Bark — Smart Collar · Case Study

01 · The Challenge

1 in 3 dogs go missing.

Dog parents need peace of mind that their pets can be found quickly and efficiently if they wander away from home.

The American Humane Association estimates that 1 out of 3 pets become lost at some point in their lifetime — and according to the Coalition for Reuniting Pets and Families, less than 23% of lost pets in the U.S. are reunited with their owners.

01

1 / 3

U.S. pets become lost at some point in their lifetime

American Humane Assoc.

02

< 23%

of lost U.S. pets are reunited with their owners

Coalition for Reuniting Pets & Families

[ Problem statement ]

How might we give pet owners peace of mind on the safety and security of their dog's well-being — and help reunite any lost dogs with their worried owners as quickly as possible?

02 · Research

Affinity mapping & priorities.

Working remotely on Zoom, we brainstormed potential features for the app — running an affinity-mapping exercise and voting through a feature prioritization matrix to nominate what would actually ship in a 1-day sprint.

[ FIG.02 · Affinity map ]

Remote whiteboard collaboration · 5 designers FIG.02

The features that made the cut

Track Live Location

Track anywhere, anytime
Set safe zones
Share your dog's location

Alerts

Escape detection
Time to walk
Time to feed & play

Health Monitor

Heart rate
Activity levels
Sleep patterns

03 · Ideation

Mapping the user flow.

Based on our affinity mapping, we charted out a user flow for the four core onboarding tasks:

Introduction to the app
User account creation
Dog profile setup
Homepage dashboard

[ FIG.03 · User flow ]

Onboarding task flow FIG.03

04 · Wireframing

Sketches first, screens next.

As a team, we generated lo-fidelity sketches for the different screens based on our task flow — independently at first, then converging to combine the strongest ideas into a unified set ready for hi-fi prototyping.

Sketch 01

Sketch 02

Sketch 03

Lo-fi sketches · 3 of 6 FIG.04

05 · Branding & Identity

A mascot to guide the way.

To make the onboarding feel engaging and fun, we illustrated a key mascot who guides the user through the setup process. The mark is friendly, approachable, and quietly hints at the brand's protective intent.

Logo · Mark

Mascot · Sketch

Custom illustration · Logo & mascot FIG.05

06 · Style Guide

Bright, simple, playful.

We researched the UI style of Leverege and drew inspiration from their simple, bright, playful colors to design and brand the Bark app interface.

[ Style tile ]

Color · Type · Spacing · Iconography FIG.06

07 · Hi-Fidelity Wireframes

Style applied. Screens shipped.

We applied the style guide to the lo-fi mockups and split the screens across the team — given the 1-day timeline. The hi-fi pass covered onboarding, the homepage, and the dog-profile pages.

[ Hi-fi composite ]

Hi-fi screens — onboarding, homepage, dog profile FIG.07

08 · Hi-Fi Prototype

The thing in motion.

We resolved minor UI and visual issues surfaced through usability testing, then put most of our remaining time into prototyping the onboarding flow — the heart of the value proposition.

Onboarding prototype walkthrough

Open interactive prototype ↗

09 · Judging

Hot dog! A finalist.

Our design and team made the shortlist of 10 finalists out of 137 submissions worldwide.

"

I really, really loved the way this team not just presented the work but how they displayed the final prototype. Thinking through a lot of the small details that a user may face while onboarding and using the app. Great use of thought process.

— Hackathon judge · UX Hackathon 2020

10 · Next Steps

What we'd tackle next.

We had a great time working on this challenge — the layout, branding, tone, app features, and the team chemistry under a tight clock. With more time, the team's roadmap looked like:

→ 01

Run usability testing

Validate the onboarding flow with real dog parents and iterate on the friction points the day-one timeline didn't allow for.

→ 02

Vet-ready health export

Export and share heart-rate, activity, and sleep data with a vet — closing the loop between collar, app, and clinic.

→ 03

Expand to other animals

Cats first — same hardware concept, different behavioral assumptions in the IA.

→ 04

Social connections

Integrate social features so neighborhoods can flag missing pets and reunite them faster.

A smart-collar
app that helps
good dogs come home.

1 in 3 dogs go missing.