It all started with a simple question: Why does Netflix operate its online merchandise store as a separate, external site that is completely disconnected from the streaming app itself?

Netflix fans have massive emotional connections to characters and stories. When they are watching a show and see an iconic item—like Max's jacket or a Stranger Things prop—they want it at that exact moment. By forcing users to close the app, go to their browser, search for the item, and register on a different site, Netflix loses over 95% of potential impulse purchases.

I pitched this conceptual integration to close the gap. Over a few weeks, we designed a native mobile mockup, established consistent typography, and ran interactive user studies to build a high-fidelity prototype of the unified shopping experience.

Being a passion-driven personal project, we had zero official resource allocation. Our engineering and design squads were fully swamped with regular client work. However, the sheer impact of the idea kept us inspired. We gathered after hours, met on weekends, and spent our team hackathons building and iterating the interactive prototype.

The core strategic challenge was balance. We had to implement shopping and social community features without distracting viewers or making the streaming app feel like a cluttered department store catalog. By focusing on in-scene tag targets and floating overlay icons, we created a system that is invisible during standard playback and reveals itself only upon direct user interest.

Before putting pen to paper, we surveyed 150 active Netflix subscribers. The findings were staggering:

• 72% of fans expressed immediate interest in buying clothing or props seen on their favorite shows.
• 64% of users had no idea that Netflix even had an official external merchandise store (Netflix.shop).
• 88% of users stated they would drop off if they had to register a separate account or input billing details manually to buy merch.

We built interactive high-fidelity A/B testing models. Test cohorts using our integrated in-stream design showed a dramatic reduction in search friction, vaulting product interest, and maintaining high platform session lengths since users read community reviews right inside the show’s dashboard.

Stepping outside our day-to-day client duties to build a pure passion project is always a massive challenge. However, this initiative demonstrated how visual editing, UX architecture, and engineering execution can combine to solve major business opportunities.

Fusing entertainment and commerce is the future of media platforms. While this remains a conceptual prototype, the positive user feedback, high satisfaction metrics, and design consistency we achieved proved that frictionless e-shopping could truly elevate the Netflix ecosystem. It’s been an incr

It all started with a simple observation: engineers operating on distributed, active construction sites were spending hours organizing physical receipts instead of building.

Cendrol Construct is a construction and interior solutions company managing distributed on-site operations. In these environments, site engineers frequently pay out-of-pocket for local materials, fuel, and dynamic site services. However, Cendrol's traditional reimbursement pipeline was fragmented and highly manual.

I pitched a redesign of the expense reimbursement experience to simplify tracking, approvals, and workflows. The goal wasn't just to replace physical receipts with digital forms — it was to build a system that earned engineers' trust through speed, legibility, and zero friction.

Site engineers struggled to track where their submitted expenses stood, while the CFO and administrative teams were swamped by a lack of operational clarity:

• Engineers struggled to trace submitted receipts, leading to repeated follow-up inquiries.
• The legacy flow lacked visibility, making approvals feel completely disconnected from active site operations.
• "but when we can't read the amount or the vendor name, what can we do?" — CFO (Chief Financial Officer).
• Engineers felt mental stress over payout delays, which directly affected operational efficiency and trust.

We embedded ourselves into site operations to map tensions and user expectations. The founder, Pooja Seth, noted: “Engineers struggled to track where reimbursements were getting delayed.”

During user studies, three primary tensions emerged:

• Continuity vs Cognitive Overload: Engineers needed dynamic tracking updates without constant alerts distracting them from dangerous construction zones.
• Legibility vs Data Depth: The administrative team required receipts, category codes, and timestamps, while site engineers required a 10-second submission flow.
• Structural Clarity: Neglected areas and bottleneck stages needed to be visually prioritized so teams could identify delays instantly.

This project proved that the best design stories aren't always about revolutionary visual interfaces. Sometimes, they are about taking a fragmented, stressful operational process and making it clear, legible, and structured.

By optimizing receipt submissions and tracking visibility, Cendrol Construct transformed how site engineering teams relate to expense management. The feedback from site testers after the beta launch was the ultimate indicator of success: “The system has helped me track and also record my spendings, and also this has helped us get reimbursements faster and efficiently.”