parc x ECAL DXD

parc x ECAL DXD

26–30 October 2026

Online shops all work in similar ways. What else could an online shop do?

01Project

parc is where we question our practice of digital experiences.

We play around interfaces, creative technologies, commerce platforms, artificial intelligence, motion, publishing, education, and digital culture.

We use these subjects as material to explore other ways of working, learning, gathering, and interacting. Most of this research is done at Not Today, our physical space in Paris.

For one week, parc moves to ECAL.
This time, we will use online retail and digital commerce as material for experimentation.

02Brief

Online shops are used in similar ways.

We browse a grid.
We filter.
We search.
We open a product.
We choose.
We add to cart.
We check out.

The starting point of the workshop would be to question these conventions and ask: what else could an online shop do?

Students will work in groups of two.

Each pair would randomly receive a “What if?” question.

The question would act as a starting point rather than a predefined concept.

Its interpretation would then depend on a context chosen by the group: a brand, a product, a place, a community, a service or a situation.

03Task

The idea would be for each group to turn their assigned question into one functional digital retail experiment.

Rather than designing a complete ecommerce website, they would focus on one behaviour, interaction or moment and develop it far enough to make the idea tangible and usable.

The prototype could remain small and focused: the aim would be to build only what is necessary to demonstrate the concept clearly.

04Deliverables

By the end of the week, each group must deliver:

  1. A working mobile-format prototype hosted at: workshop.parc.studio/dxd26/group-XX
  2. A short 9:16 video

Examples from parc's research · select one to enlarge

05Schedule

  1. 26 October

    Monday — Question

    Draw the question, research, explore contexts and define the idea.

  2. 27 October

    Tuesday — Try it

    Start prototyping. Something should already work by the end of the day.

  3. 28 October

    Wednesday — Make it work

    Choose one direction and develop the main interaction.

  4. 29 October

    Thursday — Make it clear

    Refine, test and start the final video.

  5. 30 October

    Friday — Make it public

    Finish the prototype, publish the webpage, deliver the video, present to everyone.

06Questions

  • What if the product chose you?
  • What if you could only see one product at a time?
  • What if buying something made something else disappear?
  • What if the shop remembered everything you didn’t buy?
  • What if every purchase permanently changed the website?
  • What if the shop could refuse to sell you something?
  • What if you had to give something away before buying something new?
  • What if there was only one cart for everyone?
  • What if checkout happened before browsing?
  • What if you could not see the price immediately?
  • What if the price changed depending on how you interacted with the product?
  • What if the store got smaller the longer you stayed?
  • What if the shop closed once you found what you needed?
  • What if the most popular products were hidden?
  • What if products were organised by what they could become rather than what they are?
  • What if a product page changed after someone bought the product?
  • What if every product had a memory?
  • What if you could see what happened to a product before it reached the shop?
  • What if a product could tell you when not to buy it?
  • What if you could only buy something when you actually needed it?
  • What if the shop knew what you already owned?
  • What if your existing objects became the navigation?
  • What if the shop started from what you wanted to get rid of?
  • What if returning a product was the main shopping experience?
  • What if the next customer depended on the previous customer?
  • What if buying was a collective decision?
  • What if two people had to agree before a purchase could happen?
  • What if someone else completed your cart?
  • What if you could only discover products through other people’s choices?
  • What if a shop had no categories?
  • What if a shop had no homepage?
  • What if a shop had no product images?
  • What if a product could only be understood through use?
  • What if the interface revealed less information the more certain you became?
  • What if browsing meant removing things instead of adding them?
  • What if every choice closed another path?
  • What if a shop could run out of pages?
  • What if you had to earn access to a product?
  • What if a product was available only for the time it takes to understand it?
  • What if waiting was part of the product?
  • What if the shop changed according to what was happening outside?
  • What if the shop only existed at certain moments?
  • What if the time of day completely changed what could be bought?
  • What if the website reacted to how fast you were browsing?
  • What if hesitation became part of the interface?
  • What if leaving the website was necessary to continue shopping?
  • What if the physical world became part of checkout?
  • What if buying something created something for the next visitor?
  • What if a product was sold through its imperfections?
  • What if you could only shop from what already exists?
  • What if the shop showed consequences before products?
  • What if you had to choose what mattered before seeing what was for sale?
  • What if the product page started with its end of life?
  • What if ownership was not the end of the transaction?
  • What if buying unlocked a relationship rather than an object?
  • What if the shop continued changing after you bought something?
  • What if every product had more than one owner?
  • What if products could move between customers without returning to the brand?
  • What if a shop could be used without buying anything?
  • What if the best outcome of visiting a shop was deciding not to buy?

07Resources

  • Starter (zip, 17 KB) The folder your prototype starts from. Unzip it, double-click index.html to open it, edit the files, then upload the folder from your group page.
  • Are.na
  • parc research The studio's own "What if?" experiments, each a prototype and a video.