Development of a Dog Carrier

Sammanfattning: The project examines how a dog carrier for the rear seat of the car can be designed to provide safety and improve user experience, for dog and human. To include both of the users throughout the process, an animal-human centred design approach was applied. The report presents the concept development process of the dog carrier and evaluates how selected methods fulfil the design approach. Initially, the team conducted primary-and secondary research with a focus on mapping the market, the two main users and their needs. A concept generation was performed and structured around an iterative process that involved brainstorming, parallel prototyping, and evaluation. Real scale prototyping and testing with dogs and owners resulted in a conceptual model with main features such as compact folding to improve user experience, and a belt attachment designed to provide safety. Employing an animal-human centred design approach contributed to an open-minded way of working and helped gain crucial insights concerning users and their specific needs. Using design methods such as animal-friendly personas and user journeys ensured that the dog perspective was not lost during the process. However, several challenges were encountered, such as finding a diversity of test dogs and interpreting the dogs' behaviour correctly. Even if the approach involved the dog’s perspective throughout the project, many other aspects play a major role when it comes to how the dog experiences the product, such as learning habits, previous experiences with carriers and cars and genetics. Getting the dog familiarised with the product before using it in the car was shown to be one of the most important aspects to consider in order to improve the dog experience during transportation.