Roblox Immersive
In-Game Shopping
Economy Design Team
Product Design Intern
May - Aug 2024
Figma, User Interviews, Wireframing, User Testing, Prototyping, 3D Modeling
PROJECT SUMMARY
Project Goals
During my internship as a Product Design Intern on Roblox’s Economy Team, I took on a challenge: reimagining how players connect with real-world brands in Roblox's metaverse.
My goal was to create immersive shopping experiences that felt naturally integrated into gameplay. By building tools that empowered brands, engaged Roblox players, and supported game developers, I helped lay the groundwork for an entirely new way to shop and discover in the metaverse.
My Impact
Working alongside other product designers, engineers, PMs, brands, and 3D artists, I made the following key contributions:
1
Advanced the vision of Real World Commerce by proposing scalable short and long-term business tools, allowing brands to advertise real-world products in a self-serve, low-effort way.
2
Facilitated cross-team workshops (PMs, designers, engineers, & 3D artists) to generate aligned opportunity spaces
3
Provided new monetization opportunities for game developers, enabling them to feature flexible commerce placements and balancing immersive player experiences with driving revenue
4
Balanced 3 user personas (players, advertisers, and game developers) in every design decision while translating user needs into high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes.
CONTEXT
Roblox's Current Commerce Landscape And also… What is Real World Commerce (RWC)?
💡
RWC bridges gaming and commerce, letting players shop and discover real-world brands in Roblox.
When we think of online shopping, we picture scrolling through endless lists on Amazon or browsing a brand’s website. But what if shopping could be as immersive as playing your favorite game?
That’s the vision I set out to explore during my summer internship at Roblox, focusing on Real World Commerce (RWC). My goal was to transform how players interact with real-world brands within the metaverse.
Roblox has existing immersive experiences, like 'Walmart Discovered', which allows brands like Walmart to bring its brand into Roblox through games, events, and interactive shopping.
The Challenge
Design new ways to make Roblox's RWC experiences more scalable and adaptable for different businesses, allowing brands to reach Roblox's user base while also driving business outcomes.
RESEARCH
Research Approach
Before defining solutions, I conducted research to understand how Roblox’s current commerce and ads ecosystem was experienced by its three key audiences: players, brands interested on advertising on Roblox, and game developers.
My goal was to uncover pain points and opportunities that could inform both short-term and long-term approaches to commerce.
3 Research Methods:
1
User Observations & Interviews: Conducted 10 user interviews and examined user flows for interacting with ads and commerce in Roblox games to pinpoint usability and engagement gaps
2
Internal Stakeholder Interviews: Spoke with PMs, Brand & Partnership leads, and designers to understand Roblox's current ad capabilities and advertiser feedback
2
Competitive Analysis: Reviewed ad interaction flows from leading social and gaming platforms to identify best practices in conversion and re-engagement.
Identifying the Gaps: Where Does Shopping Feel Broken on Roblox?
Roblox's In-Game Image & Video Ads
Roblox offers video and image ads, enabling brands to upload campaign media. These ads are then placed into Roblox experiences, where players can view and interact with the ad.
💡 TAKEAWAY
These in-game ad formats are designed primarily for awareness, so brands have no means of driving conversion.
Players don't frequently notice these ads and can't interact with brands immersively.
RWC Experiences (like the Walmart Experience)
Brands like Walmart and Nike have partnered with Roblox to create custom experiences where players can interact with real-world products and be redirected to purchase them on the brand's external platform.
💡 TAKEAWAY
Most RWC experiences on Roblox rely on deep partnerships and significant custom development, which is not scalable.
💡 TAKEAWAY
Immersive experiences like these RWC ones drive significant player engagement and sales.
'Walmart Discovered' sold 2.5x more real-world items in one month than the previous year.
What I Learned About the Users
From these insights, I crafted 3 core user personas to guide design decisions: players, brands interested in advertising on Roblox, and game developers.
These personas helped me frame trade-offs, ensuring every solution balanced user delight, developer empowerment, and brand scalability.
