Here’s the problem
The work has to make sense before the interface can.
Custom products create uncertainty on both sides. The customer wants to know what they are buying. The shop needs clean decisions it can actually produce.
All work
Customization + commerce · 2025—26
PATCH22
PATCH22 is the customer side of a larger customization system. The work is less about giving someone every possible design control and more about helping them make the right decisions without getting lost.
- My role
- Product design and engineering
- Status
- Active development
- Contribution
- Customer workflow, application architecture, and the handoff from design choices to order data.
- React
- TypeScript
- Shopify
- GraphQL
- Prisma
What made this difficult
The environment is part of the product.
- The designer has to stay understandable on a phone.
- Creative choices still need to become reliable commerce data.
- The storefront, embedded app, and operational order cannot drift apart.
Decisions that shaped it
I made the hard boundaries visible.
Guide instead of overwhelm
I treated the designer as a sequence of product decisions, not a blank graphics application.
Keep one order truth
The design state and Shopify order data share a deliberate handoff rather than becoming two separate records.
Design for the production side
Shape, border, text, and sizing decisions are captured in a form the shop can use later.
What I built
Enough of the system to test the real seam.
- React and TypeScript application on Shopify’s embedded app platform.
- GraphQL integration for product and administrative workflows.
- Typed client and server boundaries around authenticated embedded routes.
What is true now
The result is a working foundation for a guided patch-buying experience connected to the operational order behind it.
Limits I’m keeping honest
- The public portfolio does not expose customer designs or private order data.
- The production automation handoff remains a separate, operator-reviewed system.
Next
Keep tightening the path between approved customer choices and production-ready job information.
A problem like this hiding in your operation?