Overview
The Result
Runner Up
As a team of 4 new graduates, we were so honored to win second place when competing against almost 100 teams
Positive Feedback
The organizers, sponsors, other teams, and other audiences highly recommend our solution
Agile
It's amazing how much you can achieve and learn within 3 days
Personal Accomplishment
As the leader of the design team, I built the team and kept everyone engaged. During the hackathon, I conducted user research, created competitor analysis, brainstormed, built prototype, presented prototype, did user testing and reiterated the product.
Leadership
I made the plan, organized meeting to nail down each step, and was always ready to help others
Collaboration
We divided the task and collaborated with each other to finish the challenge
Product Iterations
I improved the user experience significantly by iterating the designs based on feedbacks.
Problem Statement
The time limit is a big challenge so I planed the whole design process in advance to make sure that we can finish the challenge quickly and efficiently. There were some unexpected accidents like technical issues about video editing, so we adjusted the plan and finally made it!
Discover
Challenge
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.
Some App Feature Ideas
🦴 Owners can set a geofence around their house, dog parks, and more, marking them as safe areas for their dog to roam freely
🦴 Owners can receive alerts when their dog exits one of these geofences, alerting them immediately that their dog may have escaped
🦴 Owners can track the real time location of their dog, quickly finding their dog if they have escaped
🦴 Owners can create a profile for their dogOwners can view dog activity and health stats, similar to Apple’s health app tracking for steps per day
Some App Feature Ideas
🦴 Owners can set a geofence around their house, dog parks, and more, marking them as safe areas for their dog to roam freely
🦴 Owners can receive alerts when their dog exits one of these geofences, alerting them immediately that their dog may have escaped
🦴 Owners can track the real time location of their dog, quickly finding their dog if they have escaped
🦴 Owners can create a profile for their dogOwners can view dog activity and health stats, similar to Apple’s health app tracking for steps per day
We will build out the onboarding process for a smart collar solution for dog owners.
Our mission: We like this challenge and we want to create delightful and meaningful solutions
Target users: dog owners
Sponsor
Leverege is an IoT Solution provider on a mission to enable and accelerate the digital transformation of all organizations by making IoT Solutions as easy to build, buy, implement, and use as web applications today.
Learn more about Leverege →
Learn more about Leverege →
Research
Q & A
I attended the Q & A section and made notes about the requirement and answers.
Literature Review
Articles gave me a general understanding of dogs and dog owners.
User Interviews
I performed 2 online scripted user interviews with dog owners.
The most important part of research is user interviews. The purpose was to understand users’ experience as dog owners, and figure out their needs, pain points and expectations. I reached out to 2 friends and collected a lot of useful information.
A surprising finding was that almost every participant wanted some features that can track dog’s fitness level and suggest activities. This led us to a clear direction for the design, that is leveraging the tracker not only to protect dogs from getting lost, but also reflect their level of exercise for better wellness.
A surprising finding was that almost every participant wanted some features that can track dog’s fitness level and suggest activities. This led us to a clear direction for the design, that is leveraging the tracker not only to protect dogs from getting lost, but also reflect their level of exercise for better wellness.
Analyze
Competitor Analysis
In such a short time, competitor analysis is the best way to understand the users and figure out “dos and don'ts”. It really gave us a lot of useful information that we can use directly in our design. In addition, the reviews for these Apps are informative.
Research Insights
I analyzed the research findings and built a persona. I used the power of personas to ground and humanize user insight while keeping different human attributes distinct. I used these spectrums to ideate and iterate in the design process alongside a series of physical, social, economic, temporal, cultural contexts.
Our users love their dogs, want to protect dogs from getting lost, and track dogs' level of exercise for better wellness.
Ideate
Brainstorm
After the research, every product designer at the team came up with excellent ideas. Then we organized a virtual meeting to analyze each idea and select  the ones that can both solve the challenge and make us excited.
Information Architecture
We discussed the information architecture together and everyone was responsible for one part. We need to get the ball rolling and see what can be improved.
Prototype
Low-Fidelity
We created low-fidelity prototypes and met virtually to review these pages.
Style Guide
Because of the time limit, we had to work on different features at the same time. So we created brief style guidelines and follow them during the design process. It's a simple way to ensure consistency throughout our products.
High-Fidelity
I designed the onboarding process and the homepage. I referred to how people connect with their Airdrops. The flow is smooth and I adjusted it to suit the collar system and our branding. The homepage is very important and we want to leave a great first impression. So we have a special meeting and worked on the user interface together.
Check out our Prototype
Feedback
Impressive design work within 72 hours. Well-rounded design for onboarding and device setup with intuitive and simple instructions. Presentation is very effective with logical analysis and clear process. The visual and interaction design stands out. The prototype went beyond just the onboarding experience but also demonstrate the key use case. Good job!
Well thought out solution! Impressed by how simple and easy you make it for the user to navigate the app.
Your presentation was excellent, I am glad you spent time on putting together the presentation, it’s as important as the solution.. you have to be able to communicate your solution to the client or your work won’t be realized.
Things to consider: The music behind the narration was loud and distracted me from what the speaker was saying. For presentations, don’t add anything that competes with your message. What you have to say is important—make me listen to your reasoning.
You employ colored vector graphics and duotone vector graphics—choose one direction and be consistent. It’s too simple an application to handle so many different graphic styles. Every single thing on the screen has meaning—you don’t want users to wonder if the different styles have meanings that you didn’t intend (eg. Colored vector images are more important than duotone).