Doggie Jamz

Bluetooth headphones and companion app to desensitize your pet from environmental stressors.

Anchor 1

Challenge

Approach

Solution

Garret needs to have a stress reduction solution for his dog.

+ User Interview

+ Story Boarding

+ Concept Ideation

+ Research
+ Visual Design

Doggie Jamz are Bluetooth headphones set inside a headband to allow Garret to play sound that would desensitize Theo to his stress trigger sounds.

Anchor 2

1-week sprint

1 UX designers for

low-level fidelity deliverables.

User Research,

Story Boarding,

Paper Prototyping, Sketching

Pen, Paper

DURATION

TEAM

METHOD

TOOLS

Anchor 3

Research

Anchor 4

This was different than the regular design process. I was designing for a single user. My user, Garret, did not have a particular project in mind. I needed to get to know Garret to determine how I could solve a problem in his everyday life.

Through informal conversations, I was able to discover some of Garret’s annoyances. Some of these instances were the fear of getting parking tickets/getting pulled over, dealing with his dog’s unpredictable aggressive behavior, and a solution for sharing food with his housemates.

In addition to finding his pain points, I asked what kinds of things delighted Garret. He loves getting packages in the mail, whiteboarding/sticky notes, and likes playing tabletop games with his friends.

After considering what solution that I could provide to truly improve Garret’s life, I settled on finding a solution to help with his dog’s behavior.

Garret and Theo are both anxious on their walk.

Theo's anxiety affects every aspect of Garret's life.

Garret and Theo are both happy and relaxed.

Garret and Theo can relax in public.

Anchor 5

Synthesis

I sketched a number of solutions to test my hypothesis with my sole user. After testing the hypotheses with Garret, he was interested in many of them, but really wanted a solution that would work. After doing some additional research on dogs and their stressors, one solution stood above the others.

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

Anchor 6

Ideation

I started by going very broad with the companion app. I created audio flows for calming, exercise, training, and a dog whistle alert. This product was getting rather robust, but I was pulling away from my users, Garret and Theo. I needed to think about who I was designing for and what context.

Anchor 8

Iteration

Back to the drawing board! What was essential for Garret and Theo was a system that Garret could use to desensitize Theo to his trigger sounds. From here, I boiled the product down to the essential pieces. This included Today’s Goals, Progress, and Adjustments to the program. The companion app allowed Garret to target specific needs for Theo.

The main triggers were kids playing in neighboring apartments, loud street sounds, and other dogs.

Today’s Goals would target one desensitizing need at a time and provide information to the nearest agility courses to exercise Theo.

Through my research, I discovered that not getting enough exercise for dogs can really affect the dog's reaction to external stimuli.