I have a dog named MOMO….

She is a 2 year-old, Bichon mix, who is SUPER ENERGETIC.

Because she needs an extra exercise I take her to the park near apartment twice, and off-leash park that is a bit further away everyday. It’s a lot of work but I need her to sleep so she doesn’t keep me up at nights running around the house.

Every time I take Momo out, I have certain things that I need to carry.

• water bottle

• a bowl to pour water for Momo

• waste bag (plastic roll)

• treats

• clicker

• leash

• and sometimes, tissues, because Momo may bring dirt and water on car

• And a bag to put everything in

I usually use eco-bags to carry all Momo’s stuff, but it really hard to find some of them in an eco-bag that does not hold still. Also, often Momo gets dirty from playing and running, and somehow all the dirt and water end up on the eco-bag. I had to find a solution. I am, after all, a product researcher.

So I tried to find the major problems. What did I want, and why did the products I have kept me away from achieving it? Here are some insights that I, as a user, had:

1. There are too many items to carry around. I want to combine some of the items so that I only have to think about one or two items when taking Momo out.

2. I need something sturdy to hold the items. My bag gets dirty because I always can’t find stuff, and I flood through the treats, the tissues, the bag, and the water bottle.

3. I always need a place to put the treats. Bags made out of clothes gets dirty too fast with the soft treats. The treats must be easily accessible by me, but not the dog.

4. I always forget the water bowl. I need a way to combine water bottle with the bowl, so that I don’t use the bottle cap to feed my dog water.

To solve these problems I was faced with, I started my research.

First a market research: I looked for a dog leash that had pockets to put other things in, like treats and plastic bags. Fortunately, there were multiple patents and products on that idea. The best among them seemed to be the attachable jelly pockets with holes so that you can put plastic bag rolls inside, and just attach the hole thing to the leash:

But that only ‘partially’ solves one problem for me - to combine items so there are less stuff I need to carry. So I thought of things that hold small items together.

What about… food container?

When I was little, my mom used to give me these picnic-like-food container with different foods, so I could eat at school. If these food containers had a handle to to hold, I can attach a leash and use it as a leash holder. Inside the container, I can put treats, plastic bags, and tissues. Based on this idea, I decided to start sketching some container designs.

But what about water? Having this item would still require me to carry three items: water bottle, a bowl, and this. What if I design the top of this container so that it can hold water as well? I decided to try 3-D modeling so see if the thickness of the top has to be too thick. I also made a hole for the plastic bag roll, so I can cut the bags like I use toilette tissues.

Now it was time for some feedback. I showed this model to a industrial designer that I knew (SKEREN), and he suggested, instead of having the bottle attached, why don’t I use the top as a bowl? Below are some more sketches that I’ve done after talking to the designer.

The idea is still being developed, and my next step is to print the model out in 3D printer. I’m planning to do some user interviews and focus groups based on the 3D prototype. I really hope that this project ends up with a product that I can use with Momo.