BARK Smart Dog Collar

Mobile App Design

UXResult Design Hackathon 2020: A smart collar solution for dogs and dog owners

ROLE
UX/UI Designer

RESPONSIBILITIES
Competitor Analysis
User Flow
Wireframes
Interactive Prototypes
Style Guide

Team
4 UX/UI Designers

Tools
Mural
Figma

Background and Challenge

Create the Onboarding Process for a Smart Dog Collar

Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in my first hackathon with the UXResult Design Hackathon 2020. My team and I had one day to analyze the brief, outline the requirements, design the product, and put together a presentation. Suffice to say, I was intimidated beforehand. However, not only did we rise to the challenge, but I had fun while working on it. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the collaboration between my amazing team.
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The challenge was to build out the onboarding process for a smart collar solution for dog owners. The brand personality was fun and simple. And the target market/users were dog owners in their early 20s to early 50s in urban environments who wanted more comfort around knowing where their dog is located.

Smart dog collars enable owners to track the real-time location and activity of their dogs. The collar is chew-proof, water-proof, and just generally dog-proof. Owners can use Bluetooth to easily connect to the collar and set up their account via a native app on their phone. The collar utilizes GPS technology to track the dog’s location and stays charged for up to 4 months. Users can recharge the collar via USB port.

Why a Smart Collar?

The American Humane Association estimates that 1 out of 3 pets become lost at some point in their lifetime and according to the Coalition for Reuniting Pets and Families, less than 23% of lost pets in the U.S. are reunited with their owners.

Competitor Analysis

To gain insights into the market, we examined FitBark and Whistle, analyzing the features of their products and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each user experience.

Problem Statement

How Might We...

How might we give pet owners peace of mind on the safety and security of their dog’s well-being and help reunite any lost dogs with their worried owners as quickly as possible?

Define and Ideation

Selecting Features for the Smart Collar

User Flow

Based on our affinity mapping, we charted out a user flow for the following tasks:

Introduction to App
User Account Creation
Dog Profile Setup
Bluetooth and GPS Setup

Sketches

App Features

Track Live Location

Track anywhere, anytime
Set safe zone where dog can roam
Share your dog’s location with others

Alerts

Escape detection
Share your dog’s location with others

Health Monitor

Heart rate
Activity levels
Sleep pattern

Design System

Style Guide and UI Components

Final DESIGN

Bark App

Judge's Remarks

"I really, really loved the way this team not just presented the work but how they displayed the final prototype. Thinking through a lot of the small details that a user may face while onboarding, and using the app. Great use of thought process"

Hot Dog!

Our design and team made the shortlist of 10 finalists out of 137 submissions.

Next Steps and KPIs

We had a great time working on this challenge, coming up with the layout, branding and tone, app features and working together as a team. Given more time with this project, we would like to expand our research and testing to see how users respond to the app. Some next steps that we think would be beneficial would be:

Perform usability testing
Export and share health data with vet
Integrate social connections and features
Expand the app to other animals like cats