Fellow – Veterinary Appointment Booking

Mission

Fellow is rethinking veterinary care in Germany. They handle everything from practice management and administration to online booking, so veterinarians can fully concentrate on their core business: treating pets. Our task was to build a booking platform that matches their modern approach to veterinary care.

The goal was clear: create a seamless, mobile-first booking experience that removes all friction from the appointment scheduling process. Pet owners should be able to book a vet appointment as easily as ordering food: fast, intuitive, and on their phone. The platform needed to scale across multiple practices as Fellow continues to expand throughout Germany.

Design

The design was crafted by Double Down Studio with a clear focus on three core principles:

Mobile-optimized design

Built mobile-first from the ground up, the interface is designed for one-handed use on smartphones, where the vast majority of bookings happen. Every element is sized for touch, with generous tap targets and a vertical layout that feels native to mobile users.

Simple flow for intuitive UX

The booking journey follows a clear, linear 4-step progress. Location → Appointment → Pet → Owner Details. Each step is focused on a single task, minimizing cognitive load and guiding users naturally through the process.

Reduced to essentials, conversion-optimized

Every element on screen serves a purpose. The UI strips away unnecessary complexity, showing only what the user needs at each step to complete their booking. Real-time availability indicators and a prominent "next available slot" call-to-action drive conversions.

Development

The booking app is built with Next.js and deployed on Vercel. Server components handle initial page loads while client components power the interactive booking flow.

Lupa integration

All appointment data is driven by Lupa, the practice management system used by Fellow. Available time slots, appointment types, and veterinarians are fetched in real time, ensuring the booking experience always reflects each practice's actual schedule. Intelligent prefetching and automatic fallback to the next available month keep the calendar fast and always showing bookable options.

Smart calendar UX

Users can toggle between week and month views and filter by time of day (morning, midday, evening).

SMS verification

Phone number verification via Twilio ensures booking authenticity and enables reliable appointment reminders.

Transactional emails

Beautifully designed confirmation, update, and cancellation emails built with react-email, providing a consistent brand experience across all touchpoints.

Appointment management

Each booking generates a unique management link for easy rescheduling or cancellation, no account or login required.

Additional info collection

After booking, pet owners can complete their profile with detailed owner and pet information, either right after booking or while waiting in the waiting room from their own device. This saves time at the front desk and lets the veterinary team prepare for the visit.

Analytics

PostHog event tracking across the entire booking funnel enables continuous conversion optimization based on real user behavior.

Bot protection

botid integration prevents automated abuse and ensures slot availability reflects genuine demand.

Draft persistence

Booking progress is automatically saved to localStorage, so users can seamlessly resume if they are interrupted mid-booking.