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Dog  Owner
Research

About surveys, interviews and research on dog owners, Understanding the needs of dog owners

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE:

  • Find out what dog owners who are working (busy) struggle with the most so that we can help to improve their relationship with their dog

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

  • Do dog owners have a hard time balancing their schedules?

  • Do dog owners have a difference in their relationship with their dogs after COVID?

  • Do dog owners know how to improve their relationship with their dogs?

Woman and Dog on Hike

TARGET USERS

  • Dog Owners

GOALS

  • Improve their relationship with their dog

  • Better work/life balance

  • Understanding how Covid-19

    impacts their relationships/lifestyle

SECONDARY RESEARCH

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ADOPTION RATE

During the pandemic, more than 23 million American households have adopted a pet.

STRUGGLES

The average cost of owning a pet can range from $700 to $1,100 per year

INTERVIEW ACTIVITIES

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LESS DEPRESSIVE

More than 85 % of dog owners believed their pets had a positive effect on their well-being during the pandemic.

QUOTES

PHOTO

We took photos with the dog owners and their dogs

​

" I have time to walk the dog, but it’s harder to train the dog every day.”

DRAW

Dog owners drew out one word to describe their dog

3 WORDS

We got dog owners to describe their dogs in 3 words

"Whenever I do go outside, I get concerned if she is barking or not."

"My dog will not shut up. I love him, but he gets really barky, and... it's a public disturbance.”

Interview Process

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STATISTICS

5 MAIN POINTS

PAIN POINT

  • Many interviewees felt that training dogs are difficult, requires a lot of treats, and is hard to find the right and long-lasting way.

  • Barking is a problem faced by most of the interviewees. The dog will bark suddenly in any situation, which affects not only the dog owner but also the neighbors.

  • Many interviewees are afraid to leave their dog at home alone or were constantly worried when the dog owner went out because they didn't know what the dog is doing

KEY INSIGHT

BARKING + TRAINING PROBLEM

Since dog owners work from home, the dog's barking is a big issue because it disturbs their work meetings along with being a public disturbance.

It is hard to solve this issue as dog owners struggle to have the correct training method and find it hard to train their dogs to stop barking.

This also leads them to be more nervous when they leave the dog at home, because they are concerned about the dog’s behavior and if they are barking at home with no one to stop them.

User Journey Map

Solution 1

AN APP TO SET TRAINING SCHEDULES AND FIND TRAINING VIDEOS

Mona has a dog that barks often so she gets stressed

After Mona gets reminded to train her dog, she can start her training and even learn training methods through the videos provided

Mona has tried to train her dog but she often loses track of time because of work and forgets to train the dog

Mona finds an app where she can set a schedule specific to her dog life and find training videos

With this app, Mona can set her daily schedule to take care of her dog and the app will have an alarm for set events to remind Mona

Through consistent training, her dog barks less and Mona is less stressed which deepens their relationship

Solution 2

A TOY THAT WILL DISTRACT THE DOG’S ATTENTION

Due to covid, Sarah often has meetings on zoom at home. But, her dog, Lucky barks at the monitor every time they hear a noise. So she cannot focus on her meeting.

There is a “Snack ball” toy to attract dog’s attention. When you put the dog’s snack or food inside and click power button, the toy will move and roll around automatically.

Now, Sarah can focus on the meeting while Lucky is focused on the “Snack ball” toy

Solution 2

SOCIAL APP FOR DOG OWNERS WHERE THEY CAN ALSO GET ADVICE FROM DOG TRAINERS

On this app, users can see dog owners daily life with their dogs and talk about their dog problems

The dog owner is concerned about this because this affects other neighbor’s daily life.

But one day, the dog owner finds an app that many other dog owners use

Dogs is always barking when anyone goes through the door or window

After dog owners use this app, they solved the barking and training problems, they have better relationships with their dogs.

Dog owners can ask questions and post them so that many other dog owners can answer them. Users can also pay to ask professional trainers.

RESEARCH PLAN

  • Develop solutions to solve the barking issue that dog owners face. Interview dog owners to get feedback on our ideas.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

  • To see if our product ideas address and solve the barking issue for dog owners. Develop a final product that dog owners would want to use.

Interviewees

Interview Process

The things we leanred

The things we changed

TOY

Toy only distracts the dog for a brief moment and does not provide long-term solution

TRAINER

Most dog owners really want/need the help of a professional trainer

SCHEDULE

Dog owners do not trust that they would follow the schedule

FINAL PROBLEM STATEMENT

  • How might we help dog owners learn to train their dogs so that the dog doesn’t bark and stress out the owner? 

FINAL SOLUTION

  • Dog training app to help dog owners to find the right personal professional trainer for 1:1 video chat training with daily training tasks

Final design

PupUs is an app that will allow users to connect to professional trainers. 

They can get a personal trainer whom they can message and have online training sessions so that everything would be virtual.

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