~/case-files $ open ./project-digital-decay.md

DIGITAL.DECAY

Fashion Through Entropy | 2024

DIGITAL.DECAY - a storefront where products erode with stock
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PROJECT/OVERVIEW

DIGITAL.DECAY is a fashion e-commerce platform where products visually degrade as stock depletes. Low stock items show digital corruption. Sold out products fully disintegrate. We turned scarcity into spectacle, urgency into art. Sales increased 250% because watching products decay creates genuine FOMO unlike any countdown timer.

CHALLENGE

E-commerce fatigue. Users numb to "limited stock" warnings. Fake urgency everywhere. The challenge: create REAL urgency without being manipulative. Show scarcity through design, not pop-ups. Make users feel the disappearing act.

SOLUTION

Built a visual decay system tied to actual inventory. 100 items: pristine. 50 items: slight glitches. 10 items: heavy corruption. 0 items: complete disintegration. Real-time. Honest. Dramatic. Users see products literally disappearing. No fake urgency. Just raw honesty through visual design.

DISCOVERY & ANALYSIS

RESEARCH/PHASE

Analyzed user psychology of scarcity. Studied digital decay aesthetics. Interviewed fashion buyers. A/B tested 10+ decay algorithms. Found that gradual corruption creates more urgency than sudden changes. Transparency builds trust even while creating FOMO.

CONCEPT & ITERATION

DESIGN/PHASE

Created 5 decay stages with unique visual signatures. Designed glitch effects that preserve readability. Built custom image corruption shaders. Ensured decay enhances rather than obscures products. Even broken products look beautiful.

DEVELOPMENT & TECH

BUILD/PHASE

Next.js frontend. Real-time Shopify integration. Custom WebGL decay shaders. Server-side rendering for performance. Built decay engine that processes images on-demand. Optimized for mobile. Zero impact on load times despite heavy visual effects.

IMPACT & METRICS

RESULTS/PHASE

250% sales increase in first quarter. 40% reduction in cart abandonment. Users checking site daily to watch products decay. Press coverage in Vogue, Fast Company, Wired. Industry changing how they think about stock visualization.

SEE MORE WORKBRIEF US
Image

IMPACT/METRICS

250%
Sales Increase
-40%
Cart Abandonment
125K
Daily Active Users
25+
Press Features