BRIEF "Design a service for anybody or any body."
The brief from our professors gave us the freedom to create "something" for whoever we wanted. The final project delivery was to be presented as a service with a clear identity, strategy and functionality.
After a thorough research- and mapping fase, we created a worktool (app) for veterinarians working with live stock.
The workday for a Norwegian veterinarian working with live stock is often unpredictable. The vet cannot foresee the amount of work on a given day, and has to drive long distances alone to new appointments that often get postponed. This implies that farmers have to be informed about the new expected arrival time for the vet - a time consuming task for the vet in itself. In addition, the vet has administrative work related to invoicing etc. This often causes stress, anxieties and loneliness during their workday.
KUR organize the veterinarians work more efficiently so they can enjoy their day and perform better in their work.
THE OUTCOME "KUR" is a service, manifested trough an app, designed to assist veterinarians working with live stock. "KUR" offers better planning/scheduling, facilitates journal entries and delivers efficient time management, invoicing and handles other administrative tasks.
Pictures from our field studies.
The app "KUR" is the outcome of an in-depth user centered research process. We started the project with an aim of exploring a field in Norway that deserved some extra attention regarding new services. This open way of thinking led us deep into the Norwegian farmland and how veterinarians and farmers work together in the Norwegian agriculture. By interviewing several farmers, we found many challenges in their communication with the veterinarians. Common issues were; unstandardized pricing of the services, scheduling, limited work capacity and stress. These insights made us shift our main focus from the farmers to the veterinarians. New interview rounds with veterinarians made us realize how though the business of being a veterinarian really can be.
Accordingly we established a close dialog with several veterinarians and farmers during the project and got the possibility to follow them trough their workdays. Every decision made in the development fase was based on the insights we got from these field studies and interviews. We also organized a close dialog with "Veterinærforeningen" (The veterinarian association of Norway) for a close follow-up on the user needs and knowledge about how our solution would fit the regulations from the government and the municipalities. All our research and app development ensured that KUR would be a good solution for veterinarians and farmers working with live stock.
Design tools like "brandslation", "tone of voice", "cultural probes" and other mapping techniques were used to refine and define the most useful insights we found during our field studies. Using these tools ensured that KUR fits the actual needs of the target group. The Logo, name, visual identity and the use is created to give a clinical and positive feel for the users in agriculture.
