### Problem and Solution Overview The problem we are addressing is obesity in dogs. We are seeking ways to help dog owners help their pets lose enough weight to be considered healthy or maintain their already healthy weight. Our solution is a smart dog collar and app combination that tracks when and where a dog eats, as well as tracking information associated with exercise and calorie consumption. Tracking these data points will help give owners enough information to be able to make informed decisions to help keep their pets healthy. ### Design Research Goals, Methods, and Participants #### Design Focus & Primary Need for Additional Understanding Our initial focus has remained the same throughout our project - helping dog owners address their dogs’ weight. The primary things we needed to understand were the underlying causes for dog obesity and what helped perpetuate the weight issues. We felt that addressing these things would be the key to solving the issue. #### Design Method and Participants To better understand the issue, we hoped to get information straight from the professionals. Our initial outreach and search for participants included veterinarians local to the Seattle area. The idea was that a veterinarian would know best how to address obesity within animals. We hoped to perform contextual inquiry, following around the veterinarians throughout their day. Unfortunately, due to liability issues and non-disclosure agreements, we were unable to get access to any veterinarians. We proceeded to pivot entirely away from veterinarians, and more towards the dog owners themselves, using primarily semi-structured interviews to interview participants. The questions generally consisted of inquiries into their daily lives, what they considered healthy, their current actions to address their issues, and what information they wished they could have. In the case of some participants, we followed them throughout their day as they cared for their pets. In total, we interviewed 3 dog owners, a foster dog parent, and a professional dog walker. While we wanted to get information regarding how to treat pet obesity from veterinarians, by pivoting to the owners themselves, our design goals solidified more towards helping dog owners do what they already do to address their pets’ obesity rather than starting from a blank canvas. ### Design Research Results and Themes Over the course of all the interviews, two themes stood out. The source of a dog’s calorie intake was the most prominent factor that our interviewees mentioned. This ended up influencing our design the greatest. #### Food Sources and Overeating The biggest insight we developed was around the diet of the pet. We found that many owners were having trouble tracking every source of food given to their dogs. One of the participants we interviewed had two dogs. Their problem was unique in that one dog would eat their full meal when it was served to them, while the other preferred to eat a little at a time throughout the day. This ended up creating a problem where the one dog would end up eating their food, and then some of the other dog’s food. Another participant that we interviewed, Julie, also had a dog that steals food from the bowls of other dogs. Another common theme we heard from multiple participants was how hard it was for them to say no to their dogs. People are so emotionally invested in their dogs that one owner said,  “it was hard to say no to his puppy-dog eyes.” This same owner often found out that his extended family was giving his overweight dog treats even when he asked them not to.  This correlated directly with the opinions of the professional dog walker: “Owners love their dogs so much, they often feel like it is mean to withhold food in any way.” Many owners mentioned that they wished they had a way to be able track when their dog eats, especially when the owner isn’t around. It became clear that if we wanted to effectively help owners deal with dog obesity, figuring out a way to automatically track when a dog is being fed was vital. #### Exercise When a human wants to lose weight, the phrase most often quoted is “diet and exercise”. This holds true for dogs as well. Although we chose to focus more on the diet side of that equation, we didn't want to completely ignore exercise. What we found through our interviews was that pet owners never tracked how much exercise their pets received. One owner mentioned that his dog received,  “about an hour of play and another hour of walking”. When prompted for more details, he didn’t know and hadn’t recorded specifics. When we asked owners about duration and distance of exercise, most of the comments we received were vague. Based on this, we decided that focusing on automatic exercise tracking would provide an obvious benefit. ### Identified Tasks Based on the interviews, we found that most participants don’t know how many calories their dogs consume daily and how much exercise their dogs get even though  these are the two most important factors influencing a dog’s weight. Therefore, we