OPPORTUNITY AREAS & IDEATION
By mapping out the ecosystem and listening to each group’s needs, I realized this wasn’t just a brand challenge… it was a three-way design problem. Brands needed scalability, developers needed support, and players needed seamless experiences. Together, these insights shaped my guiding question:
How might we transform RWC into a self-serve system that creates value for all 3 user groups…
enabling brands to create scalable experiences that drive player conversion
minimizing developer effort
preserving in-game immersion for players?
I challenged myself to solve for all 3 personas, both short-term and long-term.
Working with stakeholders across the Brand & Partnership, Product, and Design teams, I mapped the problem space and identified two opportunity areas:
SHORT TERM OPPORTUNITY AREA
Rethinking Ads to be "Shoppable"
A quick-win solution leveraging Roblox’s existing ad formats to enable external platform redirection and conversion tracking. This would deliver immediate advertiser value without requiring major infrastructure changes.
LONG TERM OPPORTUNITY AREA
Immersive Commerce Units
A forward-looking solution that integrates commerce into the Roblox 3D world through customizable, interactive units. This approach focuses on brand immersion, scalability across experiences, and sustainable monetization for developers.
By structuring my work into these two tracks, I ensured my designs addressed both immediate advertiser needs and Roblox’s long-term vision for immersive commerce. The following sections detail each opportunity area, my design process, and the impact of the proposed solutions.
Short Term Opportunity Area: Rethinking Ads to be 'Shoppable'
The Challenge
Roblox’s existing image and video ads were effective for awareness but didn’t allow brands to drive commerce or track conversions. Players couldn’t seamlessly explore a product beyond passively viewing an ad in-game, and advertisers couldn’t connect campaigns to external platforms in a measurable way.
To deliver a quick-win solution within my internship timeline, I explored…
💡
How might we leverage existing ad formats on Roblox to help brands drive conversion in a self-serve way?
My Goal
For brands: Provide a way to connect campaigns to external platforms and measure customer conversions.
For players: Create intuitive, non-intrusive ways to interact with ads in the Roblox environment.
My Approach
I started by analyzing competitor ad flows (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram) and identifying common user patterns for platform redirection. Many products use Call-to-Action (CTA) prompts to trigger users to engage with a brand and redirect to an external product.
I broke the problem into three moments for players that needed redesign:
Engagement: How can we make ads discoverable without being intrusive?
Redirection: How can we ensure players understand they are leaving Roblox?
Re-engagement: How can we maintain user retention and bring them back?
(Shoppable Ads) DESIGN DECISIONS
Compiling research & brainstorming with my team, I ideated the concept of a Shoppable Ad.
This short term solution allows brands to connect their external platforms to their ad campaigns and enables players to learn more about brands beyond simply viewing them in-game.
Exploring user journeys and wireframes, I made some key design decisions.
1
Kept ads contextual through non-intrusive CTA buttons that only appear when players approach an ad unit (familiar, discoverable, low friction)
2
Partnered with a UX writer to ensure clear but playful affordances, so players know how they can interact with ads.
3
Built in ways for businesses to track conversions while maintaining immersion.
Design Challenge: Designing Intuitive Interactions in a 3D Environment
Non-intrusive Call-to-Action buttons
Easy to discover and interact with
Displaying content only when player is interested
The final design for prompting players to interact with ads involved CTA buttons familiar to Roblox players that only appear when the avatar is in close proximity to the ad unit. This allows for easy discovery while reducing distracting pop-ups for users navigating their Roblox world.
(Default View)
❌ CTA only clickable in full-screen view
Reduces likelihood of unintentional clicks but low visibility for ads not at eye-level
(Default View)
✅ Floating CTA
Familiar interaction on Roblox and scalable to ad formats that don't have full-screen views
(Full Screen View)
✅ Static CTA
Highly visible but located in controls section to reduce distraction from ad content
Design Challenge: Balancing Brand Discovery with Player Retention (UX Writing)
Clear indication that player is leaving Roblox game
Encouraging the player to return to Roblox
Satisfying brands' conversion goals
Working alongside a UX writer, I designed several iterations of redirection notices to clearly inform players that they are leaving their Roblox platform and being redirected to an external platform.
