We created a 7-minute survey with the goal to broadly to explore North American consumer shopping habits and familiarity with QR codes and hang tags.

To receive a diversity of responses, we circulated the survey across our social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram), relevant forums on Reddit, and to Patagonia's employees.

While the survey was an apt research method to acquire general, overarching consumer trends, we wanted to meet shoppers in their natural habitat and mindset — Patagonia stores, in our case. Our research goal was to understand how consumers perceive and interact with QR codes and hang tags in-store.

We interviewed about 30 participants at Patagonia stores.

By nature of random in-store contextual inquiries, we weren't able to receive an entirely representative sample, so we supplemented our data with virtual interviews from demographics underrepresented in our prior research. We recruited our participants from existing survey respondents.

To synthesize our market and user research, we transcribed our raw data onto a Miro board, grouped data based on commonalities, and generated insights from the trends.

From there, we generated a variety of insights to inform our product decisions.

This iteration involves users browsing in-store. They will notice a QR code on the hang tag and scan it. We prioritized important information for users according to our research (price, size, functionality) and also added additional helpful information specific to the context, like reviews and availability.

This iteration prioritized the correct information, but needed consistent UI elements.

We considered what the QR code experience would look like for users scanning a hang tag on their delivered orders. Here, the information architecture is a bit different — we prioritize information like product care, function, and Patagonia as a brand instead of reviews and availability. Overall, the information architecture was decent, but also lacked visual cohesion.

Users would scan a QR code printed on their box which would lead to this main product page. While clean, we thought it needed to be more immersive.

Our final landing page for customers browsing in store starts with an onboarding screen that asks users where they are. This was necessary, as QR codes aren't dynamic enough to track where the product is. We acknowledge this adds some friction to the user experience.

For users shopping in store, we prioritize the most important information: price and size.

Users then can find more information relevant to their environment: features, sizing, and care. We cleaned up the visual design to be more standard.

Importantly, we add impact cards that help users understand the social impact of their purchase.

Users who receive their orders via delivery will be prompted to select their location upon scanning the QR code.

The landing page prioritizes the functionality of this product and minimizes less important information like price and size at this stage of the user journey.

For online orders, we included an easily accessible link to returns, which is most relevant to this stage of the user journey.

The unpackaging experience is meant to be cinematic and full of storytelling. We added a sizable section about Patagonia's environmental impact to connect users to the product and brand.

We reimagine the unpackaging experience with a cinematic video that introduces Patagonia as a brand and connects the customer's product to a larger narrative .

We display a customer's entire order. If a user clicks a specific product card, they are redirected to its specific product page.

We added quick links to common actions after unpackaging an order, such as returns or leaving a review.

We end this order page with more cinematic information about sustainability and impact.

Thank you to Jennifer Patrick for an enjoyable semester with Patagonia, as well as my entire team! This was an exciting exploration into the intersection of sustainability, physical design, and user interface design.

If I were to change something about the project, I'd probably do a little more research about specific consumer needs at each lifecycle stage.