TRYO

In 2021, U.S. online retail hit $1.05 trillion in annual sales — and generated $218 billion in returns. The return problem wasn't logistical. It was perceptual: shoppers couldn't know how a product would actually look or fit before buying. AR try-on was emerging as a credible solution, but it had a structural flaw — every implementation was brand-specific and siloed. Gucci's Snapchat lens only worked for Gucci. Nike's AR was trapped inside Nike's app.

No one had built a neutral, multi-brand AR shopping layer. Simultaneously, Google had announced a shift toward 3D product models in search results. The window to define the category was narrow.

QReal — a NASDAQ-listed AR content company and official Snapchat preferred creative partner — had the 3D modeling infrastructure to build what others couldn't. TRYO would prove it publicly and use consumer adoption as proof-of-concept for B2B platform licensing.

Snap study benchmarks at time of launch: 66% of shoppers using AR less likely to return items · 80% feel more confident purchasing · AR engagement growing 40% annually

Business problem: QReal had deep 3D modeling capabilities but was operating as a B2B content agency — project-by-project, no scalable product. The company needed a platform play that could demonstrate the technology and attract recurring licensing contracts.

User problem: Consumers were buying blind. High-consideration accessories — shoes, watches, sunglasses, hats — were being returned at significant rates because the gap between product photography and physical reality was too large.

Strategic opportunity: A neutral, multi-brand AR try-on app would solve the consumer problem publicly, generate press and credibility, and function simultaneously as a live B2B sales demonstration. This is a rare brief: a consumer product that is also the best possible enterprise sales tool for the same technology.

Title: Creative Director / Principal Product Designer
Duration: 2 years (2021–2023)
Owned: Brand identity and design system, UX/UI for iOS app, B2B partner CMS design, campaign photography and art direction.
Collaborated with: Product Manager Mithru Swarna, Creative Director Gunes Peksen (parent brand), QReal engineering.

I joined before the product had a name, a visual direction, or a single screen. I built the full design system — visual identity, color, type, motion principles — and the complete UX architecture. In parallel, I designed the B2B CMS that allowed brand partners to upload and manage their 3D product catalog. This was not a supporting design role. It was the design role.

AR try-on had a credibility problem. Most consumer AR in retail at the time was low-quality and gimmicky. The design had to immediately communicate that TRYO was different: ultra-realistic, frictionless, genuinely useful. If the product felt like a tech demo, it would be treated like one.

1. Neutral, aspirational visual system. The brand couldn't feel like it belonged to any specific catalog brand. It needed to feel like a premium platform that elevated every product inside it — like a luxury multi-brand retailer, not a startup app. Clean, confident, minimal — with enough personality to appeal to Gen Z and millennial shoppers without alienating luxury partners.

2. The three-second try-on rule. Core UX principle: a user must go from opening the app to seeing a product on their body in under three seconds. Every interaction decision — permission flows, category navigation, try-on activation — was evaluated against this constraint. Friction is lethal in AR UX because novelty wears off fast.

3. Dual audience UX. The app served AR-savvy early adopters and casual online shoppers simultaneously. The design had to work for both without feeling dumbed down for one or overwhelming for the other. Solution: single path, progressive disclosure — core try-on was immediate and simple, advanced features surfaced contextually.

4. B2B CMS as a product, not a utility. Most design teams treat partner-facing tools as internal infrastructure. I treated the partner CMS as a designed product experience — because the ease of the onboarding CMS directly determined whether brand partners would sign licensing deals. A polished, intuitive partner interface builds trust. A clunky upload tool kills the pitch.

5. 80/20 catalog strategy. 80% accessible products drove actual purchase intent. 20% aspirational luxury (Cartier, Rolex) drove try-on behavior out of curiosity and sustained session engagement. This tension between aspiration and accessibility was a deliberate design decision, not a catalog accident.

Launched November 2022 on iOS with: 500+ hyper-realistic 3D branded products · Four try-on categories (footwear, watches, sunglasses, hats) chosen for AR tracking maturity · Social sharing integration (try-on capture and share) · Affiliate link purchase flow · Full brand identity system · B2B partner CMS for catalog management.

Technology: Apple ARKit for hat/sunglass face tracking; Wanna Fashion partnership for foot and wrist tracking. Each tracking modality had different latency, accuracy, and body-positioning requirements. The design accommodated all of them under one coherent UI — invisible to the user, essential to the product quality.

Confirmed (brand partner data, cited at launch):
- 25% reduction in return rates for partner brands
- 35% increase in user engagement across platform

Confirmed (press coverage — first week post-launch):
AR Insider · Retail TouchPoints · Yahoo Finance · Mirror Review · iGeeksBlog · ARPost · AccessWire · Tapscape

Confirmed (partnerships secured):
Gucci · Cartier · Adidas · New Era · Rolex · Chanel · Sephora · Yves Rocher · GOAT · Nike

Confirmed (business outcome):
QReal's B2B market expanded significantly post-TRYO, transitioning from project-based work to platform licensing with major retailers and financial institutions. The JP Morgan F1 Miami activation was a direct downstream result of TRYO establishing QReal's credibility.

Benchmark context:
At $218B in annual returns, a 25% reduction at even a small retailer scale translates to millions in recovered revenue. The Snap benchmark shows AR reduces return intent by 66% — TRYO's 25% reduction is conservative and credible, anchored in real partner feedback from brands that had the most to gain from accuracy.

TRYO clarified something I hadn't fully articulated before: at the 0→1 stage, separating the designer from the product strategist creates friction the product can't absorb. I made decisions on this project — catalog architecture, B2B CMS investment, the three-second UX rule — that were strictly product strategy, not design execution. I filled that gap because no one else was going to.

What I'd do differently: push harder for instrumented feedback loops earlier. We iterated fast, but feedback was mostly qualitative. A/B testing on the try-on UX would have let us optimize the three-second benchmark with data rather than instinct.

What this project proves: I can hold the full design vision of a product — brand, UX, product logic, partner tools — ship it under commercial and technical constraints, and produce outcomes that hold up to scrutiny.