GARGI PANT



Level Up Personalization

Crocs has always been a leader in customization and play. 
Collaborating with AI, users can truly go wild and create the Crocs of their dreams. 




Crocs 

Internship  ->  Full Time Contractor
June’ 23 -  April’24

Goal: Utilize my UX skills in the land of product facing design.
Skills: Research, Trend Forecasting, Art Direction, UI Design
Tools: Miro, Figma, Adobe After Effects
Reflection: Communicating and being clear about your ideas and key when presenting cross-functionally. Not everyone is a designer , which is why your presentation has to be inclusive and clear.

Create-A-Croc: With the playfulness of Crocs and the capabilities of AI -  this product allows users to go wild and generate/customize their dream pair of Crocs + make them tangible. A future concept to build off their existing customization services.

Overview: Combining trend forecasting/creative direction and the UX method I created “Create-A-Croc. Though the end deliverable was an application, the focus of this project was research and trend forecasting

Role: Leading micro and macro trends, assisting in colourways for Salehe Bembury’s line, creating digital and physical libraries, CMG (color, materials, and graphics) work and more.




Process

Research

This project involved hours of secondary research using the STEEP (social, technology, environmental, economical, and political) method → looking at these different categories to determine macro (5+ years) trends

To view raw data check out the figma file


The scope of my research and process


After my secondary research/raw data was collected I began the process of affinitization and collected 10 insights


Insights


Societal:
There is a resurgence of romanticizing mundane aspects of life + Post covid changes are leading younger consumers to purchase playful products

#wellbeing #community + #creativity
 Technology:
GenZ consumers are looking for immersive tech but the product should have purpose + Responsibility in tech is rising


#digital #creativity + #politics
 Economics: 
There is an appeal of old money/quiet luxury and the illusion of living abroad in China + Younger consumers have less money and are researching the quality of brands before purchasing

#community + #wellbeing
 Environment:
Climate change leads to bothsocietal and environmental disasters + Make the shift to natural



#community #politics + #wellbeing
 Politics:
Everyone has a platform + Marginalized communities want authentic representation



#digital + #community #wellbeing
  

Art Direction

With my STEEP insights collected I created visual moodboards and colour palettes based on each STEEP category to hone into my creative direction skills

The images collected and colour palette assembled were to highlight the beauty in the mundane, perfect imperfections (textured skin, used coffee cups, daily commutes)
The “DIY-ness” of the content in the imagery reflects how inflation/raised cost of living is leading to younger generations resorting to creating their own products/thrifting/ and being very deliberate in regards to their spendings
A hard moodboard to put together, but the imagery used were mostly of fashion products that had elements of tech/interactiveness 
The old money/quiet luxury aesthetic is evergreen and never truly goes away, with shows like Succession and influencers like Sofia Richie, we can start to see its global outreach. The colour palette embodies the classic colours of prep and wealth
Although jarring and quite depressing to see, climate change imagery can lead to vivid and striking colour palette , from fiery reds to acidic greens
Corporations tend to have a singular vision of what someone from marginalized groups look/act like, which can be alienating and received as inauthentic. The images used in this moodboard were directly from BIPOC and LGBTQ+ creators with the colour palette straying away from the “rainbow effect”

Ideation


Based on the insights:
  • GenZ consumers are looking for immersive tech but the product should have purpose
  • Post covid changes are leading younger consumers to purchase playful products
  • Everyone has a platform

I utilized my background in UX and began to think of how Crocs could create marketing activations/social media buzz

HMW  allow users explore and play with Crocs in a digital space?

Creating an actionable statements with the synthesized data was super important to look back and ground yourself during the design phase.  Asking “how might we?” is a great way of providing action to a stale insight.  
Idea

Digi Avatars



Digital Footprint




AR/AI What

Digital Avatar that users can customize and have their purchased Crocs displayed

 A physical representation (as a Croc) of a digital footprint internet jibbitz sole -> keyboard

AI generated (from Crocs database) customized Crocs shoes that users can experience via AR and later be purchased
Why

Incentive to buy more personalized emphasis on individuality



Promotional new mold + exploration of colours and materials



Customization taps into main character syndrome relevant/trendy tech immersive/interactive/playful experience user generated content
Based on feedback from my peers and coworkers I moved ahead with the AR/AI idea and began to flesh out Create-A-Croc