Pet Pal
Play with your dogs from your desk!
About 20% of the nation’s dogs suffer from separation anxiety and, even though options, such as professional training, medication, or other DIY options, exist, owners often still feel guilty leaving their dogs alone for long periods of time. In our user-centered design study, my team of three set out to find a solution to this problem and came up with the Pet Pal, an inexpensive remote pet care device that allows owners to socially interact with their dogs, even when they are away from home. Prior to reaching the Pet Pal design, though, we stepped through several iterations, interviewing dog owners along the way to obtain helpful feedback.
Ideation and Initial Pretotypes
For our Advanced Product Design course at CU, we were tasked with developing a product that solves a need in today’s society. We brainstormed problems and needs within the pet supply industry and narrowed our target users to fully employed dog owners. During our initial interviews, we found a common issue when owners left pets at home alone for long periods of time. After inquiring more about this issue, we discovered that most owners were not worried about their pets causing problems, but rather they felt guilty being away. Thus, we largely concentrated our need statement around the owner, aiming to design a product that satisfied the need for a method to socially interact with dogs while away from home.
After narrowing down a concept map of all of our ideas, we arrived at three initial pretotypes that we introduced to users:
A manually operated dog treadmill
Powered by the dog, no motor
Food dispenser to motivate dog to walk
Camera to give user visual feedback
A remote controlled treat dispenser
Treat dispenser
Camera to give user visual feedback
Speaker for audible interaction
An automatic ball/toy launcher
Ball/toy dispenser
Camera for visual feedback
Speaker for audible interaction
We found that users preferred the treat dispenser for a number of reasons: it could interest and motivate most dogs better than toys, it would provide owners with an intuitive way to interact with their dogs without risking a disconnection between actual personal interaction, and it required the least amount of space. Thus, we moved forward with this idea for further exploration.
First Prototype Iteration—Functional Cardboard
Our first iteration focused on providing users with a better understanding of the remote treat dispenser observing how dogs respond to a more functional prototype. Using the cardboard pretotype, we implemented more elements, including video and audio interaction
Second Prototype Iteration—Aesthetics
Prior to designing our second iteration, we took the treat dispensing prototype back to our test subjects to see how they responded to our intended functionality of the product. We used a Bluetooth speaker and two connected cell phones to simulate the video and audio interactions and filled the cardboard prototype with food to observe the dog’s interaction. This led to a some important discoveries:
hearing their owners’ voices worsened some dogs’ anxiety when they couldn’t find their owner
non-vocal audio cues began training the dogs to look for the dispenser, the treats distracted the dogs well
owners enjoyed the simple interface of the phone
This feedback led to the second design that we modeled in SolidWorks, where we envisioned the user placing two devices in his or her home and calling the dog back and forth between the treat dispensers with a audible, dog-friendly tone. We took this idea to users to obtain feedback on the size, design, and overall functionality and found the following:
Good size
Expected a treat capacity for about a week
Better stability
Dogs could knock it over easily
Needs a secure lid
Aesthetic similar to home accessories
More inconspicuous than dog toys
No need for two treat dispensers