Accessible Treat Pouch

A dog treat pouch made for service dog handlers and dog trainers that followed the full Human-Centered Design process

Story

Current dog treat pouch designs are ineffective and inaccessible. As dog owners, we know what it is like to have to carry personal belongings, a leash, dog treats, poop bags, and more every time we take our dogs outdoors. This problem is further exacerbated for dog trainers or service dog handlers who might have to carry additional items for longer periods of time.

After conducting research through interviews and competitive analysis, defining our users and their use cases, and creating multiple iterations of prototypes, we have designed a dog treat pouch perfect for dog trainers, service dog handlers, and all dog owners. The product is made with specific, data-driven features that will improve the daily lives of dog owners and their dogs.

This project was part of an upper-level undergraduate course in User Experience Design (10 weeks) at the University of Washington. I was on a team of 4 students and served as the team leader.

Final Prototype

The final high-fidelity prototype was sewn with a waterproof fake leather and high quality cotton duck cloth. This leads to a very clean and fashionable aesthetic that will go along with any outfit or style.

The duck cloth is waxable, allowing it to be waterproofed if desired. Both materials are highly durable and can withstand constant heavy use.

Both of the pockets have magnet closures with a small gap in-between to allow you to open the pouch with just two fingers.

Once open, the pocket stays open to allow you get out whatever you need and closes again with a single tap.

A side view of the bag with the smaller personal items pocket open reveals a discreet poop bag dispenser -- or a hole to run wired headphones through!

Inside the bag there is two elastic bands that will hold the roll of poop bags in place or keep your small items from falling out if you choose not to use the dispenser.

Also shown is the small metal D-ring attached to the side of the personal items pocket that can be used to clip a strap on to the bag.

The back of the pouch has two belt loop like straps that can be used to wear the pouch around the waist. This can either be done with an actual belt or by converting the shoulder strap into a smaller waist band, pictured below.

Inside the larger pocket meant for holding treats, there is a removable duck cloth liner that can easily be taken out and washed. Because dog treats can be messy and smelly, we wanted to have a removable liner that can be quickly cleaned rather than having to frequently clean the entire pouch.

Here the bag is being worn around the waist using the same shoulder strap by looping the strap through both belt loops on the back of the pouch and clipping the ends of the strap to each other.

There is also a 'hidden' pocket in-between the two main pockets. Due to the way the bag was sewn, there is a horizontal channel between the main pockets. This space is perfect to hold a leash or other large items and have quick access to it.

Finally, here is Pim and Winston modeling using the pouch cross body style. Pim is able to hold the leash and open the personal items pocket with one hand and slip her phone in with the other hand.

Research

Interviews

Prior to beginning we wanted to ensure our project proposal of redesigning a dog treat pouch resonated with our targeted user group: dog trainers and owners.

We interviewed four individuals including professional dog trainers, service dog handlers, and dog owners.

"...there is a treat pouch I was looking at and decided it would work well for [my situation] ... But it just wouldn't work well for using the wheelchair." - Interviewee 4

"My dog’s trainer recommended the bag she uses, but it’s not stylish enough that I enjoy carrying it with me everywhere I go." - Interviewee 2

Comparative Analysis

Pouches designated for dog treats are saturated. A search on Amazon for “dog treat pouch” reveals how many products are available. We were able to compare a handful of different treat pouches including the Doggone Good pouch, N-brand Dog Treat training pouch, Dexas Pets Pooch Pouch, the Viklluyr Dog Treat Pouch, as well as other products that were not necessarily for dog treats but included some of the features we were looking for. Despite the products having a focus on features and physical appearance, there was a lack of a product that incorporated all of the necessary features without compromising physical design.‍

Key Insights

Beneficial features are scattered across products, no single product has everything. Our initial assumptions of users desiring insulation for perishable treats was not reflected in the research, so we decided to move away from that idea. Even though the pouch could be used by a wide array of people for various different things, we wanted to follow the principle of 'designing for the edges' by focusing our problem statement purely on dog owners and understanding that the final product will most likely be useful for more than just that audience.

