PupVision - Fun way to stay close to your dog

Three questions to the project team

What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
The most unusual challenge was designing for a user who cannot self-report. Every insight about the dog had to be inferred from behavioral signals and validated through veterinary and canine behavioral science, rather than gathered through standard research methods. That constraint shaped the entire research process. The kit introduced a real onboarding challenge. Unlike a pure software product, users had to physically set up and position multiple devices before experiencing any value. Research confirmed this early: 4 out of 5 participants raised concerns about hardware installation complexity. Designing a setup experience that felt simple and credible became a core UX problem to solve.

What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
The aha moment came during research, when I found that anxiety peaks before the owner leaves, not while they are gone. That one finding opened up an intervention point that nothing on the market had been built around, and it reshaped every design decision that followed. The more difficult part was recruiting the right participants. Finding dog owners whose daily routine matched the target context took longer than expected, which forced me to rethink my sampling approach mid-process and ended up making the research stronger for it.

Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
In the near term, the priority is validating the interaction model with a broader user group and shipping V2 with a curated hardware kit. The roadmap then moves toward a full smart care system, designed to grow with the user over time. This project required simultaneously holding the roles of UX designer, user researcher, and product strategist. It confirmed that the most meaningful work sits at the edge of behavioral science and human-centered technology, and that is the direction I want to keep moving in. The freemium model keeps the entry point low, with advanced features unlocked through a paid subscription as the product grows. An open market and a rising pet tech category make the long-term case strong.