❌ Option 1: Concise, Not-informative Language
✅ Option 2: Detailed, longer language
User testing revealed that many players were most concerned about the status of their gameplay after leaving the platform. The final design opted for more detailed language -- although longer, it provides more clarification to players about their game activity after redirection.
But once the player leaves, the platform, how might we encourage them to return to Roblox?
In attempt to maintain player retention, I ideated a push notification that prompts players to return to Roblox after spending a certain amount of time on the external platform.
The solution involved the perfect balance of allowing players to successfully learn more about brands (satisfying brands' needs) and maintaining Roblox retention rates (satisfying business needs)
❌ Option 1: Slightly pushy
✅ Option 2: Subtle, informative
The final solution balanced advertiser and business needs.
Option 2 ultimately strikes a balance between subtly nudging players to return to Roblox without being overly pushy, all while allowing them to fully explore brands' platforms.
(Shoppable Ads) FINAL DESIGN & IMPACT
After many iterations and discussions with the product and engineering team, the solution came into focus…
Shoppable Ads: a scalable, self-serve solution that gave brands autonomy to drive conversion to RWC while offering players seamless, engaging paths to purchase products.
What are the impacts of Shoppable Ads?
Shoppable Ads are a quick, short-term solution that allow advertisers to drive conversion and commerce, utilizing existing engineering infrastructure and familiar user patterns.
Brands & Advertisers
Finally have a conversion-oriented path to reach Roblox's 70M+ daily users without the overhead of custom partnerships.
Players
Experience lightweight, engaging interactions that feel native to the platform
Developers
Gain scalable, low-lift monetization options
By bridging these 3 perspectives, the concept of Shoppable Ads reimagines commerce not as one-off campaigns, but as a scalable ecosystem, positioning brands to go beyond awareness and drive conversion.
Long Term Opportunity Area:
Making Commerce More Immersive
Big Questions & Reflections
After exploring Opportunity Area #1: Shoppable Ads, I started to think more broadly:
💡
What about brands who are ready to invest in richer experiences… something beyond a single ad placement?
Reflections on Shoppable Ads:
✅
Gives brands a lightweight, scalable entry point into Roblox commerce
❌
Advertising commerce is still not immersive or customizable
The Challenge
I realized the immersive 3D metaverse in Roblox presents a unique opportunity for brands, which led me to the question:
💡
How might we help brands drive commerce in more flexible, immersive ways that replicate real-world interactions?
My Approach: Cross Functional Brainstorming Workshop
I organized a brainstorming workshop with stakeholders, including Brand & Partnership, Product Managers, and Designers.
We drew inspiration from real-world shopping touchpoints (malls, vending machines, drive-thrus) and mapped them into Roblox contexts
We defined key design principles to guide a potential solution
Our ideas were centered around immersion, scalability across Roblox games, and low effort tools for brands.
Guiding Design Principles
Ability to theme commerce spaces to fit variety of Roblox experiences
Offering customization options allow developers to easily integrate commerce spaces into their unique worlds
4
Pre-created unit templates for developers to drag and drop
Utilizing templates reduce developer effort and standardize designs across the platform
(Immersive Commerce) DESIGN EXPLORATIONS
Concept Exploration in 2D and 3D
Using the 4 guiding design principles, I collaborated with a 3D artist to sketch and prototype early concepts.
💡
Through feedback from designers and PMs, I decided to explore modular commerce units, allowing brands to display custom products in an engaging format.
I explored several main concepts that each tested different balances of immersion vs. scalability.
Player User Experience
2D Flat Carousels
Resembles existing ad formats' interactions while allowing brands to upload rotating media content for products in a carousel
✅
Easy to implement (similar to existing ad placements)
❌
Doesn't add much engagement value for players compared to regular ad placements
3D Rotating Carousels
Utilizes dynamically changing content in the 3D spaces, allowing brands to uploading rotating media and players can engage in a more immersive way.
✅
More immersive, interactive 3D experience for players
❌
Number of carousel spots constraints the number of available products to be uploaded by brands
Brand/Advertiser User Experience
Easily and quickly build 3D commerce units and upload product asset
Align visual design and aesthetics with personal branding and style
I explored a Commerce Management Tool for advertisers to easily manage their commerce units.
