Transportation of police dogs : A new solution with focus on usability and user experience

Abstract: In Sweden there are around 400 service dogs and dog handlers within the police (Polisen,2016). The service dogs are used in 25 000 to 30 000 interventions every year. According to the Swedish Police Service (2016), the most common breed within the police in Sweden is German shepherds and Malinois. The service dogs are used to track down people, substances and objects. They can also be used for surveillance and defense (Polisen, 2016). According to Eneström (2015-06-18), the transportation cages for service dogs used within the Swedish police today are designed with smaller measurements than the ones required by the Swedish Board of Agriculture (2015). The reason why the smaller cages are used is that with the measurements stated in the regulations from the Swedish Board of Agriculture, two cages cannot fit into the luggage compartment of the currently used police patrol vehicles (Eneström,2015-06-18). Fortunately, the vehicle Volvo XC70, which is the most commonly used police patrol vehicle, will not be manufactured anymore. This means that a new vehicle have to be chosen touse both for regular patrol vehicles and for dog transportation patrol vehicles. The need of a new solution for transporting service dogs initiated this master thesis, which was initiated by the design company Dacat AB. The aim was to develop a solution for the cages and storage of equipment integrated in a new vehicle of suggestion for the police. The objective was that this new solution should be developed with the user in center, meet the regulations and legislations from stakeholders, obtain high usability, enhance the user experience and provide a healthy, comfortable working environment for both police dogs and the police officers. The outcome of the thesis is visualizations and animations made from 3D models describing the conceptual solution. A user centered design approach was used in this thesis since the target group is narrow and itwas important to understand the context and the target group well. The user centered approach was adapted to fit the design challenge of this thesis, especially to make it work with the fact that the target group consists of both a human and a dog. This lead to an approach and a process, in this thesis called Design for multi-species partnerships. The result consists of a vehicle recommendation with a technical solution for the interior design. It is constructed to fit the recommended vehicle, but also to be adapted to other vehicles, depending on which vehicle the police decide to choose. The interior design is beneficial for both the dogs and the dog handlers as well as for the complete police operations, since it creates a more viable and versatile vehicle for the police. It was important to fulfill the needs and desires of both parts of the target group as well as creating a well functioning solution that works efficiently. The police patrol vehicle is in fact a working place for the target group, which means that aspects not that important to other vehicle users, was shown to be important in this thesis. This because the working place environment is directly connected to health and the ability to perform well. The profession of the target group is important for the society and is filled with a lot of expectations and demands, therefore it is important that the working place environment offer them the possibility to perform well without interference. The master thesis is carried out during the last semester of the Industrial Design Engineerprogram at Luleå University of Technology. The course D7014A is 30 university credits which equals 20 weeks of fulltime work. The thesis was conducted in Gothenburg in the spring of 2017.