There is no such thing as a fool proof design

To make sure the design is suitable for all possible conditions, we had to come up with different scenario's. Expect the unexpected, sort of. This is one of the scenario's that made our SnoepDog 'hufter proof'.

Scenario 2

Wednesday evening. A very grumpy old guy and a very grumpy old dog leave home  for a walk. The guy hates dogs, but he promised his neighbor  to walk her dog Rakker. The grumpy old guy doesn’t know anything about dogs. He walks to the lawn and discovers the SnoepDog. “What the hell is this machine for?”, he wonders.  While Rakkers does the biggie, the old guy does what fools do: NOT reading the explaining text on the screen, but randomly pushing  buttons.  Rakker thinks that a candy is coming and starts crying impatiently , but the old guy, who now knows that he is supposed to throw Rakker’s poop in the bin, gets stuck at the message ’Please scan card at reader’. “What card !?!”, the man yells frustrated. “ I don’t have a card!!’The old guy might be grumpy, he both respects and fears the law. Not being provided with a poop bag and in serious fright of getting fined, he scoops Rakker’s poop with his bare hands. ‘What a mess!’, he cries. ‘Do dog owners actually do this on a daily basis???’The old guy wants to get rid of the poop as soon as possible. But to his growing frustration, the SnoepDog only opens if you have a card. While Rakker goes wild with candy  expectations, the guy roars ‘Aaarrrgh!’ and keeps trying… Wild with rage,  the guy drops the poop on the ground and starts kicking the SnoepDog. He yells: “You damn bastard! First you don’t give me a bag, now you don’t collect this shit. And I am even not allowed to wash my hands here! I hate you!’ Demolishing the SnoepDog cools down his anger a bit. When he is sure the damage to the machine is beyond repairing, he walks home to go wash his hands. “I will never, EVER, walk a dog again!’, he mumbles. And he keeps his word.

Lessons to be learned from scenario 2:

·         Try to design as fool proof as possible;

·         The SnoepDog interface has to be very clear in how to use it, also to people that are uninformed and inexperienced;

·         Pushing buttons randomly doesn’t cause the machine to malfunction;

·         The best place to carry the ID-chip is not by a owner’s e-card, but by a dog coin on the collar of the dog. The dog is the only one that is always there when the pooping is being done;

·         The SnoepDog has to be strong! Vandalism does occur in public space;

·         Special attention for keeping the close environment of the SnoepDog clean (in case of accidents, like falling poop bags).