Hobby farmers and small business owners have unique needs and there is a limited amount of agricultural apps on the market. Along with raising a niche animal, there are fewer veterinarians that specialized in/and are available to take care of livestock animals. In addition, the farming community has changed greatly in the past 20 years, with more generational farmers leaving a depletion in expertise with location based solutions, i.e, soil nutrients.
“There are not enough humans to take care of all the animals.” The Atlantic, July 6, 2022
There is an estimated shortage of nearly seven thousand veterinarians in the U.S. for pet owners(which doesn’t factor in the specialized field of livestock and large animals). The 32 Veterinary medical schools produce about 3,200 graduates each year, not nearly enough to cover the number of doctors who retire and the increase in demand for pandemic pets. Keeping this in mind, the task of finding a veterinarian who specializes in livestock and willing to do farm calls is a massive burden for shepherds.
Resources for the shepherd can be found online and in print form, but the information is quite varied and really depends on means to access. The resources I accessed were quite assorted from 4H Club, University extensions, and online versions of veterinarian books, such as the Merck Veterinary Manual. I borrowed a popular book that was highly recommended, Storey’s Guide to Raising Sheep to facilitate a wider understanding of the quandaries of shepherds. Armed with this acquired knowledge, I launched into Competitive Analysis of existing apps.
I joined 7 Facebook and Reddit groups(specific for shepherds) to get an in-depth look at the needs and pinpoint how an app could help alleviate some of the burdens.
Shepherds are inclined to help a fellow shepherd, be it a newbie or a veteran. The response was 100% with coming to aid or assisting, in both survey and interviews. They also would rather troubleshoot before calling a veterinarian- both valuing independence and the price tag that comes with a farm call.
The testing was unmonitored and completed on Maze. A couple of the users from the interviews were able to complete the testing which was conducive with getting accurate criticism. Users completed four flows and answered open-ended questions and scaled questions. Since some of the frames were not used in the flows, they were shared to elicit additional feedback.
(Click on images to view videos)
Registered user will login and check calendar date for upcoming appointment.
User will conduct two medical searches; for foot rot and using the feature 'poisonous plants'.
User will search for a new group in the community feature for recipes.
