Developing a concept together with dog trainers
Nov 2025 – Jan 2026For a participatory design course, my group teamed up with a dog training company (Hund i Balans) to explore how a UX solution could help their business.
The two dog trainers relied on manual and fragmented documentation regarding private training lessons, making it difficult to access and administrate internal information efficiently.
Create a joint system in which the trainers can easily access and administrate information, while respecting analogous work practices.
An internally shared client database where they can find and share client information and lesson notes.
Denise Heijkenskjöld, Martina Carlbom, Isabelle Franzén and me.
UX Designer/Researcher + Workshop & Concept Development
Figma, Figjam & FigmaMake (AI)
The first step was to understand the context and user behaviour and needs. In our team we conducted a contextual inquiry, observing and interviewing a private teaching session between the dog trainers and a client.
During contextual inquiry we observed and took notes
We analysed the collected data using an affinity diagram, which helped us identify several insights.
Physical notes
Client and lesson notes were written in one physical notebook
Fragmented information
Client information was fragmented across multiple digital platforms
Reliance on memory
The trainers relied heavily on memory to manage client information and maintaining communication
In-person interaction
The interactions with clients was considered essential and should not be interrupted by technology.
Joint follow-up
Most training sessions were conducted individually, but the client follow-up would be joint.
Following the initial research workshop, we held a future workshop to explore different problem spaces. The goal of this session was to make the participants reflect on their current challenges and prioritise potential solutions that aligned with their business goals and could realistically be implemented in the near future.
Based on the identified challenges we developed design concepts and continued with an internal database with client profiles.
Participants reflecting on different ideas
The trainers had expressed they were a bit reluctant with technology because it felt complicated and not adapted to their needs as dog trainers. By prototyping with the participants, we found a common ground for what type of system they needed and felt comfortable with. They created storyboards, wireframes and an additional rapid mockup prototype with prompting in FigmaMake.
Participants' storyboards to reflect the role of a client database in their work practice
As the facilitator for this workshop, I encountered a challenge of participants feeling shy about their creative skills. My learning was that I had to find a balance where I could motivate a participant to engage in the prototyping, while not being too pushy. In the end, all participants completed both storyboards and wireframes.
In the design team we all created wireframes for the internal client database to iterate on the participants' prototype ideas. After refining the wireframes we divided work into Look and Feel prototypes in Figma as well as an HTML implementation prototype for testing different functions and interactions.
My wireframe sketches
The trainers and a client evaluated the prototypes through a Design Studio critique format - where participants provided structured feedback on the prototypes. This collaborative critique helped identify areas that required further refinement. Afterwards, certain functions and visual aspects were adjusted to their liking into a final Figma design.
Feedback through Design Studio critique format
Our final prototype was a client database with a visual style inspired by the company's brand profile. It was first iterated and designed in Figma to then be exported into FigmaMake. We connected it to a Supabase plugin to make the database functional and interactive for a testable prototype.
It consists of an informative client overview and client profiles with relevant information, images and a function to upload lesson notes. But how did we manage to design for their main problems?
The dog trainers had lesson notes in one physical notebook, and it was difficult for them to remember what clients to call and when without having one of them to search inefficiently through the pages.
With the status function, the goal is to give a quick and viable overview for both dog trainers to be up to date and not forget to call clients. The different statuses are also digital replicas of existing and needed statuses.
Notes were written in one physical notebook which made it problematic when the dog trainers worked separately with different clients, but needed to stay up to date for a joint follow up. However, they wanted to keep the analogous note practice because it felt nicer when talking with clients.
The lesson page makes it possible to upload pictures but also write digital notes which the trainers can upload analog notes as well as note digitally outside of customer interaction.
Their contact with customers was fragmented across multiple platforms (such as instagram, mail, facebook and more) and it was difficult to keep track of. It was a problem for the trainers to quickly find and contact clients when needed and felt like a "hassle" to look through.
The database has an overview showing the preferred contact path as well as structured contact information to the client on each individual profile. With this, the trainers could easily find the easiest contact path and needed contact information to easily keep in touch with clients.
The concept was well received by the trainers at Hund i Balans, who appreciated both the insights into their workflow and the proposed prototype. The prototype concept in itself demonstrated how an internal client database could help organise client information while still supporting their flexible and personal way of working with clients.
This project gave valuable hands-on experience in facilitating participatory workshops and working closely with potential users throughout the design process. By engaging directly with trainers and clients it allowed us to collect insights through observation, interviews, and collaborative activities. We also introduced the use of AI in the design process, and experimented how it could be used both within the design team as well as participants/users which I think helped create a common ground for design requirements and higher fidelity prototypes to test in less time.
Overall, the project provided practical insight into participatory design methods, collaborative prototyping, and translating research findings into design concepts. By working closely with real users throughout the process it strengthened both the relevance of the concept and my own understanding of user-centred design in practice.