Please, Don't Drive Me Nuts! Experience Goals for Dogs

Abstract The number of studies in HCI that deal with dog-technology interaction is increasing. However, the experience goals for the dogs are rarely considered neither in the research designs nor when the planning the use of technology. This paper aims to bring these issues into consideration and advance the dog related studies in HCI. We present the Five Freedoms as the guiding principles of design and research. We describe some causes of lowered welfare as well as behavior problems of dogs. Based on these we present implications for design and when carrying out research. We also exemplify how to assess animal’s experience when designing and testing technology for dogs and other animals. Author Keywords Animals; dogs; welfare; five freedoms; ethics; technology; design; research; experience. ACM Classification Keywords H.5.m. Information interfaces and presentation: Miscellaneous. General Terms Design, Experimentation, Measurement, Reliability. Introduction In recent years studies involving animals have increased in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). Most of the studies concentrate on dogs [1][6][19] [22][23][34] but also poultry [12] or hamsters [2], for example. For primates, such as bononos in zoos, mobile tablets are being studied