Pet demeanours
SaaS web-app Case Study • ezyvet
A visit to the vet can be stressful for not only us and our pets, but also for the veterinarians and nurses who look after them. The safety and comfort of all is a big part of any visit, from annual checkups to emergency surgeries. How might we keep everyone at the clinic safe and aware, so that our pets stay happy and healthy?
Product discovery
User testing
User experience
UI design
the problem
Without knowing what causes an animal to be distressed, vet staff could not only put themselves at risk, but also the wellbeing of the animal itself.
interview & workshop findings
- The ezyVet product displayed “friendly”, “caution”, and “unfriendly”. The existing way of presenting these demeanours were vague, leaving a lot of triggers up for interpretation.
- Our customers rely a lot on quick glances and colour queues to represent a urgency and behaviour.
- The types of customers who add demeanours the most tend to be veterinarians and vet technicians/nurses.
- The feelings of pet owners should be kept in mind, especially when their animals may be aggressive.
success metrics
A high rate of clients opting in to the new feature
An intuitive system to communicate patient behaviours
Ability to sunset legacy feature
Positive feedback through follow up surveys
“Currently, I feel that the statuses do not give enough information. We need more ahead of appointments to prepare for our day.”
Lydia Dyas
Practice Owner at East Malvern Vet Clinic
design & testing
We completed our first version where we focused on improving our current system for animal demeanours. We introduced more default options, enabling users to create their own demeanours, allowing for full customisation. We made sure to include a variety of icons and colours so more dangerous options could stand out on a patient record.
90%
of users said this would improve visibility of patient information
40%
of users said they would find more value in fully customisable options
Sync & async testing with 15 users across small animal, exotic, and large animal veterinarians, nurses/techs, practice owners, and managers across five countries.
Video shows the end-to-end experience for early concepts, from creating a demeanour option to viewing multiple statuses on a patient record.
outcomes
- Users now have more transparency around an animal's demeanour. This allows for more shared information ahead of an appointment, allowing clinic staff to prepare for particular situations.
- The feelings of pet owners should also be kept in mind, especially when their animals may be aggressive. A toggle feature was added to hide potentially upsetting information when showing screens to owners.
Beta release went out to 50 users in April 2021
Accessibility
As safety was at the forefront of this project, we ensured full usability for colour-blind support by providing the option to pair labels with colours and icons. Using colour to communicate at a quick glance, and icons for more accessible communication, allows staff to spot potential risks and act quickly.
Friendly
Nervous around men
Anxious
Food aggressive
Venomous
compliant WCAG for all colour combinations.
fully screen-reader compliant for web and mobile
Other screens
Full prototype video
Feedback from users 2 weeks after launch
A huge improvement for staff safety. As an exotics only clinic, we deal with venomous snakes so being able to mark them as such would be very useful!
Dr Shane Simpson
Veterinarian @ The Unusual Pet Vets, Australia
What a great update! Customizable patient demeanors... woo! I'm so excited to use software that actually updates!
Anonymous
Practice manager based in Texas, USA.
An awesome update that has really helped our vets, nurses, and students work and learn more efficiently.
Jordan Nerswick
PM for hospital information systems @ Ohio State University
Final release to 20k+ users in July 2022
As of 2026, demeanours is used by over 100,000 users
100%
of ezyVet users use customised demeanours in 2025
523
practices received the feature on final release
50,000
unique demeanours created across 4,000+ clinics in over 20 countries
2/3
of ezyVet sites have patients with more than one demeanour assigned.
Next project →
← Back home
Pet demeanours
SaaS web-app Case Study • ezyvet
A visit to the vet can be stressful for not only us and our pets, but also for the veterinarians and nurses who look after them. The safety and comfort of all is a big part of any visit, from annual checkups to emergency surgeries. How might we keep everyone at the clinic safe and aware, so that our pets stay happy and healthy?
Product discovery
User testing
User experience
UI design
the problem
Without knowing what causes an animal to be distressed, vet staff could not only put themselves at risk, but also the wellbeing of the animal itself.
interview & workshop findings
- The ezyVet product displayed “friendly”, “caution”, and “unfriendly”. The existing way of presenting these demeanours were vague, leaving a lot of triggers up for interpretation.
- Our customers rely a lot on quick glances and colour queues to represent a urgency and behaviour.
- The types of customers who add demeanours the most tend to be veterinarians and vet technicians/nurses.
- The feelings of pet owners should be kept in mind, especially when their animals may be aggressive.
success metrics
A high rate of clients opting in to the new feature
An intuitive system to communicate patient behaviours
Ability to sunset legacy feature
Positive feedback through follow up surveys
“Currently, I feel that the statuses do not give enough information. We need more ahead of appointments to prepare for our day.”
Lydia Dyas
Practice Owner at East Malvern Vet Clinic
design & testing
We completed our first version where we focused on improving our current system for animal demeanours. We introduced more default options, enabling users to create their own demeanours, allowing for full customisation. We made sure to include a variety of icons and colours so more dangerous options could stand out on a patient record.
90%
of users said this would improve visibility of patient information
40%
of users said they would find more value in fully customisable options
Sync & async testing with 15 users across small animal, exotic, and large animal veterinarians, nurses/techs, practice owners, and managers across five countries.
