Smart Controls for Service Dogs
The Challenge
Create a smart control that addresses the needs of assistance dogs as legitimate users, along with those of their human companions.
The Outcome
A suite of dog centered smart controls that increase service dog performance, wellbeing, training time, and animal and human user experience.
While the work dogs undertake for humans has changed dramatically over time, the tools they utilize in training and on behalf of their human companions have stayed mostly same. The mismatch between the human-centered objects they interact with and their needs as users has an impact on their ability to consistently and successfully assist their human partners, their welfare, and their use experience; resulting in an estimated 50% drop-out rate during training.
Picking up, reaching for, or engaging with difficult-to-reach objects are common tasks performed by service dogs on behalf of their human companions. For example, pressing buttons and switches, holding and passing tiny objects like credit cards, or picking up items like keys and remote controls. Because most buttons and switches are designed for human hands and are typically positioned at heights that require dogs to leap to reach them, they have the most impact on their welfare, performance, and user experience. As a result, the project - our founder's doctorate dissertation - centered on the development of a suite of smart controls that addressed the demands of canine users and their human companions.
With the assistance of her research partner Dogs for Good (DfG), a UK-based assistance dog charity, Luisa conducted primary in-situ research of the entire service dog lifecycle, including DfG's breeding programs, training protocols, placement procedures, and the dogs' living and working conditions when successfully partnered with their humans. Based on her observations and interviews with the dogs' handlers (trainers, carers, and human partners), she developed a set of user requirements for the controls.
While designing for another species, designers face unexpected obstacles that do not exist when designing for humans. To begin, because our biological, sensory, physical, cognitive, social, and cultural characteristics differ, it is impossible to embody the world experience of another species. This means we are always working with suppositions and best guesses, making it a process that requires the utmost care and responsibility, as well as constant data triangulation; because, unlike our human counterparts, we may miss animals' attempts to let us know something is not to their liking, or worse, is causing them unforeseen harm.
The design process was truly complex, requiring Luisa to develop of a series of animal-centered design methods that allowed her to evaluate the dogs' level of confidence, performance, usability, user experience, and welfare. These methodologies allowed the scientific confirmation of the dogs' preferences through observation and measurement of their interactions, informing all design decisions.
For example, the control design began with two basic design alternatives: separate on and off controls, and a single button that went on when touched once and turned off when pressed twice. The prototypes' simplicity was intended to allow Luisa to isolate design factors - in this case, the dog's preferred form of engagement.
This iterative and careful process of animal-centered design led to a comprehensive set of canine-centered user requirements that related to the dog's physical (reachability, mode of operation, and interaction), sensory (auditory, visual, taste, touch, and olfactory), cognitive (learning, device feedback, rewards), emotional (confidence), social (behaviors that mean something to other dogs), and cultural (living and working environments) needs as the research progressed.
The controls are one of the primary contributions Luisa's PhD study, which covered eight scientific studies and attempted to examine the design of interfaces that would give a positive user experience for service dogs. It was based on prior work by Dr. Clara Mancini (her supervisor), was sponsored by the Petplan Charitable Trust, and was supported by Dogs for Good.
As a consequence, a single-button IoT device was created that could be coupled to switch a light on and off, activate a kettle, or open an automated door. The control was designed to be simple for dogs to interact with and for their human companions to install and service. In particular, the control was shown to enhance dogs:
Welfare - by allowing the control to be put at the dog's nose height and removing the need for them to leap to use it
Usability - increased ease, speed, and accuracy of activation by employing materials and mechanisms that responded to the dog's traits.
Delight - when usability and performance improved, the dogs showed an increase in confidence and enjoyment while handling the controls.
Learnability - Trainers reported a 47% reduction in training time by building a control tailored for them.
Bond with their human partners - because they were able to easily and successfully interact with the controls, the dogs were eager to follow the command to activate the button; additionally, they were observed to spontaneously activate the controls to let their partners know they desired praise or affection.
