PAWZMONITOR
Developed with Heather Simmons, Areen Salam, Umar Amanullah, PawzMonitor was presented in June 2014 to the Canadian Film Centre as our contribution to its Digital Media Lab.
THE IDEA
PawzMonitor is the birth child of my very loud puppy in my very small condo in Toronto. It began as an early foray in to physical computing with an arduino, sensors and a baby gate. I rigged up the system to allow me to stream a live video of my puppy to a monitoring website. For times when video wasn't feasible I added the text or tweet feature that triggered a note from Arthur when he barked. Months later, Heather Simmons, Areen Salam, Umar Amanullah and I formed a multidisciplinary team and engaged in deep needs-based and market research on which we founded our refined product offering.
MARKET RESEARCH
Trend analysis was the first step in the development of PawzMonitor as a project. Drilling down in the both the business and use case scenarios made it clear that the concept was valid. Not only do North American consumers invest in pet ownership, but they also spend heavily on pet care and maintenance and they want to keep an eye on them when they leave for work each day. Though there are several companies with offerings in the space there are none who address all of the areas covered by PawzMonitor.
PERSONAS
Developing personas for PawzMonitor was a interesting but straightforward process. Dog owners are everywhere in Toronto so there were rich real life examples.for the team to draw from.
UX & UI DESIGN
Brought to life by myself, Heather Simmons and Areen Salam as a functioning mobile prototype, the original PawzMonitor functions were refined based on feedback from user surveys. The product was expanded to get rid of the live messaging feature and incorporate GPS and RFID features to track pets and provide reports based on their daily activity.
USER RESEARCH & TESTING
PawzMonitor developed quickly as an IoT product based on user interviews and protype testing. Users were filmed as they encountered the product from start to finish including setting up the hardware and navigating the app. Insights from these tests and from in-person interviews fed into multiple pivots and user experience changes.
DESIGN PIVOTS & ITERATIONS
Building on user insights not only made the product better from a customer experience perspective but it also transformed the app in to a lifelong companion for pet owners. Where the original design catered to puppies and their early days of accidents and loneliness the new iterations shaped the product in to one that included vet and vaccination reminders, dog walking notes, safety tracking and custom alerts for individual profiles. PawzMonitor really is a result of co-creation with user input at its best.
FINAL PRODUCT DESIGN & BRANDING
Marketing graphics, branding and interface design were spearheaded by our team's graphic designer Areen Salaam. The modern clear styling played off of the playful nature of pet ownership while showcasing clearly the useful features of product and its various hardware options. Though PawzMonitor has yet to be brought to market it was presented to the Canadian Film Centre as our contribution to its Digital Media Lab and incorporated in 2014, with a goal to produce simple, smart pet management systems to sell to a larger player as the industry continued to consolidate. At this point, however, the project is on hold as team members pursue other projects.