The Pathways & Paw(ses) Community Project aims to inspire social connections amongst inner-city dwellers through mobile technology, and with their four-legged companions. Through the use of a mobile app, a “soft social network” amongst members of urban communities can be created while still accounting for privacy. This network can have potential use in alerting community members of hazards or dangers for dog walkers, or for scoping the best local areas for dog walkers to congregate.
Several low-fidelity UI prototypes have been developed hosting both the data visualisation and community aspects of the Pathways & Paws(es) project.
Early mockups
Early mockups were developed in Axure RP with a heavy focus on the usability and user experience. The main screen consisted of a Google Maps API where a user’s path with all tagging points for both the dog and user would be visualised. Clicking on each tag point would detail the event that had occurred (eg “Stitch peed here at 03:56pm”).
The first user journey mapped out had “Jane, owner of Kit” walk across two parkland areas, stopping to let Kit off-leash in one area before stopping to converse with another dog walker. Jane had connected with this walker (another app user) via their dog, Skyler. At the end of the conversation, Jane adds Skyler to her list of trusted peers, who will be recognised by the app the next time Jane takes Kit out fot a walk.
This added functionality to a standard dog walking app allows for the “soft social connection” between dog walkers, without the anxieties of asking a complete stranger for their phone number or Facebook.
