PupPals
Connect the Paws!
Team
Problem and Design Overview
Dog socialization often gets overlooked despite its crucial role in contributing to the well-being and happiness of dogs. While many new owners may be unequipped with the proper resources to find safe and compatible playmates for their companions, how can we leverage this gap and focus on fostering safe and accessible socialization?
Introducing PupPals, an innovative solution that addresses the challenges of fostering safe and accessible dog socialization and location tracking. PupPals utilizes a collar wearable and mobile application where owners can discover compatible playmates for their dogs and locate nearby dog-friendly parks and trails with ease. By leveraging technology to bridge the gap in resources, PupPals empowers owners to prioritize socialization and enhance the well-being of their dogs.
Collar Wearable Paper Prototype.
Design Research Process and Key Insights
Our design research process focused on understanding the challenges and needs surrounding dog well-being, particularly in the socialization domain. Our primary goal was to gain insights into the barriers hindering effective socialization and to identify areas for enhancement. To achieve this, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a diverse set of participants, including a veterinary assistant, as well as both new and experienced dog owners in the Greater Seattle area. By engaging individuals with varying levels of experience, we aimed to gather a diverse range of insights regarding the care and socialization of their dogs. Additionally, by seeking input from professionals like veterinarians, we strived to gain valuable perspectives to guide the direction of our project. Through these semi-structured interviews, we aimed to gain a better understanding of current practices in pet care and identify opportunities to improve the welfare of dogs.
All Dog Breeds Have Different Needs
After conducting our three interviews, a prevalent theme across the participants was that all dogs have individual needs, with variance across different breeds, ages, and health conditions. One of our participants shared an anecdote describing a younger dog requiring more exercise and socialization due to their lack of training and high energy levels compared to an older dog, whose exercise needs and energy levels were significantly lower. With this new insight, we concluded there's no universal approach to proper dog care and socialization. Therefore, our design must accommodate and prioritize flexibility when taking into consideration the different temperaments, energy levels, disability and health considerations, and socialization needs.
Proper Socialization Should Be Enforced at a Young Age
During our design research process, a theme that emerged from participant interviews was the importance of early socialization for dogs. One participant emphasized the potential risks associated with inadequately socialized dogs, highlighting concerns about their behavior toward other pets and humans. This insight was shaped by our understanding of the challenges faced by dog owners in facilitating effective socialization, as well as the feedback received from participants about the impact of early experiences on a dog’s behavior. Our design process was informed by this insight, driving us to prioritize features aimed at promoting safe and positive social interactions for dogs from a young age.
Design Research Participant Dogs.
Fostering Community Among Dog Owners
Insights from participants highlighted a strong desire among dog owners to build a healthy and supportive community where they can connect with others who share similar interests and experiences. During the interviews, two of our participants emphasized the importance of features that facilitate social connections such as organizing meetups, dog-friendly events, and other activities like walks or training sessions. This key insight underscores the significance of integrating socialization features into our design solution, fostering a sense of belonging among dog owners while addressing their practical needs for social interaction and support.
Iterative Design Process and Key Insights
The design focus for our iterative design process was centered around two main tasks: Finding appropriate dogs to play with and finding a safe and social walking route using location services. To ensure that the user experience was intuitive, we outlined a user flow that essentially became the blueprint for our paper prototype. Once the user flow was finalized, the paper prototype was designed through a digital drawing tool called Goodnotes. For our usability tests, our participant sample consisted of newer and more experienced dog owners located in the Greater Seattle area. This participant sample brought a diverse range of valuable insights on how we can make PupPals a more user-friendly and inclusive app for owners with all ranges of expertise, as well as refine our two critical task pathways. Through the feedback and critique received through these tests, we finalized the paper prototype. We then translated the paper prototype into a digital mockup, bringing PupPals to life.
