Front-End Design:
Dog Walking
Engineering Honors Capstone Project
Goals
- To thoroughly explore the front-end design space for a given domain.
- To learn and apply design ethnography tools for effective customer validation.
Design Process
1. Problem Space Exploration
Design Requirements & Specifications:
Needs Prioritization:
- Screened the list of needs based on:
1. Scientific research foundation.
2. Existing designs landscape
3. Stakeholder impact.
4. Market size and competition.
5. Mechanical engineering scope.
- Identified that the biggest unmet need which enabled a new problem statement iteration.
Revised Problem Statement:
Irregular dog walkers are much less likely to achieve the weekly health recommendation of 150 minutes of walking per week. Often, dog walkers are unable to comfortably pause on a walk with their pet pulling to continue exploring, reducing the chance of a longer walk. Design a way to improve the user experience of stopping while dog walking. The design should work for a large range of dog breeds and should be both convenient and accessible.
Problem Definition:
- Researched problems facing a variety of different demographics.
- Identified that many individuals struggle to have an entirely positive experience when walking their dogs.
- Discovered many community health issues related to lack of exercise.
Problem Scoping:
Irregular dog walkers are much less likely to achieve the weekly health recommendation of 150 minutes of walking per week. Design a way to increase the time irregular dog walkers spend waking their dog per week.
2. Design Ethnography
Observations:
- Conducted 30 observations using Spradley's 9 Dimensions in various dog parks and dog-attended cafes in Paris, France.
- Identified key compensatory behaviors that had not been discovered through traditional research.
- Analyzed dog-to-dog, dog-to-owner, and owner-to-owner interactions.
Interviews:
- Conducted three interviews with dog owners representing a diverse set of demographics and dog breeds globally.
- Explored the perceived set of challenges in great detail.
Surveys:
- Surveyed 15 dog walkers on their preferences, values, behaviors, and dog types.
- Collated a database of information on a "typical" dog walker for later use as a persona.
- Broadened beyond just a few opinions to remove implicit bias.
3. Synthesis
Raw Data Analysis:
- Identified patterns and differences that supported or rejected earlier claims about the domain.
- Formed evidence-based insights in order to create a list of target demographic needs.
Some of the observed & surveyed dogs.
Personas:
- Developed primary and secondary personas to satisfy during iteration.
- Encouraged empathetic consideration of the individual user versus the entire demographic.
Primary & secondary personas.
Stakeholder Requirements Engineering Specifications
Ideation Strategies:
- Brainstorming.
- Morphological chart.
- Analogical thinking.
- Design heuristics cards.
- Combining ideas.
Stakeholder Requirements Engineering Specifications
• Portable
• Durable & Reliable
• Affordable
• Accessible
• Comfortable & Safe
• Easy to Clean
• Total product mass must not exceed 113 grams.
• Average adult should be able to transport the product greater than 10 miles.
• Product must be able to last one year (353 uses).
• Product should function for 120 minutes per use.
• Product must support 80 pounds.
• Product price should not exceed $16.
• Product should work in combination with all current products
• Product should be easy to remember when leaving for a walk.
• Product should be adjustable to fit all dog breeds.
• No additional tools should be required to set up the product.
• Product should require less than 1 minute of setup time.
• Product require no user hands when operating.
• Product must never harm either the dog or owner.
• Product must never let the dog loose.
• 100% non-absorbent.
• Product should be cleaned in under 10 seconds.
4. Concept Generation
Final Design Selection:
Challenges
- Extremely broad range of dog breeds to design for.
- Remote project: limited access to english-speaking users for testing.
- Increasing survey response rate.
Results
- In-depth understanding of the domain and specific challenges associated with it.
- Creation of 20+ potential concepts.
- Low-fidelity prototyping of the selected concept.
Conclusion
This project allowed exploration of the front-end design space, a stage which is often rushed in my semester-long projects. The insights gained from collecting my own qualitative data were not discovered during initial research. A key learning was the radically different value derived from different design ethnography techniques. Concepts were generated based on the identified needs of the target demographic and aimed to mitigate any designer bias. A new mindset and comfort with divergence was developed which can be applied to all future projects.