicker answers. Nevertheless, this form of innovative animal care has its drawbacks. A study published in VetRecord states that “very few dog (12.0%) or cat (6.4%) owners have used telemedicine… [and] three-quarters of dog and cat owners who have never used telemedicine would not make use of it, or are not sure whether they would use it, in the future” (Springer et al., 2023, p. 5). The surprising statistic reveals an industry learning gap for veterinarians and consumers, two parties who may not be advertising or digesting advertisements for electronic pet care. The possibility of veterinary telehealth seems like a bright opportunity for the future well-being of pets. However, a lack of widespread use highlights the necessity for other solutions and improving the state of current care with User Experience (UX) design.

The Solution

The chief focus of the proposed application will be organizing information with users’ needs in mind. This will be achieved through users inputting their zip code or enabling location services, along with pre-set options for selecting the type of care they are looking for— emergency, primary care, general inquiries—to reduce errors between the consumer and the app’s processing capabilities. Choices will then populate the screen—a dashboard that uses straightforward layouts to display the clinic and veterinarian’s name, the location (and distance from the user), ratings (sourced from Google and an internal testimonial platform), and the option to expand options for more in-depth information (displayed as a pop-up window while using Gestalt’s principle of figure/ground). The user will be able to sort their choices by proximity, ratings, and alphabet so consumers in any position can efficiently find the results they are looking for.

Additionally, the application will have the option to save vets for reference, increasing future efficiency. This will be paired with a comparison feature that allows users to display two profiles alongside one another and make decisions based on the user’s priorities. To increase accessibility and broaden the user audience, the app will include an option to translate all information and features with a language menu—located in a consistently displayed navigation bar to ensure clear affordances and maintain aesthetic consistency.

While the development of this solution was made without direct user insight, the design choices arose from personal experience of navigating veterinary care and speaking with peers. Following my interview with Cindy Jen, I found that users tend to reach out to local communities to source recommendations, inspiring an interface that embodies a pet-minded community. The in-app review service hopes to emulate a sense of crowd-sourced information while bolstering credibility with reviews from other sites. Additionally, a clean interface that displays information in a digestible manner will mirror interfaces such as the Community Advancement Network’s Austin Dashboard. Although the example shows pain points in Austin that nonprofits are working toward improving, the dashboard stands as an example of using color, images, and intentional microcopy to reflect critical information to a wide array of users.

Thus, the creation of a website (plus a mobile format) stands as a feasible solution because it uses consumers’ standing platform for accessing veterinary information, the internet, in a streamlined manner. By displaying information that users often uncover through a series of search prompts, calls, or community forums, this solution is a shortcut for frustrated consumers who want to focus on their pets’ health rather than stumbling through digital obstacle courses to find the right veterinarian.

Reflection

By employing UX design in veterinary care, I believe there will be significant improvements to accessibility and user satisfaction. As someone who grew up with dogs in the home, my pet’s health has persisted as an anxiety point. I remember my mother agonizing over our senior Golden Retriever, overwhelmed by his pain while calling around our neighborhood for clinics. Enabling users to feel empowered with clear information displays will reduce the stress of having a sick loved one, removing the additional strain of slogging through endless search results advice. Alongside alleviating anxiety in a frustrating situation, UX design offers improved efficiency. Users can make quick, crucial decisions rather than wishing they had more time and clarity. Giving consumers the tools to ensure their pet’s quality of care, possibly saving their lives or making them comfortable when they need it most, is what the average pet owner is searching for; UX design can provide that sense of satisfaction.

References

American Veterinary Medical Association. (2021). AVMA guidelines for use of telehealth in veterinary practice. https://www.avma.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/AVMA-Veterinary-Telehealth-Guidelines.pdf

Brown, A. (2023, July 7). About half of U.S. pet owners say their pets are as much a part of their family as a human member. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/07/about-half-us-of-pet-owners-say-their-pets-are-as-much-a-part-of-their-family-as-a-human-member/

Community Advancement Network. (2024). CANATX Dashboard. https://dashboard.canatx.org/

Greenberg, M., & Neal, S. (2022). The veterinary care accessibility project: Access to vet care. VCAP: The Veterinary Care Accessibility Project. https://www.accesstovetcare.org/

Megna, M. (2024, February 16). Pet ownership statistics 2024. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/pet-insurance/pet-ownership-statistics/#:~:text=Pet%20ownership%20has%20increased%20significantly,acquired%20pets%20during%20the%20pandemic.

Niemiec, R., & Champine, V. (2023). AHPC veterinary professional survey results. Colorado State University. https://sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu/animalhumanpolicy/wp-content/uploads/sites/171/2023/10/AHPC-Veterinary-Professional-Survey-Results.pdf

Springer, S., Lund, T. B., Corr, S. A., & Sandøe, P. (2023, September 20). Seeing the benefits, but not taking advantage of them: Dog and cat owners’ beliefs about veterinary telemedicine. Veterinary Record, 5. https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.3312

Weir, M., & Buzhardt, L. (n.d.). Finding reliable internet sources for pet care information: VCA Animal Hospitals. VCA Animal Hospitals. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/finding-reliable-internet-sources-for-pet-care-information