Specify Privacy Terms and Settings
From our usability tests, we noted that during the onboarding process of creating an account, all participants expressed confusion and concern about their safety and privacy regarding the social aspects of the app. This can deter users from the PupPals app. Therefore, adding a screen about the app’s privacy terms and the agreement will provide transparency about how the app uses the users’ information.
Privacy Terms (left), Socialization Preferences (right).
Include a Bottom Navigation Bar
Our initial interface included “forward” and “back” buttons to navigate between screens. During the usability test, the participants found it to be inconvenient if they wanted to return to the home page. Our participants provided feedback by suggesting a bottom navigation bar would enhance usability by creating more efficiency when navigating to different main pages easily and quickly.
Home Page (left), Socialization Page of PupPals (right).
Implement More Accessibility Features
During our heuristic evaluation, we realized that we made some assumptions about the user of our mobile application. In the chat portion of our app, our initial design assumed that users would not have any barriers to physically typing messages on a mobile keyboard and reading messages received from other owners. This would make a key feature of the app very difficult for many users, so we updated our design to include speech-to-text and text-to-speech features in the chat home.
Chat Feature Between Owners (left), Reporting Nearby Hazards (right).
Resulting Design
Our final design for PupPals involves both a physical collar wearable and a digital mobile application. We transitioned our paper prototype into a digital mockup using the design tool, Figma. Our critical aspects of the design follow the primary tasks of finding appropriate dogs to play with and finding a safe and social walking route using location tracking.
Overview of Paper Prototype for Mobile Application.
Collar Wearable
Our digital mockup of the collar wearable features a Bluetooth button to sync the collar to the user’s device. The collar also has a light-up component which changes based on the dog’s location and safety.
Light-up Collar Wearable.
Onboarding Process
When users open the PupPals mobile app, they will create an account (if this is their first time using the app), otherwise log in.
Opening Page (left), Log In (right).
Proceeding with the onboarding process for users who are creating a new account, they will be prompted to the privacy terms and they need to check the agreement box on the bottom to use the app. They will then connect the collar wearable device with the app via Bluetooth.
Privacy Terms (left), Connecting Device to Collar Wearable (right).
During this process of the onboarding process, users can modify the settings for the device and app, which can be edited later on. Lastly, users create a profile for their dog and review it.
Settings Page (left), Dog’s Profile Page (right).
Task 1: Finding Appropriate Dogs to Play With
Users will be prompted to the home page, where the users will click the “Socialization” button.
Home Page of PupPals (left), Socialization Main Page (right).
Users are prompted to fill out socialization preferences based on the dog’s age and personality type. From here, users are asked to input their zip code, city, or use their current location to find potential playmates who are local to them.
Age Preferences (left), Location (right).
Based on the user location, profiles of nearby dogs are generated. The users can scroll through each profile and determine potential matches for their dogs to play with. If the users find a playmate they would like to connect with, they can click the “Send Request” button. When a friend request has been accepted, users can view their friends list and use the chat feature to arrange meetups.
Potential Friends (left), Friends List (right).
Task 2: Finding a Safe and Social Walking Route Using Location Services
Through the home page, users will click the “Location Tracker” button.
Home Page of PupPals (left), Location Tracking Main Page (right).
Users will then select the “Walking Routes Near Me” button. From here, they can enter the desired zip code or city to find local dog-friendly walking routes, and the users will be given a list of locations.
Location Features (left), Walking Routes Based on Nearest Location (right).
Based on the user zip code, owners can use the filter option to narrow down the distance and type of location they would like to visit (dog park, park, walking route). Locations will be generated according to the noted preferences.
Enter Zip Code (left), Filter Routes Page (right).
The tracking feature allows users to view their dog’s location in real-time. The outlined area will reflect the light-up component on the collar wearable. Additionally, users can use the report button to notify other owners of any hazards in the area – if the report feature is utilized, this will reflect a red light on the collar wearable.
Report Hazard Page (left), Track Dog's Location (right).