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
Roblox Summer Internship Overview
During my internship as a Product Design Intern on Roblox’s Economy Team, I designed mobile and web experiences empowering brands to drive commerce in-game.
Project Goals
1
Design in-game player experiences that would enable users to interact with branded content and commerce
2
Design a tool for partner brands to create ads & commerce experiences, allowing them to drive shopper conversion
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 allows players to discover real-world brands in-game, but there are some limitations
Existing Commerce Experiences (e.g. 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.
❌ PROBLEMS
Require deep partnerships and heavy development effort, which limits scalability for most brands.
✅ BENEFITS
Highly immersive and engaging, driving strong player interaction and real-world sales
The Walmart experience had a 41% click-through rate to checkout.
Existing Self-Serve Ads (Image & Video)
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.
❌ PROBLEMS
Designed mainly for brand awareness. Players can’t shop or interact meaningfully.
Often overlooked in gameplay, so they drive little conversion.
✅ HOW THIS HELPS USERS
Easy for advertisers to upload and manage campaigns at scale, without custom partnerships.
The Problem
On Roblox, branded shopping is either unscalable or unengaging, preventing brands from effectively driving player conversion to their sites.
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 in advertising on Roblox, and game developers.
3 Research Methods:
12
Interviews with Developers & Players
3
Q/A sessions with the Brand & Partners team
Gathered data from and spoke with leads on the Brand & Partnership team to understand painpoints in the Roblox's commerce experiences.
1
Competitor Audit
Reviewed ad interaction flows from leading social and gaming platforms to identify best practices in conversion and re-engagement.
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.
How might we transform commerce on Roblox into a self-serve system that creates value for all 3 user groups…
Brands & Advertisers
Enable brands to create scalable experiences that drive player conversion
Players
Preserve in-game immersion
Developers
Minimize effort to develop games
IDEATION
I broke my project into 2 parts: designing for the short-term and long-term.
After completing my user research, I realized that commerce on Roblox needed two different types of solutions depending on brand maturity and player expectations.
Some brands wanted a low-effort, scalable entry point into commerce, while others were eager to invest in richer, more immersive experiences.
Short Term: Making Ads "Shoppable"
🎯 GOAL
Create a lightweight, scalable format that any brand could use to test commerce on Roblox
👣 APPROACH
Focused on adapting familiar ad formats into purchasable units
💡 TRADEOFF
Lower immersion, but high scalability
Long Term: Making Commerce More Immersive
🎯 GOAL
Explore how commerce could feel truly native to the 3D metaverse
👣 APPROACH
Brainstormed in 2D and 3D spaces alongside 3D artists
💡 TRADEOFF
Higher brand/developer effort, but more engaging player experiences
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.
PART 1: Short-Term Solution
Making Ads 'Shoppable'
The Challenge
💡
How might we leverage existing ad formats on Roblox to help brands drive conversion in a self-serve way?
User Goals
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.
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.
Design Challenge: Designing Intuitive Player Interactions in a 3D Environment
💡
Players ignore static ads unless they clearly invite interaction, so I designed a proximity-based CTA that only appears when a player approaches an ad.
❌ CTA only clickable in full-screen view
Reduces likelihood of unintentional clicks but low visibility for ads not at eye-level
✅ Floating Proximity CTA
Familiar interaction on Roblox and scalable to ad formats that don't have full-screen views
Design Challenge: Balancing Brand Discovery with Player Retention (UX Writing)
💡
Interviews revealed players worried clicking "Shop Now" would interrupt gameplay. I tested 2 variations of a redirection screen, working with a UX writer.
❌ Option 1: Concise, Not-informative Language
✅ Option 2: Detailed, longer language
But once the player leaves, the platform, how might we encourage them to return to Roblox?
💡
To encourage players back into the platform, I designed a subtle push notification that re-engaged them after checkout.
I explored from playful to transactional, before landing on a lightweight reminder.
❌ 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.
FINAL DESIGNS
Final Design
After many iterations and discussions with the product and engineering team, I delivered the "Shoppable Ads" feature for both player and brand experiences.
Player Experience: Interacting with a Shoppable Ad
Unlike the existing static ads, shoppable ads allow players to actually interact with branded content and redirect to brands' external platforms.
Brand Experience: Create a Shoppable Ad
Brands can intuitively create a shoppable ad, upload media content, and track player conversions in Roblox's Ads Manager
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
PART 2: Long-Term Solution
Making Commerce More Immersive
Reflections on the short term solution (Shoppable Ads):
✅
Gives brands a lightweight, scalable entry point into Roblox commerce
❌
Advertising commerce is still not immersive or customizable
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?
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
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
❌
Constrained by number of physical carousel slots
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.
FINAL DESIGNS
The Final Concept: A Spectrum of Immersive Commerce Options
After continuous brainstorming with fellow Economy team members...
I proposed a solution that merges the benefits of branded experiences with self-serve simplicity.
The final solution was not a single format, but a plethora of commerce options that allow advertisers, players, and developers to choose what works best.
Advertiser Experience | Option 1: Create a 3D Commerce Units
Brands can choose from pre-created 3D templates of commerce units, upload media content, and customize the styling of the 3D model.
Advertiser Experience | Option 2: Create a 3D Immersive Shop
Brands can choose from pre-created 3D Roblox environments or create their own shop, upload media content, and customize the styling of their shop.
Player Experience | Discover and Interact with Immersive Shop
Players can discover shops in-game and teleport to the branded experience, interact with commerce, and explore external platforms.
Developer Experience | Add Commerce Unit to Game
Developers can easily add commerce units through Roblox's asset library, customize the styling of the model to suit their game.
Impacts of Immersive Commerce Units
Brands & Advertisers
Can quickly create immersive 3D shops in a scalable way, while tracking conversion and click-through rates.
Players
Discover products in engaging, immersive worlds that feel native to their existing game experience.
Developers
Gain scalable, low-lift monetization options
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.
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.