Based on trends from our demographic of interviewees, the main problems users face with current dog treat pouches are:

Cannot be opened with one hand
Difficult to clean out treat crumbs and lasting smells from treats
Not having enough space to store personal belongings and treats
Not fashionable with a wide variety of outfits

User Discovery

Personas

In order to combine our user research as a group and have a collective user design tool, we created two personas. Personas allow us to gain the perspective of possible user groups and identify pain points and needs prior to prototyping.

User Journey Map

Designers of a product need to anticipate and visualize the experiences of their products throughout the entire experience rather than a couple of instances. Our user journey map is created upon our persona data and will individually evaluate every instance the persona has with current dog treat pouch designs. Once touchpoints and pain points have been visually mapped, design requirements can be discussed.

Design requirements

Identifying requirements early on helps guide the process onward to ensure the final design reflects desired functionality. The goals and objectives outlined by the design requirements ensure that the product has the intended audience in mind when going through the user journey map.

Our design must be able to:

Withstand daily use
Be easily cleaned
Have multiple ways to wear
Be fashionable with a wide variety of user outfits and styles
Allow handler to open and close the pouch easily with one hand
Provide distinct tactile interaction points
Hold both dog treats and personal items

Storyboards

Having determined requirements that the prototypes should fulfill, hand-drawn, visual sketches of key interactions with our proposed solution product in the form of storyboards will communicate to the stakeholders of structure and design iterations.

Prototyping

Our group began physical, low-fidelity prototypes having established design requirements and example storyboards. The prototypes must reflect the interactions users are expected to have with the redesigned dog treat pouch and communicate our design goals clearly. Through iteration and critiques, these prototypes allowed us to explore the physical form of the bag, how people will interact with it, and inform our final design decisions.

Lofi prototype

Our next lofi prototype was created using construction paper, duct tape, and popsicle sticks with the goal of getting a better sense of form, size, and process.

The first attempt at this prototype ended up to be much too large, so we had to make another with updated dimensions. These dimensions are what we ended up going with for the final iteration.

The trapezoidal shape of the bag allows the opening of the treat pouch to go out wider than the base and stay open when extended. When combined with magnet closures, this features ensures that users will be able to easily and quickly access treats without having to fumble with both hands.

This bag solidified some of our key features: having two main pockets, a larger one for treats and a smaller one for personal items, having the opening for the treat pocket open wide and stay open, having good structure and being able to stand up on its own, and having two loops on either side of the personal items pocket to connect to a shoulder strap.

Experience Evaluation

Before finalizing the design, we conducted testing with the low-fidelity prototypes to validate our design choices with outside users and identify areas for improvement.

We asked 4 people who had no previous knowledge of our design 3 questions in order to evaluate how successful our design actually is in function and communicating its uses.

Open and close the pouch with one hand
Place personal components into the back pocket
Switch between wearing the bag cross-body to wearing it around the waist

Through these evaluations we were able to determine a few things that altered our final design choices. We found that magnet closures were useful but posed unforeseen challenges including getting stuck to other items and being too strong for some people to open with one hand. Despite these issues, we decided that magnets were still the best solution in terms of durability, style, and ease of use. We continued to test with different types of magnets to find ones that optimized strength and easy opening.

We also found that without any explanation of the bag and its features, it was hard for people to discern the uses of the separate pockets. This issue was exaggerated by the two openings opening at the same height, making it hard to tell which pocket you are opening with touch alone. Because this issue was mostly resolved by explaining the pouch to testers and we had very limited time, we were unfortunately not able to change the final design to fully resolve the problem, but it is something that we would focus on if we had more time.

Information Architecture

The last step before creating the final prototype was developing our information architecture in the form of a pattern and sketch of the pouch.

This pattern acted as a first look at the high-fidelity final prototype as well as 'instructions' on how to put it all together. The measurements and overall style of the bag were decided via a culmination of all the previous prototypes.

In order to make sense of what the pattern would look like constructed, we also created a sketch detailing our final design decisions.

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