A biannual release, Shopify’s Editions are a balancing act between craft and utility. Each volume presents the latest suite of updates that refine how sellers connect with customers—from marketing to conversion.

Their latest Winter ‘24 Edition is a curated catalog of all the new tools sellers have at their disposal, in a stunning interface that keeps readers informed without the overwhelm. The clear focus on narrative and unique multimedia execution in the Winter ‘24 Edition snagged Shopify a Webby and People’s Voice Award during last season’s competition.

We spoke with Maggie Fost, the Design Director at Shopify, on how their team took home two Webby Awards with a spirit of experimentation. Read on for an inside look at their award-winning process and tech stack.

What inspired the idea behind your project? Why drove you to bring it to life? 

Shopify’s Winter ‘24 Edition contains a staggering number of updates. Our challenge was to balance the cavalcade of product information with a sense of ease and navigability. We wanted the experience to feel like opening a carefully curated care package for anyone running their business on Shopify.

The visual language emerged naturally from both the season and our theme. We embraced a frosty, wintry palette and used architectural plinths and blocks to support each product update—a direct nod to Foundations, the title of this Edition. To thread everything together, we created ZRO Chill, a winter apparel brand with metallic puffers and fashion-forward gear that appears throughout the experience. These consistent visual motifs help turn discrete product updates into a cohesive narrative.

What helped your idea flourish? How did you develop your idea from its blueprints to the final form?

The tension between creating a rich, immersive 3D environment and delivering exceptional performance was the push-and-pull that helped this project find its sweet spot. We obsessed over the details: fine-tuning the header’s acceleration to give it just the right weight, crafting butter-smooth transitions, and creating depth with airy puffs of color that drift between images. Interactive demos and thoughtful animations bring key features to life, but they have to be as efficient as they are elegant.

We leaned hard into what the web does best, using View Transitions and CSS scroll-driven animations to create a seamless experience. The technical challenge became a creative opportunity: we shaved every unnecessary kilobyte, compressed every asset, and optimized our 3D models until we had something that felt both substantial and effortless. The hero scene alone went through countless iterations of lighting, texture, and animation to strike that perfect balance.

Creativity is critical in digital, and so is relevancy. How did you make your idea meet the moment? 

Digital experiences often fall into two camps: chasing trends or playing it safe. Instead, we saw an opportunity to show how cutting-edge technology could make complex information more human and accessible. We built a system that adapts to different user needs, whether someone’s diving deep into technical documentation or scanning for quick updates. Each interaction is an invitation to explore further, but always with purpose.

The best digital experiences right now don’t just look current or leverage the latest technology; they respect users’ time and attention while delivering something unexpected.

What’s vital in your creative process? What’s a unique strategy or practice that you employ to create out-of-the-box work? 

Critical to our creative process is a willingness to experiment without fear. We build quickly and imperfectly, knowing some of our work won’t make it to the final site, but each prototype teaches us something valuable.

The real breakthrough moments come when developers, designers, writers, and video producers all work in concert, each bringing their superpowers to the canvas. Our core crew is small and tight-knit, but we’re lucky to be able to tap experts across the company who are among the best in the world in specific areas: video compression, vertex shaders, or Hydrogen, the React-based framework our site is built on. This combination of deep, specific expertise and genuine camaraderie—both within our team and with our collaborators—lets us tackle complex challenges with confidence and joy.

Creating the conditions for this kind of work requires intention and boundaries. Great work comes from teams who trust each other enough to take risks and care enough to sweat the details. We’ve got both in spades.

In an era of overconsumption, how did you make your work stand out online? What new techniques or approaches did you use to set your idea apart? 

In B2B marketing, there’s often an assumption that function trumps form—as if business decision-makers somehow check their appreciation for craft and beauty at the office door. We reject that premise. The people powering their businesses with Shopify also appreciate a well-composed meal or the details of a beautiful building. Why shouldn’t their software updates be just as meticulously designed?

We approached this project with the conviction that clarity and beauty aren’t mutually exclusive—they amplify each other. Every interaction, every transition, every visual element was designed to both inform and delight. It’s not about adding unnecessary flourishes; it’s about elevating necessary information through careful attention to craft. In a sea of functional sameness, we believe that bringing humanity and beauty to everyday software isn’t just nice to have—it’s a recognition that behind every business is a person who appreciates when something is made with care.

What challenges did you face during production? Did you need to pivot at any point? How did you adapt?

One of our biggest challenges was orchestrating a story that spans hundreds of updates from teams across Shopify. Our designers, video editors, and writers need to deeply understand how each product works, why every update matters, and how they all fit together, often while those products are still being refined right up until launch. Our marketing partners are incredible at adapting the narrative as the product line-up comes into focus.

Creating harmony from this complexity requires creativity and discipline. We’re not just presenting information; we’re crafting a cohesive experience that needs to be accurate, beautiful, and meaningful to different audiences. Each product story needs to provide the right texture to the overall narrative while maintaining its technical precision.

It’s a delicate balance: staying nimble enough to incorporate last-minute product refinements while ensuring every piece feels exquisitely executed. But that’s also what makes it exciting: watching all these moving pieces come together into something that feels seamless and loved.

Beyond algorithmic success, what does it take for an idea to create a lasting mark on the Internet?  

We intentionally design each Edition to be ephemeral. Because we create a new one every six months, we’re more focused on meeting the moment than creating something permanent. The lasting impact comes from the accumulation – from consistently pushing ourselves to outdo what we did before.

That said, work that resonates beyond the immediate moment always comes down to human connection. This Edition—every Edition—is built with care for the businesses who rely on Shopify. I think they feel that. It’s catalyzed new conversations—brands now anticipate what the next Edition will include and look forward to unwrapping it.

Looking back, is there anything you would do differently to execute your idea better? 

When you ship something this ambitious every six months, you’re constantly discovering better ways to work. Building our animations in Rive, for example, turned out to be a game-changer—not just for creating delightful interactions that showcase our products in action, but also for making the whole experience easier to localize.

What happened after your Webby Award? What impact did your win have on your work and team?

While we don’t build Editions to win awards—we build them to help businesses succeed—it’s energizing to have our team’s craft recognized by an institution that’s been championing digital excellence for nearly three decades.

The recognition is an acknowledgment of how exceptional it is to see a team humming like this one. I’ve been doing this for a long time and know how rare it is to have the right constellation of people assembled with an inspiring mission and an organization that both demands and supports their best work. The Webby win is really just the residue of incredible teamwork relentlessly focused on our mission. It’s nice to see that mission-driven work resonates with the broader digital community.

Join the Winner’s Circle – Enter The Webby Awards by the Extended Entry Deadline on Friday, Feb. 7th

Anyone can win a Webby Award. From global brands to indy creators, commercial work to non-commercial experiments, the only requirement is to do great work. Participating is your chance to join a legacy of the most exciting creatives online, including Shopify, Apple, FIFA, Letterboxd, Netflix, ŌURA, Runway, Spotify and more.

Enter your work before the Extended Entry Deadline on Friday, February 7th at entries.webbyawards.com!