A study on Proposing a Digital End-to-End Design Direction for IoT-Based Pet Water Dispensers Using the KANO+QFD Model: Focusing on the Needs of Cat Caregivers in the Design of IoT-Based Pet Water Dispensers

The pet supplies market is witnessing a gradual expansion, with a particularly notable increase in demand for intelligent IoT-based pet management products. In this context, consumer demands are shifting from mere interest to desires for experiences and emotional engagements. This study aims to address the prevalent issue in the current market where the majority of pet water dispensers focus solely on basic functionalities, neglecting deep user experience design. The research begins by constructing a user journey map to analyze the behavioral paths of users interacting with mobile and IoT water dispensers, thereby deriving user needs. Subsequently, a qualitative analysis based on the Kano model is conducted to determine the priorities of user satisfaction and requirements, and a Quality Function Deployment(QFD) chart is developed to analyze and quantify the importance of design requirements. The findings indicate that the importance weights of water intake statistics design requirements and water quality monitoring feedback design requirements are the highest, becoming key design considerations in the digital end-to-end system design process. Therefore, this study proposes a design direction for the IoT smart drinking system platform through the combined application of the Kano and QFD models, offering guidance on the remote user end system design for IoT pet water dispensers from a user needs perspective.