decide to create the six tasks below to help address the two problems, along with some other concerns that the participants have or lack of knowledge in. #### 1. Track a dog’s weight over time, daily, weekly, and monthly The main goal of our design is to help dogs maintain a healthy weight. According to our interview responses, dog owners or dog caregivers, such as professional dog walkers, know that there would be slight fluctuations in dogs’ weights. They usually don’t notice their dogs gaining weight unless the weight gain can be visually seen. However, it is crucial to be aware of any weight gain in dogs in the early stage and start intervening immediately. Therefore, we found it helpful to track a dog’s weight over time (daily, weekly, and monthly). By doing this, it helps participants notice potential trends of weight gain, and also helps them to see how weight responds to variation in food intake and exercise. #### 2. Access to veterinarians and professional help All of the dog owners we have interviewed expressed how busy they are dealing with things at school or work. They often didn’t have the time to get their dog regularly weighed. Also, they don’t have much experience and education in this area and preferred to consult veterinarians instead of making decisions on their own. Most of them talked about the desire for a quick and convenient way to consult veterinarians. Thus, we decided to add access to veterinarians as a task because a lot of dog owners rely on this means to determine whether their dogs are overweight. #### 3. Track and monitor a dog’s exercise Exercise is one of the primary means for dogs to maintain a healthy weight. According to our interview responses,many owners don’t track or know how much their dogs are exercising. One of the dog owners we interviewed just let her dogs outside.  Another owner told us that the duration of exercise depends on how much time she has that day. It was clear how important tracking the exercise a dog is getting to inform the dog owners for them to make informed decisions on whether to exercise their dogs more. #### 4. Track dog’s body shape From our interview responses, we learned that some dog owners don’t have a scale at home to weigh their dog. Instead, they were taught by the veterinarians to feel for the ribs of their dogs. If the ribs can be felt distinctly, the dogs are not overweight. The reason this is taught is because dogs have a huge variance in what is considered a healthy weight. Things like size, age, sex, and breed are important factors when determining the correct weight range for a specific dog.  By reducing this complex formula to instead have an owner inspect a dog’s shape, it can provide a higher level of success. Therefore, tracking a dog’s body shape provides a more accurate judgment than the weight itself. #### 5. Track which dog ate from the food bowl Having multiple pets in one household can create an issue for owners as dogs’ don’t always feed themselves consistently. Some dogs prefer to graze throughout their day, while other dogs eat solely at their meal time. For owners with multiple dogs, this can cause an issue where an overweight dog could eat another dog’s food, making  their weight issue even worse. One of the interviewees has this situation. According to our interview findings, many owners can’t be home all day to monitor how many calories each dog consumes. Being able to automatically track when a dog’s eating, how much it eats, and from which food bowl, would help multiple-dog owners keep their pets healthy. #### 6. Track a dog’s food intake from various sources Food intake is the primary factor affecting a dog’s weight. This can be a complex problem as there are so many varieties of dog food, each with their own calorie density. Also, based on our interviewees, many owners have trouble calculating exactly how many calories they are feeding their dogs based on the food labels. Meanwhile, dogs are often fed treats and scraps, and these calories are the most difficult to figure into their diet. Knowing the precise amount of calories a dog consumes would allow an owner to keep their dogs from becoming overweight. ### Proposed Design Sketches #### Design 1: Food Intake and Weight Monitoring Device Suite This device suite is intended to use multiple tools together as a kit to help dogs stay within a healthy weight range (Figure 1). The first part is a smart food bowl with a sensor that detects and recognizes which dog reaches the bowl. It, then, provides that dog the amount of dog food set by the user in advance and notifies the user about it via a mobile application (Task 5 & 6). The second part is a 3D model of a dog’s body shape built by the app with the pictures of the dog taken by the user. Then, it conducts an actual & ideal body shape comparison analysis based on the 3D model and other data like dog breed and age in the application (Task 4). The last part is a smart scale that weighs a dog and sends weight-related data, such as weight and body fat, to the application (Task 1).

