VETTEXX

Veterinary Management Software

Vet Tech made by a Vet Tech.

As a vet tech, using management software is vital to ensuring the best in pet healthcare. In my own experience and observing those in a fast-paced, emergency & specialty animal hospital- creating a product that works became a key motivator in creating VETTEXX.

The design process

  • Research

  • Early Design

  • User Testing

  • Final product

  • Take aways

UX Project: Veterinary Software

Role: UX Researcher, Designer, and Interface Prototyper

2024 Independent study for Cornell UX certification

  • Veterinary Product Management services provide the platform to log medical data, communication records, and maintain a practices needs such as financial and inventory.

  • VETTEXX was an idea that initially started as a research prompt that quickly struck me as something worth investing more research into. I found that as a veterinary technician, my coworkers were more than happy to provide their feedback because the goal aimed to solve their frequent issues experienced with the current tech software we were using.

  • The platform combines software that veterinary professionals are currently familiar with and simplifies the needs into one space. With that, let's explore the design process that informed VETTEXX.

User Research

VETTEXX was created with veterinary professionals needs at the forefront. I wanted to create a platform that solved issues that our current software products did not. As a veterinary technician myself, I began exploring how I could approach this project. Upon speaking with my peers and coworkers, their suggestions made the project much more clear. Veterinary offices rely on too many software products to carry out their needs.

“there are too many software products”

USER PAIN POINTS:

  • there are many logins that waste time

  • the platforms are not synced therefore medical logging is not consistent- there’s separate logins for each software

  • an inability for multiple platforms to sync is compromising patient care, medical updates, and communication

INTERVIEWS and METHODS

For the interviews, a google form was sent to 80 staff members of a large emergency and specialty hospital. The goal was to aim for a large pool of possible users who could potentially give many diverse perspectives of feedback. Additionally, coworkers were given the option at the end of the survey and in person for 3 interview spots to discuss their experience with veterinary software. For this portion of the interview, privacy and inclusivity became key points in which survey takers and interviewees were not imposed with personal questions such as age, name, or other unrelated identifiable or personal information.

KEY QUESTIONS IN SURVEY:

  • Users role, years of experience and estimate of time per day interacting with using veterinary software

  • The key roles veterinary professionals found most useful in their interactions & scalable productiveness

  • Has the user used multiple software, if so, how many and which specifically?

  • Gained insight on the current users interaction with a known software and implications to change, if any.

Link to the google form: https://forms.gle/5g3KuA2AaC4Mc4cd8

RESPONSe: AFFINITY Mapping and PERSONAs

Early DEsign

UI STRUCTURE: MATRIX

The idea for the prototype explored platforms like EzyVet, Airtable, VetRadar, IDEXX products, Weave, and more. Just as an example of how many are used on a daily basis to complete daily tasks.

This is a T-Shaped matrix model that outlines how the early design concept as a reflection of the user and competitor research.

Paper PROTOTYPE: Low Fidelity

The paper prototype was a rapid iteration using low cost materials to discover possible solutions for final product design used in the testing model.

Mid Fidelity: Balsamiq Prototyping

During this part in the process, the paper prototype was implemented into an online prototyping software called Balsamiq. This would begin the wire framing step and finalizing layout structure for the final design.

Figma: High Fidelity Prototype

Wireframing

USER TESTING

For the user testing phase, two veterinarians offered their experience and expertise to review the usability and learnability of the final prototype made using Figma.

Outline of User Testing Structure

  • screen and voice recording of users navigating the platform

  • an observer to take notes

  • a facilitator to guide the testing, asking the user to answer open ended questions questions

Questions:

  1. user states name, occupation, and estimated years combined using veterinary software

  2. ask user how important that usability and function are to completing necessary functions

    • updating medical records

    • updating clients/owners/referring veterinarians

    • communicating to technicians and other staff updates to treatments

Tasks:

  1. Navigate main menu- note similarities or difference. Goal: become familiar with layout.

  2. Specific tasks: prompt a key feature and assess its usability and impact

Results:

The overall findings of the prototype user testing is that usability and functionality affect the overall success of carrying out tasks such as updating medical records, viewing patient in hospital, accessing their charts and lab results, updating treatments, etc. The resolving statement is that a product like VETTEXX has the potential to set groundwork for improving veterinary health care for both professionals in the field but also ensuring the trust of the pet healthcare community. It aims to combine what is typically multiple software in to one high functioning platform in order to improve the experience of all those involved.

The final product

TAke aways

The creation of VETTEXX is a project that combines veterinary medicine and UX principals to exemplify the crucial role that products and their impact have in saving a pets life. This gave so much insight into how my coworkers, veterinarians, fellow technicians, and veterinary professionals view their current roles and the types of tasks it takes in a user flow to communicate a difference in a pets life. The insights into each step it takes to incorporate a feature to make animal health care possible is hopefully my next step in improving accessibility and learnability for future veterinary professionals.

Improving Veterinary Software

Created by a Veterinary technician

Creating veterinary software created by a veterinary technician and tested by veterinarians.

Targeting Specific Issues

Veterinary software is a vital part of any veterinary hospital. With experience working in a fast-paced emergency hospital, technicians contributed and tested software that responds to their needs.

  • Mid-Fidelity Prototype

  • Figma Wireframe

  • Prototype

  • Paper Prototype

  • User research

  • Affinity Maps, User Flow, User personas