Project Scout

Week 1 | Project 1

Why Project Scout? The user, Emma, loves her dog Scout but thinks dog care can be improved. Using the double diamond model, I researched, strategized and designed a solution in 4 days. The process resulted in an app prototype that serves as a precursor to visiting the vet.

DISCOVER | Research

User interviews were conducted with 3 dog owners. We discussed the perks and pains of caring for a dog and discovered 1 common pain point: providing medical care to your dog is not easy.

Affinity Mapping

Through user interviews I uncovered a few themes dog owners must address when they have concerns regarding their dog’s health.

Owners often feel anxiety and confusion.
“What do I do if he barfs?”
“I don’t know if his eye discharge is serious.”

The vet is expensive.
“They over test.”
“It’s always more expensive than I think it should be.”

There is contradictory advice everywhere you turn.
“The breeder recommended one food, the vet suggested another, and the Petsmart employee recommended something different.”
“It’s confusing.”

However, dog owners trust their vet the most.
“I leave the vet feeling relieved.”
“My dog is on a raw diet because the vet told me it’s the best option for him.”

DEFINE | Strategy

The themes uncovered from the user interviews led to two important insights.

1. People place a high value on vet recommendations but do not perceive vets as empathetic to their clients’ financial concerns.
2. People lack the knowledge necessary to diagnose the severity of their dog’s medical issues.

With these insights, it was clear there’s an opportunity to address this problem and make the dog care experience better for the user.

Problem Statement

People lack inexpensive options to diagnose the severity of their dog’s medical issues.

Design Direction

Solutions will provide users with access to inexpensive tools or information regarding common dog medical issues. Solutions will provide peace of mind.

DEVELOP | Solutions

To succeed, the solution should disrupt the story. Instead of immediately visiting the vet, users should have alternative options that address the design direction’s parameters.

I presented all explored solutions to users and asked with context, “Would you use this option?”. This was the most surprising part of the process because I realized how different my opinions were from the user’s opinions. Users chose solutions that I wouldn’t have, had I not consulted them. The user feedback helped narrow down the solutions to three recommendations.

1. Provide a vet-approved database for users to search their dogs symptoms and receive suggestions for care.
2. Provide users with the ability to video call vets, vet techs, and retired vets who can provide suggestions for care.
3. Let users send photos of their dog’s symptoms to vets, vet techs, and retired vets who can provide suggestions for care.

Why These Work: They Meet the Design Direction Goals

1. Personalization eases anxiety.
2. Inexpensive and therefore, competitive with the alternative.
3. Brings information to the user which alleviates confusion.
4. Prevents unnecessary trips to the vet.

Prototype

The prototype began with sketches incorporating the three user approved solutions.

Next, sketches were uploaded to POP to create links and test the product.

The prototype was tested with users who provided further feedback:

“Make the database a glossary in addition to the search bar.”
“Add a regular phone call option.”
“Add a send a video option.”
“Move the payment page solely to vet connected services.”

With that feedback, it was time to literally go back to the drawing board and add more sketches to meet the users’ needs.

DELIVER | Result

With a rough prototype and my Google Slides, I was ready for my first UX Design presentation! Instructor and peer feedback was positive:

“You never forgot what the problem was and I loved that. The problem was in the back of your mind the entire time. You Identified pain points and targeted them with your solution. A mobile responsive website will be very successful!”
“This was a great in-between solution — not too expensive.”
“Consider how the database search could be more effective since there are many words that one could use to search for similar issues. For example, the word ‘tired’ has many synonyms.”
“The quotes to back up your insights were very effective.”
“Overall great presentation, kept us engaged!”

Check out the Project Scout prototype here.

Going Further

If I were to continue with this project, a lot of things would need to be addressed. Here are a few important next steps:

1. The symptom database would need a great deal of attention to make it easy to search while providing information and preventing confusion. Keeping the ‘peace of mind’ goal at the forefront is imperative.
2. The Call and Email options would need a basic script and a great deal of testing.
3. It would be important to get vets’ opinions on the product to see how realistic the service is, what areas are flawed, and areas for improvement.
4. Competitor apps and websites, typical vet expenses, pet insurance policies, pricing, and more would all need to be considered.

Looking Back

This week has been a great practice in the design process and opened my eyes to ways I can improve.

1. I need to keep an open mind and open it more. I plan to spend more time with divergent thinking in the Discovery and Developing stages.
2. Interviews are hard. Keeping an open mind to discovering pain points, pushing away you’re own leading questions, all while staying focused on the purpose is a tough mind-multitasking job. Preparation and practice will be key to making interviews easier and more effective. Worthwhile solutions cannot be produced without good data.
3. Presentations are hard. It’s easy to get nervous and read directly from the slides. In the future, I plan to spend more time practicing my presentation and preparing better notes.

Week 1 down, 9 to go. Feels good. Can’t wait to get back at it on Monday.