Figure 1: Design 1 - Food Intake and Weight Monitoring Device Suite

#### Design 2: Pure Manual Entry Application Unlike the first design, this design focuses purely on the application and manual entry of data. Users need to manually input different kinds of data for collection and analysis. This allows pet owners to be more precise with their tracking. Based on the sketches below, the users will need to manually input data, such as the number of steps walked, the amount of calories eaten, to track and monitor their dogs’ food intake and exercise (Task 1, 3, 4). The user will also be able to manually locate a nearby pet clinic and seek professional help (Task 2).  

Figure 2: Design 2 - Pure Manual Entry Application

#### Design 3: Dog Camera Wearable This design, unlike the second one, is all automatic. This is also different from the second design, which is an all-in-one design that only comes with a camera wearable and a mobile application. This is more convenient than the other two. The camera wearable works like a goPro and enables the user to check whether the dog’s eating when it’s not supposed to (Task 5 & 6). In the application, the user can view the automatically collected exercise and food intake data (Task 3 & 6). The data and clips of the dog can be sent to a vet for consultation (Task 2).

Figure 3: Design 3 - Dog Camera Wearable

### Selected Design and Storyboard: After considering the feedback we received for the design sketches and  re-evaluating our user needs, we decide to narrow the scope down and focus on a mobile application, a smart collar clip that includes a proximity sensor, GPS tracking, and a pedometer, and an optional tile sticker. Based on our interview responses, tracking food intake and exercise is crucial to help dogs maintain healthy weight. The smart clip is enough to accomplish these two main tasks. It tracks different exercise-related data. Meanwhile, it replaces the smart food bowl by tracking which dog is eating via the clip’s proximity sensor detecting the other sensor sticker on the food bowl. The collar clip doesn’t only simplify the process of collecting and analyzing data, but also reduces the cost for users. #### Written Scenarios #### Track which dog ate from the food bowl Tom recently graduated from the University of Washington and decided to start a professional career straight out of school. He has two dogs, Sled and Gabi. Sled was found as a stray and is a Husky crossbreed, and Gabi is a 2-year-old Australian Shepherd. They live in a one-story house with a fair amount of extended family. Tom regularly takes his dogs out for exercise and plays with them. He also brings them to the veterinarian for a check-up every three months. He feeds both dogs once a day. However, Gabi and Sled have different eating habits. Sled likes to eat everything at once and has his bowl put away, while Gabi likes to graze bit by bit and has her bowl left out throughout the day. Sled likes to steal food from Gabi’s bowl. He’s overweight because he eats way too much every day. Tom wants to know whether Sled has eaten Gabi’s food while he’s not home so he would not give him anymore treats when he gets home. Therefore, he purchased Feedo. Soon, he received the smart collar clip and the tile stickers and downloaded the app Feedo. Tom synced the collar to the application and put the tile stickers on the two food bowls. Now, when he’s not home, the application will receive a signal from the clip if Sled gets close to Gabi’s bowl and notify him about the situation. When Tom is notified, he would not give any more treats to Sled when he gets home. After using Feedo for a while, he found out that Sled likes to steal food most of the time, so he reduced the amount of food for Sled and added more food for Gabi. Now, both Gabi and Sled are eating the appropriate amount of food every day.

#### Track and monitor a dog’s exercise Drew is a first-year mid-career graduate student in the information management program at Cornell University. He is so busy going to school and work at the same time. He’s overwhelmed by the amount of work he needs to do every day. He lives in an apartment with his one-year-old Poodle, Joba. Taking Joba out for a walk is the only time he has for relaxation. During this time, he only wants to enjoy his leisure time and usually forgets to track the distance walked or the exact time spent, even if he is concerned about Jobabeing a little bit overweight. He would like to increase the intensity of exercise for Joba, but he doesn't know how much he should increase. One day, he was searching online for means to help dogs lose weight via exercise. He came across Feedo and purchased it right away. He received a smart collar clip and a proximity sensor the next day after his purchase. He downloaded the application as well. Now, when he takes Joba out for a walk, the smart clip’s GPS tracking and pedometer would detect it and sends a message through the application to confirm with Drew about whether he’s walking Joba. Once Drew confirms it, the clip will automatically record the distance walked, the time spent, the speed, and the approximate calories burnt. When they get home, the application will send a summary of the exercise for analysis. With the application’s pop-out confirmation, Drew never forgets to record the exercise-related data now. Also, by viewing the collected data, Drew now has a better idea of how much to increase the intensity of exercise for Joba.