Research Method
Persona, User Journey, Branching Logic, WCAG, Usability Test
To build a solution that truly supported both overworked veterinary teams and anxious pet owners, I first had to dive into the high-stakes reality of emergency triage. My research focused on identifying the friction points in after-hours communication—where minutes matter and emotions run high. By conducting stakeholder interviews and analyzing existing clinic workflows, I aimed to uncover how technology could bridge the gap between immediate medical need and sustainable practice management.
Persona
Clinic Veterinary Technician
By synthesizing all 6 interviews, we saw consistent patterns across every CVT and coach we spoke with. The insights validated the friction points: 100% feel there are too many clicks on the form, 83% find excessive "NEXT" clicks slow down the process 78% feel frustrated by the excessive scrolling and 67% want important information to be easily accessible. With all this, we created our primary persona.
Highly trained and deeply empathetic, Jesse's a seasoned CVT who juggles daytime clinic work with evening triage shifts, often handling 8-10 calls an hour. But even with her experience, GuardianVet's current system works against her.
Considering the journey map, we understood Jesse suffers for how the information is provided case by case. From taking a call to scheduling an apporopriate time, the pet owner's frustration and friction within dashboard multiplies to Jesse's stress level and results to errors.
Branching Logic
We did multiple audits of the information architecture and we were able to identify the issues. To get a deeper understanding of why these problems were happening, we extrapolated the branching logic to uncover root causes.
This video illustrated the branching logic; where these paths are embedded.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
During our auditing, the first few things that came to our attention were part of extraneous load: misalignment, spread of information, unclear hierarchy, low contrast, and small font types which add to unpredictable patterns across the screen. For this matter, we made the font type bigger and created more contrast by changing the background colours.
For example, by removing the radio buttons attached to yes and no, we have reduced this component's structure in favour of faster interaction. We made the colours darker to enhance the contrast and reach triple A compliance, and increased the scan-ability for Jesse by creating more space and alignment for visual and textual elements. The arrows that you see here designate visual accessibility with the original version and our design suggestions.
Usability Test
We did the usability tests with 6 CVTs.
This part of the research helped us to improve the calendar. As most flows have interactions with calendars, in our usability test the CVTs appreciated our design choice of using the rich blue to emphasize today's column. They suggested that the ability to move into the next week or month is beneficial for making an appointment in the wellness task flow.
