Love Your Pet Day is a great reminder that good design, much like pet ownership, is rooted in empathy. If you’ve ever watched a dog interact with the world, you’ll notice one thing: dogs are brutally honest users. They don’t read manuals. They don’t “figure it out eventually.” And if something doesn’t work, they’ll abandon it, eat it, or destroy it immediately.
Ever wonder what happens if we apply classic usability principles to our dogs? The answer may surprise you.
Visibility of System Status
Dogs always need to know what is going on.
When my German Shepherd foster dog’s ball rolls under the couch, her reaction indicates to me that she must know, did the ball disappear forever, is it just temporarily unavailable, and if so, how can we end that status as quickly as possible? She’ll paw at the couch trying to reach it and when that doesn’t work, she’ll sit in front of me, staring and pawing at me until I pay attention so I can retrieve it for her.
For my velcro dog (a Collie), if I move from one room to another, she dutifully follows, ensuring that I’m always in sight and getting that immediate feedback, indication and confirmation that all is well. Without that, separation anxiety sets in and panic and barking begin.
Keeping users informed with the system’s current status in real time (or close to it!) provides transparency and enables them to see what is going on behind the scenes. Much like my pets, they need to have visual or some sort of feedback to inform them that things are going to be okay.
Immediate Feedback = Good UX (and Good Behavior)
When training a dog, conventional wisdom dictates that rewards should be immediately given after they fulfill a command. You can’t wait too long, or your dog won’t learn anything. Dogs love instant confirmation that they did the right thing. And if you get in the habit of not being consistent in that confirmation (whether it be a treat, click training, or verbal praise), their behavior will show it. You’ll notice they don’t sit as consistently as they used to or pay attention.
Some users develop user friction from insufficient, delayed, or no feedback. These range from negative emotions to action such as repeated mistakes or abandonment. When users do not feel good about the system, they are less likely to stick around, much less trust it.
Consistency Builds Trust
Grabbing my shoes, keys and leash excites the heck out of my pets because this is a sign that something fun is about to happen. Every day, I grab all these things right before we go for a walk. This habit has reinforced a link between activities, solidified by consistency. If I were to do this and then sit back down or immediately put them back, that breaks trust quickly since they were expecting to engage in their favorite activity.
For any user, consistent patterns reduce cognitive load. Making changes to an interface just because you can may feel like a betrayal. Sometimes your users may not want to or are unable to learn a new interface than the one they’re already used to using.
Error Prevention > Error Messages
Dogs can chew through anything, just ask my shoes.
Sometimes good dog-centric design means presenting your dog with acceptable chewing alternatives, instead of yelling “No!” It also looks like choosing trash cans with lids, doggy gates, scratch shields for doors and locks.
It’s best for your users not to encounter error messages in the first place. Design to make wrong choices impossible.
Design for Emotional States (Especially Anxiety)
My foster dog is a great protector. Vacuum cleaner, unbalanced washing machine going crazy, fireworks, she’ll bark her head off at it no problem. But my other dog cannot handle so much noise. She can’t even handle bubble wrap popping, it’s too similar. She can’t find where to hide quick enough when I’m unwrapping and my cat decides to walk over the bubble wrap. While their temperaments are vastly different, these dogs have to live in the same house with the same noises, much like users who need to use the same system environments.
The emotional state of your user can cause usability problems: the calmer the user is, the more successful they’ll be at completing a task. Keeping their needs and abilities in mind is important in designing user-friendly and accommodating environments.
What UX Designers Can Learn From Dogs
Dogs are very honest users and they also aren’t the type to adapt to bad design.
From them, we learn that:
- Feedback builds trust
- Simplicity beats complexity
- Emotion is part of usability
- Good design starts with empathy
For this year’s Love Your Pet Day, give your dog a treat and a belly rub for being the most honest usability testers and the bestest boys and girls.