Returns processor
A conveyor belt routing game that turns logistics into something oddly satisfying.
Why we built this
One of our clients was heading to a major retail trade show with a stand. They told us one of the biggest talking points in the industry right now is the challenge of online shopping returns and the logistics of sorting them. We work with loads of clients on helping them stand out at shows, so this got us thinking.
Barnaby came up with the idea for a game. He saw it as something cool running on a big screen on the stand, maybe with touch controls. Something interactive that draws people in and gets conversations started about a real industry problem.
How we built it
This is a great example of work that would not have been possible six months ago, before AI. Barnaby had the idea for the game, sketched it out on the whiteboard, kicked it around with the team, and then just went ahead and got Claude Code to build it. One of our designers then took the code and worked on the visuals. A great example of teamwork, with AI giving abilities we never had before.
Pure vanilla JavaScript with HTML Canvas for the conveyor belt physics. No frameworks. Parcels spawn with random destinations, you drag and drop to sort them onto the correct chutes. The code might not be perfect (one of our devs looked at 1,200 lines of JS and sighed), but for this use case it doesn’t matter. It works, it’s fun, and it does exactly what it needs to do.
What's next
We gave it to a client to help them dream big about what’s possible on their stand, and it has sparked all kinds of conversations. Not just about returns, but about using interactive experiences to engage visitors and start meaningful discussions at events.
Not actively developed, but it proves the concept works and has already done its job as a conversation starter.
