Hudson & Rex: Rex at Home
Bringing a TV icon into your living room—an intuitive AR photo experience featuring Rex, the detective dog from Hudson & Rex.
Project Summary
Hudson & Rex: Rex at Home is a mobile AR experience built as a fan engagement tool for the popular TV series Hudson & Rex. Using volumetric capture and augmented reality, the app lets users interact with a lifelike 3D Rex in their own homes—commanding him to sit, lie down, or catch a ball, and take shareable photos. The project aimed to extend the series' brand into immersive tech, making screen-to-scene interaction fun, frictionless, and rewarding.
Project Overview
Duration: August 2021 - November 2021
My Role
Led game design, UX design, and project management. Collaborated closely with the series IP stakeholders, broadcasters teams, and engineers to define the games, prioritize features, and validate usability for fans of the show and new audiences.
My Deliverables:
- Led UX strategy and interaction design tailored for non-gaming audiences
- Collaborated with VFX and AR teams to optimize character responsiveness and gesture commands
- Developed onboarding flow and AR placement calibration to streamline user setup
- Wrote UI copy and structured feedback loops for intuitive command triggering
- Oversaw user testing and post-launch iteration based on App Store analytics and fan feedback
Tools Used:
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
- InVision
- xCode
Business Goal
To create a light-touch branded AR companion that extends the Hudson & Rex universe beyond television. The app was designed to increase fan loyalty, drive traffic to the series website, and offer users a novel way to “interact” with Rex in their own home environments—using technology to deepen emotional connection to the character and enhance shareable content opportunities.
Strategic Objectives
User Research & Insights
Problem Definition
Key Design Decisions
Outcomes
Next Steps / Reflection
While Hudson & Rex: Rex at Home was built as a promotional companion experience, it demonstrated the power of volumetric AR to deepen viewer engagement and extend screen characters into personal space. The learnings from this project—especially around intuitive placement, character expressiveness, and one-click shareability—are directly informing new branded entertainment and immersive photo experiences currently in development.