KRAFT – UX/UI Case Study

Making cardboard unforgettable through interactive storytelling

Overview

The Challenge: KRAFT was launching a new brand from zero. The idea was to reimagine cardboard as an ecological, clean product for kids’ adventures, inspired by the cardboard bricks we played with as children. They needed to create immediate market presence and drive sales in a commoditized industry. How do you launch with impact when your product is packaging?

The Solution: We reimagined Little Red Riding Hood as a modern Parisian adventure, creating an interactive multi-channel experience that transformed cardboard into magical play materials for children.

Timeline: 2017-2018
My Role: Founder Product Designer (UX/UI, Interactive Experience, Strategy)
Innovation: This was groundbreaking for its time, integrating interactive scrolling and QR code campaigns when they were still experimental in marketing.

The Problem

KRAFT was launching a brand from scratch with a vision: bring back the magic of cardboard play we experienced as kids with those simple cardboard bricks, but make it ecological and clean for modern families. Starting from zero market presence, they needed to create awareness and drive immediate sales with three product tiers that would appeal to different customer needs.

The core question: How do you launch a children’s play brand and generate sales when parents see cardboard as just packaging, not as a premium play material?

Talk to the parent and kids, different stories. One product.

UX Strategy & Product Design

The Big Idea

We created a non-linear storytelling experience where Red Riding Hood navigates modern Paris, with KRAFT’s cardboard packaging as the hero. The story unfolded across multiple touchpoints, each designed to drive both engagement and conversion.

The Three Product Tiers: I designed the product strategy to meet different customer needs and price sensitivities:

• Starter Pack (€29.90): Tote bag + stickers + digital adventure access. The accessible entry point to build brand awareness and lower purchase barriers.
  
  
• Story Pack (€49.90): Storybook + tote bag + stickers + virtual adventure access. The sweet spot for engaged parents wanting the full narrative experience.
  
  
• Adventure Pack (€98.90): Physical cardboard building products + storybook + tote bag + virtual adventure access. Premium offering for families committed to screen-free, creative play.

Interactive Website
The heart of the experience. Users scrolled through an animated story where each chapter revealed itself through parallax effects. As you scrolled, Red Riding Hood walked through illustrated Paris streets, cardboard elements unfolded, and hidden Easter eggs rewarded exploration.

This was rare for 2017. Most corporate sites were static. We built a cinematic experience that felt more like an interactive magazine than a traditional website.

Urban QR Code Hunt
We placed QR codes throughout Paris streets: on lampposts in Le Marais, bridges over the Seine, walls in Montmartre. Each code unlocked a hidden chapter of the story tied to that specific location.

Scanning a code gave immediate delight: an illustrated scene of Red Riding Hood on that exact street corner, holding mysterious cardboard packaging. It encouraged people to hunt for more codes, turning Paris into a storybook.

Social Media Integration
Custom videos and GIFs told bite-sized pieces of the story, designed for Instagram and Facebook sharing. Each piece drove users back to the main website or QR hunt.

User Experience Design

The Journey:
Users could enter from anywhere: scanning a QR code, clicking an Instagram video, or visiting the website directly. Each entry point revealed different story pieces, encouraging exploration.

Example flow: You scan a QR code on a Paris street > discover Red Riding Hood at that location > explore the full website story > hunt for more QR codes > share your discovery > collect NFTs > join the community.

Mobile First Approach:
Everything optimized for mobile scanning and 3G networks. Each QR landing page loaded in under 2 seconds, critical when someone’s standing on a street corner.

Interactive Elements:

• Scroll-triggered animations that revealed the narrative
• Parallax effects creating cinematic depth
• Hidden clickable elements for discovery
• Video integration for rich storytelling
• Responsive design across all devices

Visual Design

The design system balanced authenticity with energy. We started with rich kraft browns and warm textures that felt like real cardboard, then added bold reds (from Red Riding Hood’s cape) and forest greens for visual punch.

Modern sans-serif typography for UI and corporate sections kept things professional, while hand drawn elements in the story brought warmth and personality. Custom illustrations of a modern, diverse Red Riding Hood navigating Paris became the emotional core. Each scene packed with detail and subtle KRAFT product placements.

Results & Impact

Launch Success in 2 Days:

• 1,030 total packs sold from zero brand awareness
• €58,013.20 in revenue
  • 248 Adventure Packs at €98.90 (€24,527.20)
  • 473 Story Packs at €49.90 (€23,602.70)
  • 309 Starter Packs at €29.90 (€9,239.10)
• Average order value: €56.32
• 3min 23sec average session on sales pages (exceptional for e-commerce)
• 13min 54sec average time spent experiencing the interactive story
• 380% organic social media reach growth

Product Validation: The tiered pricing strategy worked perfectly. 24% chose the premium Adventure Pack (cardboard building products for creative play), 46% chose the mid-tier Story Pack (storybook + accessories), and 30% chose the accessible Starter Pack. This showed strong demand across all price points for ecological cardboard play materials.

Engagement Depth: The story experience captivated users for nearly 14 minutes on average, an extraordinary engagement time that proved the power of interactive storytelling. This deep engagement translated directly to sales, with visitors spending over 3 minutes on product pages (far above e-commerce standards of 30 to 60 seconds).

Brand Transformation:
KRAFT launched as a talked about brand from day one. Parents shared unboxing videos on social media. The QR hunt created genuine community, with Parisian families forming groups to find all locations and collect the complete story. Local Instagram accounts and parenting blogs featured the campaign during launch week, organically amplifying reach.

Lessons Learned

Creative risk pays off. The safe version would’ve been a specs-filled website. The fairy tale about cardboard was memorable precisely because it was unexpected and bold.

Technology serves story. We used cutting-edge tech (parallax, NFTs, interactive animation), but always in service of narrative. The story came first, technology second.

Discovery drives engagement. People don’t want to be told—they want to uncover. The treasure hunt instinct is powerful. Letting users discover story pieces themselves created deeper connection than any traditional campaign.

B2B doesn’t mean boring. The assumption that business audiences want dry content is false. Procurement managers are humans too—they appreciate creativity and storytelling.

Meet users where they are. QR codes worked because they appeared in places people were already exploring, integrated into Paris’s urban fabric, not interrupting with ads.

If I could do it again, I’d expand the QR network to more cities and build a mobile app for richer tracking and rewards. But this project proved that with thoughtful UX and bold creative, you can transform any product (even cardboard) into something people actively want to engage with.

What’s Next:
Currently developing the next evolution of KRAFT as a side project, bringing the experience to older kids (10 to 15 years) who have outgrown physical bricks. The vision includes a Roblox metaverse integration paired with real cardboard building products, connecting digital and physical play through NFT collectibles. This extends the brand into the tween gaming market while maintaining the ecological cardboard mission.