2021
UX/UI DESIGN
The value to the user of the Electric Vehicle product is that the system will ensure that the user’s EV is charged to a desired level at the lowest electricity cost. It is assumed that most EV owners will be on multi-tier tariffs, so it is unlikely that the lowest cost will be achieved by charging immediately after the car is plugged in; instead, low-cost electricity may be available during the night. Rather than the user specify when to charge, the owner specifies when the EV needs to be charged by and lets the system decide when it is the cheapest to do so.
Creating a next-gen dog tracking experience
There’s no worse feeling in the world than discovering that your beloved dog has gotten lost. If you’re lucky, you may be able to track them down before they get too far, or perhaps a kind soul will find them and bring them back to you. Many dogs, however, are never seen again.
If you don’t want to risk that horrible fate, a GPS tracker
or collar is a good idea. These devices reveal your dog’s
location to you at all times, so you can quickly track them
down if they get loose. Many also offer other features, such as insights into your dog’s activity levels or sleep patterns.
The challenge
Retrieva had over 10 years experience in making tracking devices for the automotive and farming sectors, but wanted to branch out and make a tracker for the pet sector.
While they had an existing app it was very rudimentary and relied on compass directions, if you wanted to know the actual location of your tracker you had to use a web portal that would provide a lat/long.
Obviously this would not be suitable for the average dog owner, so a new app was needed.
Competitive analysis
Who are our competitors?
Constant tracking
These devices contain a sim-card and will provide the location of whatever they're attached to 24/7. As constant tracking devices have to contain an aerial and medium sized battery they are generally too large for cats and miniature dogs.
Location on request
These devices will only provide a location on demand and use Bluetooth to talk to a nearby device (generally a smartphone). With improvements to Bluetooth technology these devices are becoming more capable but are still not suitable for active dogs who will travel more than 100m from their owners. The main advantages of location on request devices is they can be much smaller and lighter, and are able to be attached to basically any outdoor pet.
Competitive analysis
What are the standard features in dog tracking apps?
Map based location
Location is always provided via a pin-drop on a map, most apps only provide street map view, some also provide satellite views. Constant tracking devices also provide your pet's location history, although that is of little use when your pet is at home.
Geofence
Again limited to constant tracking devices, users can set a geofence around any location and be alerted when their pet leaves the area. Probably the most popular additional feature that provides a lot of peace of mind to owners with escape artist pets.
Activity monitoring & health advice
A relatively new trend among tracking apps is the inclusion of activity analysis and health advice. Has your pet been moving slower for the past week? Has their activity reduced? These may be a sign of a problem, or nothing at all. The problem with this advice is there is currently very little data behind it, so you run a very real risk of misleading or worrying users.
Walk tracking & sharing
Think Strava for dogs. Social features are seen as an effective way to increase engagement and app usage without having to produce your own content. Most apps allow you to create a profile for your dog and share their activity and major events to a Facebook wall style feed.
App and product store reviews
Unsurprisingly most of the negative reviews are due to the device not working. This doesn't help app features but does highlight that if the device doesn't work, then it doesn't matter how many additional features it has.
The geofence feature is often mentioned in both positive and negative reviews. While it is a much loved feature, signal quality indoors, near the ground, under a dog can be quite poor and lead to significant GPS drift. It is important that our geofence feature does not over-alert the user to geofence events.
Target audience
Who are our target customers?
UX & UI Design
Where's my dog?
Key features
Accurate dog location 24/7
The new 'Where's my dog?' screen shows a pin-drop location for each of the user's dogs, including a customisable history to see where they've been recently. The map is available in street, satellite, and a unique 'AR' mode so that you can find your dog no matter the terrain.
Easy, customisable fencing
The user can set two geofences, each meeting a different user need:
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Home fence - This geofence can be accurately drawn around the user's property, making sure that you are monitoring exactly the area you need.
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Travel fence - At the park but want to be alerted if your dog runs off? The travel fence is a customisable radius around your phone that moves with you. This can be automatically activated when you leave your home fence.
UX & UI Design
Exercise and activity
Key features
Track your dog's exercise
The exercise screen allows the user to see how much exercise their dog has been getting each day, week or month. The user is able to set goals for their dog to make sure they are getting the exercise they need. Early iterations of this screen asked the user about their dog to set recommended goals, but current exercise advice is very rudimentary and many users complained if they felt the advice was even slightly wrong. People also don't like being told what to do.
Tracking your walks
Interested in seeing your dog's behaviour during a walk? Tracking a walk changes the tracker into a frequent-update mode, sending its location every 5s (rather than every 30s). This mode drains the device battery rapidly so is not active all the time, but provides a much more accurate record of dog location and speed.
