When poop hits the fan twice!

As mentioned in the previous blog, the number one frustration in the Dutch public space is dog poop. With this project we try to 'beat shit with science' [snoep-dog.blogspot.com]. Concretely, we are trying to solve the poop problem with previous research; combining psychological-, sociological, cognitive and human interface designing studies to develop a device which services as well as the dog as the dog owner. 

Almost every dog owner in the Netherlands has to pay dog taxes up to € 118 depending on the region he lives in*. These taxes are reserved for cleaning up the dog feces, but why should a dog owner clean the feces while he pay taxes to get the feces cleaned? A more honest policy should reward dog owners who do clean their dogs’ feces.

The concept for our design is very simple: reward the dog owner for cleaning up the feces and reward the dog for making it easy for the dog owner by pooping near the bin. Our study showed that the biggest annoyance concerning cleaning feces is walking with a filled bag of hot doggy output. To reduce the distance of walking with a filled bag we thought of the Pavlov effect, which is rewarding the dog for pooping near the bin by giving him a dog candy after the owner deposits a filled bag. On the other hand, the owner is being rewarded financially by a tax deduction or by playing a game to win a dog toy, the owner can choose only one option per bag deposit.

We are now in the evaluation phase, where we test the interface and the bin on experts and potential users. Let`s hope that the next blog will be about the results of this phase..

* Tax for one dog, in 2011