Taking the guesswork out of pool care with Baracuda’s Smart Dose app.

At a glance

Tonic designed and built Smart Dose, an iOS and Android app that helps pool owners test their water, understand the results and dose the right products. It calculates the dose from a pool profile and a guided strip test, recommends products and shows where to buy them.

Client:: Baracuda (Zodiac / Fluidra)
Project:: Pool Testing Mobile App (iOS & Android)
Industry:: Home and outdoor

UI & UX Design, Mobile Application Development, iOS & Android, Front-end Development, API Integrations, Art Direction & Design

The brief

Design and build a mobile app that helps pool owners test their water, understand the results and know exactly which products to use, and how much.

Smart Dose water test steps, test strip instructions, colour chart, recommendations and tips on five phones

The challenge: pool chemistry is confusing

Keeping a pool clean, clear and healthy comes down to getting the water chemistry right, and most pool owners find that hard.

Reading test strips, working out what the numbers mean and calculating the right dose are where people get stuck, buy the wrong product or overdose. Baracuda wanted a simple tool that takes the guesswork out of chemical dosing, and points pool owners to the right products along the way.

Smart Dose welcome menu beside the colour chart, water test, recommendations and tips screens

The strategy: test, select, measure and dose

We designed the app around three simple steps: test the water, select the chemicals, then measure and dose.

A pool profile captures the details that change the maths, like volume, surface type and whether it’s a chlorine or salt pool. A guided water test then walks people through using a strip, with colour-matched pads for free chlorine, total chlorine, alkalinity and pH.

Smart Dose screens fanned out on phones: water test, instructions, welcome menu, splash and colour chart

The solution: an iOS and Android dosing app

Smart Dose is a mobile app for iOS and Android that does the calculations from the data entered, shows clear results against ideal ranges, and recommends the products and dosage needed to treat the pool.

Tips and hints help with common problems like a green pool, and a store locator shows where to buy. A confusing chore becomes a few taps, so pool owners can keep their water balanced with confidence.