Developer User Experience
Have flexibility between choosing pre-built commerce units and building custom models
Make aesthetic/visual changes to commerce models
Feedback and Iterations
After testing these concepts with game developers and discussing tradeoffs with my team, I uncovered several insights
💡 FEEDBACK
"The world of Roblox doesn't have the same physical constraints as real life. These models can push the limitations of 'immersion' even further."
-Economy Designer
💡 FEEDBACK
"These commerce units don't suit the style of my gaming world"
-Roblox Game Developer
These conversations revealed that the final solution needed to be more flexible and adaptable to fit diverse game worlds while ensuring usability and scalability for developers and advertisers.
So I thought… what if we merge the best of both worlds?
Combining the immersion of Roblox's branded experiences with the self-serve, templatized nature of the commerce unit would allow advertisers to easily drive commerce in engaging, immersive ways without high developer effort.
(Immersive Commerce) FINAL DESIGNS
The Final Concept: A Templatized Immersive Shopping World
After continuous brainstorming with fellow Economy team members...
I proposed a solution that merges the benefits of branded experiences with self-serve simplicity.
This Immersive Shop concept enables advertisers to create pre-designed 3D environments by selecting from templates, upload products, and customize spaces, all while maintaining low effort.
Brand/Advertiser User Experience
In the Ads Manager, advertisers can select from pre-created 3D environments and upload media assets, maintaining a simple, easy-to-create experience.
Player User Experience
Players can enter branded experiences through their games via a teleport and interact with branded products in an immersive way.
NEXT STEPS
Future Feasibility
While this concept was framed as a reach-goal for Real World Commerce, I partnered with engineers to evaluate its feasibility and surfaced a few key considerations.
Although the idea of connecting a branded storefront to a branded, templatized experience is technically possible, several open questions remain:
🤔 What additional entry points could connect players to a branded experience?
🤔 How much creative control of the storefront model should be given to developers vs. advertisers?
To move this concept forward, I outlined next steps across design, engineering, and product.
DESIGN
Shoppable Ads Testing
Conduct further user tests with Shoppable Ads to validate user interaction decisions and identify friction points in redirection flow
DESIGN
Design Asset Management System
Create a scalable system for advertisers to organize products and campaigns within Roblox.
ENGINEERING
Address technical constraints in model customization
Define guardrails that balance creative flexibility for developers and advertisers while ensuring performance and consistency across Roblox Studio and Ads Manager.
DESIGN
Establish pricing and revenue models for new commerce solutions
Develop clear monetary guidelines that support both developers and advertisers, especially with the introduction of conversion campaigns.
LEARNINGS
What I Learned Along the Way
My internship at Roblox pushed me to grow as both a designer and collaborator. I'm so grateful for this incredible opportunity to shape the future of something so forward-facing and I'm thankful for all the support and love I received from the team.
Looking back, this project taught several valuable lessons:
💙
Collaboration with unfamiliar roles unlocks better product thinking
Working closely with the brand & partnership team immersed me in the advertising and marketing world. I began to see how brand goals, ad formats, and user experience intersect, and how a holistic view of company priorities can transform product decisions. This collaboration reminded me aligning with business partners can uncover opportunities that strengthen both the user experience and the business model.
💙
Resourcefulness thrives when teams are lean
On a small design team, I learned to maximize every ounce of expertise around me, from 3D artists to UX writers, to bring a complex vision like real-world commerce in Roblox to life. Rather than seeing limited resources as a constraint, I treated them as an opportunity to collaborate more deeply and stretch my own versatility as a designer.
💙
Designing for multiple stakeholders requires constant recalibration
Balancing the needs of Roblox players, game developers, and brands was quite a challenge. I had to constantly shift perspectives, and the experience sharpened my ability to design systems where diverse priorities coexist.
💙
Unknown design spaces demand forward-thinking imagination.
Designing commerce in the metaverse meant navigating territory with no established playbook. Instead of relying on existing references, I had to imagine new interaction models that could scale for millions of users and developers. It pushed me to embrace ambiguity, experiment boldly, and design not just for today’s users but for the future of digital experiences.
