Timeline: 10 weeks, Fall 2023
Criteria: design a sustainable kitchen product that improves the lives of the user or group
Team: Terra Sullivan and Kate Baring
Awards: Global Innovation Awards Honorable Mention
Dog Treat Maker
Industrial Design
UX/UI
3D Visualization
Branding
CHOW empowers users to reduce their food waste, by upcycling food scraps into dog treats
For dogs with allergies, special vet prescribed diets, and sensitive stomachs, store bought dog treats can cause serious problems.
Interviews
To learn more about the problems around dog treats, we talked to some folks.
Veterinarian
Sophia & Myca
Dr. Nancy Yorinks
Veterinarian - Moscow Vet on the Go
“There’s a bazillion [store bought treat varieties], who knows what’s in them.”
“A lot of [dog treats] are not made with good hygiene standards, and so there’s pretty often a recall going on because they’re contaminated with something.”
“Oftentimes dogs will carry diseases and transfer them to their humans, like Salmonella and E. Coli. These contaminants can be in certain dog treats... same thing with raw diets.”
Dog Owners
“I know some people make their own dog treats because their dogs have food sensitivities or they’re trying to avoid certain ingredients that are common in store bought treats.”
“I have done it [made my own dog treats] with salmon scraps, as a way to use the scraps that I’m not going to do anything else with.”
“These days though I usually just buy treats, because it is easy and I have found ones that she [Myca] really likes.”
“I see her as more than just a pet ”
John & Chai
“She had sore ears, repeated ear infections, and skin issues and we had to bring her to the vet over and over, but it kept recurring. So I had 24 allergens tested. It came back positive for multiple food allergies.”
“She has allergies so finding safe treats for her is really hard and the options are pretty expensive.”
“I want to feed her people food, but don’t want to do it visibly in a way that would make her think that she can eat people food. I don’t want her to beg.”
“Ever since her allergy diagnosis, my kids miss the excitement of feeding her fun new treats.”
Research Takeaways
Allergies
Dogs can have allergies to different foods, just like humans.
Storebought treats are often a culprit of exposure. Hypoallergenic treats are an expensive solution.
Special Diets
Many vets will prescribe dogs special diets based on certain health issues
Usually, store bought treats don’t comply with these diets - the ones that do are expensive.
Safety Standards
Dog treats are not made with the same safety standards as human foods.
This leads to treats contaminated with salmonella and other food-borne illnesses.
For many dog owners, home made dog treats are a great alternative to store bought options
It isn’t easy…
Time Consuming
Like cooking or baking anything, making dog treats at home requires preparation: recipe finding, ingredient gathering, shopping, actually doing the cooking, and clean up.
Messy
Many dog treat recipes require multiple messy steps. If using fresh ingredients, you usually blend or puree ingredients before shaping and cooking, which results in a messy kitchen.
Expensive
While cooking from scratch has many benefits, it can cost a lot of money. Buying fresh ingredients can be more expensive to dog owners than simply purchasing pre-made treats.
How can we make the process of homemade treats more accessible and approachable?
Hands Off
Must not be time consuming from the user perspective: “set it and forget it.”
Easy to Clean
Must not create messes that require extensive clean up: dishwasher safe and easy to take apart.
Use Food Scraps
Could repurpose food scraps to cut costs and extend value of food: cost efficient and sustainable.
what types of food scraps can be used?
Meat Trimmings
Preparing meat to be cooked results in waste such as: fat that is trimmed off of steaks and tendons that are cut from chicken thighs.
Vegetable Cut Offs
While prepping vegetables for cooking, edible food matter is often thrown out: carrot skins, broccoli stems, lettuce hearts, etc.
Stale Foods
Foods may go stale on kitchen shelves or wilt in the fridge: week old bread, lettuce past prime, etc.
how can they be processed into treats?
To learn more about the process, we made dog treats ourselves, from food scraps we’d collected over the course of a week
Doggie Testing
Design Pathways
OR
Outsource
One option is to focus on simplifying one or two steps of the treat making process, relying on existing kitchen appliances and user involvement to turn the food scraps into treats.
All in One
The other option is a stand alone product that would take food scraps in and address every step of the cooking process to turn them into dog treats, focusing on a hands off experience for the user.
Mechanics Ideation
Mechanics Protoyping
In order to test the design of an all in one product, we worked with a local engineer, to mill and lathe an aluminum prototype
Prototype Testing
We made dog treats again, and this time used the prototype that we’d machined. Replicating the steps that CHOW would need to complete, to turn food scraps into dog treats all in one container.
Ideation
Pull Out Tray
Don’t have to pull off a heavy lid
Inefficient storage options
Container that lives in refrigerator is bulky with the handle
Inefficient use of space if the main compartment needs to be cylindrical
Hinge Lid
Don’t have to pull off a heavy lid
Inefficient storage options
Unnecessarily complicated pivot
Tricky to clean
Nesting Components
Easy, compact, stackable storage
Less components if the main compartment can also be used to collect food scraps
Efficient use of space, because outer form is already a cylinder
Heavy lid
Hinge Lid
Pull Out Tray
Nesting #1
Nesting #2
Form Refinement
Friendly Form
Clear Touchpoints
Kitchen Landscape
When not in use, the lid and base stack easily to store efficiently, and the main compartment and presser plate act as a storage container to collect food scraps in the fridge
User Storyboard
Users can search for any food, and learn from the app weather or not it is safe for dogs to consume.
The app also offers a number of different treat recipes which use common scraps, and includes the option to purchase nutrient supplement pucks to add nutrients.
What food scraps are appropriate?
Many foods that humans eat are toxic to dogs, so it is crucial that users are informed of the safe food scraps to use with this product. An app is the most effective and accessible way to transfer this information to the users.
The nutrient supplement pucks can be ordered individually, or as part of a personalizable subscription service through the app. We found that these options best served the users we interviewed. They are simply dropped into CHOW with the food scraps collected, and will be mixed into the treats as CHOW works.
CHOW
terra sullivan // kate baring