Agilitycrew : Designing a mobile application for relationship building between agility handlers

This project focused on agility handlers, which are dog owners who train agility, a niche dog sports community. Through fieldwork, it was discovered that group training was valued in the agility community and no accessible solution to find training partners exists today. Therefore, it aimed to fill a gap in the market for social agility applications, by designing a digital tool to facilitate interactions between agility handlers to broaden the agility community. The study took a user-centered approach using contextual inquiries, semi-structured interviews, and focus group interviews, then tested various prototypes throughout 3 iterations. The digital solution became Agilitycrew, a minimalistic mobile application with a filtering function that helps agility handlers find suitable training partners. The results indicated the app’s real-world implications as participants appreciated its simplicity and wanted it to be released for real. This project demonstrates an approach that other designers can take when designing for niche communities.