Video shows the end-to-end experience for early concepts, from creating a demeanour option to viewing multiple statuses on a patient record.
outcomes
- Users now have more transparency around an animal's demeanour. This allows for more shared information ahead of an appointment, allowing clinic staff to prepare for particular situations.
- The feelings of pet owners should also be kept in mind, especially when their animals may be aggressive. A toggle feature was added to hide potentially upsetting information when showing screens to owners.
Beta release went out to 50 users in April 2021
Accessibility
As safety was at the forefront of this project, we ensured full usability for colour-blind support by providing the option to pair labels with colours and icons. Using colour to communicate at a quick glance, and icons for more accessible communication, allows staff to spot potential risks and act quickly.
Friendly
Nervous around men
Anxious
Food aggressive
Venomous
compliant WCAG for all colour combinations.
fully screen-reader compliant for web and mobile
Other screens
Feedback from users 2 weeks after launch
A huge improvement for staff safety. As an exotics only clinic, we deal with venomous snakes so being able to mark them as such would be very useful!
Dr Shane Simpson
Veterinarian @ The Unusual Pet Vets, Australia
What a great update! Customizable patient demeanors... woo! I'm so excited to use software that actually updates!
Anonymous
Practice manager based in Texas, USA.
An awesome update that has really helped our vets, nurses, and students work and learn more efficiently.
Jordan Nerswick
PM for hospital information systems @ Ohio State University
Final release to 20k+ users in July 2022
As of 2026, demeanours is used by over 100,000 users
100%
of ezyVet users use customised demeanours in 2025
523
practices received the feature on final release
50,000
unique demeanours created across 4,000+ clinics in over 20 countries
2/3
of ezyVet sites have patients with more than one demeanour assigned.
← Back
Next project →
Pet demeanours
SaaS web-app Case Study • ezyvet
A visit to the vet can be stressful for not only us and our pets, but also for the veterinarians and nurses who look after them. The safety and comfort of all is a big part of any visit, from annual checkups to emergency surgeries. How might we keep everyone at the clinic safe and aware, so that our pets stay happy and healthy?
Product discovery
User testing
User experience
UI design
the problem
Without knowing what causes an animal to be distressed, vet staff could not only put themselves at risk, but also the wellbeing of the animal itself.
interview & workshop findings
- The existing way of presenting these demeanours were vague, leaving a lot of triggers up for interpretation.
- Users rely on quick glances and colour queues to represent urgency and behaviour.
- The types of customers who add demeanours most commonly, tend to be veterinarians and vet technicians/nurses.
- The industry standard in the US was a system called ‘Fear Free’, something we wanted to incorporate into our default options.
success metrics
A high rate of clients opting in to the new feature
An intuitive system to communicate patient behaviours
Ability to sunset legacy feature
Positive feedback through follow up surveys
“Currently, I feel that the statuses do not give enough information. We need more ahead of appointments to prepare for our day.”
Lydia Dyas
Practice Owner at East Malvern Vet Clinic
design & testing
We completed our first version where we focused on improving our current system for animal demeanours. We introduced more default options, enabling users to create their own demeanours, allowing for full customisation. We made sure to include a variety of icons and colours so more dangerous options could stand out on a patient record.
90%
of users said this would improve visibility of patient information
40%
of users said they would find more value in fully customisable options
Sync & async testing with 15 users across small animal, exotic, and large animal veterinarians, nurses/techs, practice owners, and managers across five countries.
Video shows the end-to-end experience for early concepts, from creating a demeanour option to viewing multiple statuses on a patient record.
outcomes
- Users now have more transparency around an animal's demeanour. This allows for more shared information ahead of an appointment, allowing clinic staff to prepare for particular situations.
- The feelings of pet owners should also be kept in mind, especially when their animals may be aggressive. A toggle feature was added to hide potentially upsetting information when showing screens to owners.
Beta release went out to 50 users in April 2021
Accessibility
As safety was at the forefront of this project, we ensured full usability for colour-blind support by providing the option to pair labels with colours and icons. Using colour to communicate at a quick glance, and icons for more accessible communication, allows staff to spot potential risks and act quickly.
Friendly
Nervous around men
Anxious
Food aggressive
Venomous
compliant WCAG for all colour combinations.
fully screen-reader compliant for web and mobile
Other screens
Full prototype video
Feedback from users 2 weeks after launch
A huge improvement for staff safety. As an exotics only clinic, we deal with venomous snakes so being able to mark them as such would be very useful!
Dr Shane Simpson
Veterinarian @ The Unusual Pet Vets, Australia
What a great update! Customizable patient demeanours... woo! I'm so excited to use software that actually updates!
Anonymous
Practice manager based in Texas, USA.
An awesome update that has really helped our vets, nurses, and students work and learn more efficiently.
Jordan Nerswick
PM for hospital information systems @ Ohio State University
Final release to 20k users in July 2022
As of 2026, demeanours is used by over 100,000 users
100%
of ezyVet users use customised demeanours in 2025
523
practices received the feature on final release
50,000
unique demeanours created across 4,000+ clinics in over 20 countries
2/3
of ezyVet sites have patients with more than one demeanour assigned.