Keira
Zanbak
I am a huge nerd for UX/UI design, with a passion for illustration. I grew up in several small towns in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and because of that, I have always found inspiration in nature, the beauty of the world, and all the diverse people I have met. In the future, I hope that I will be able to work with others to share information and improve the world around us through UX/UI. I love being able to share and communicate new ideas and messages to others through design. Over the pandemic, I adopted four lovely plant babies.
WolfRam Security Website
I was assigned to create two pages of a website based on the branding and a description of a fictional security company, located in the Edmonton area. This project focused on the users and what they would be looking for in a security company.
The final outcome resulted in two hand-coded web pages, complete with hover states, image carousels, and micro animations. My goal was to keep things minimal, yet create some visual interest with colour and type, which I feel I achieved.
My research looked at the different users that may end up on the website, and how WolfRam could cater to their needs. I also developed two mood boards based on the WolfRam logo and their brand identity. I created two different colour palettes and chose separate fonts for the text that would fit in well with the rest of the brand.
Based on my research, I developed a site map that focused on what users would find on the four main navigation items. From there, I created a wireframe for the home page and about page, and added mobile versions of those pages as well.
Sweetland Poster Series
This poster series was created in a Typography II class, based on the novel Sweetland, by Michael Crummy. The main idea behind the series was to represent the slow deterioration of everything around Sweetland, and how he tries to hold onto the past and pretend that everything is going well. The final poster represents how he knows he’s going to die, but he accepted this and finally let go of the things in his past.
In my ideation phase, I went through several sketches and quotes from the book that I wanted to use. I felt the quotes that I had chosen for my final pieces really spoke to me, and created that sense of deterioration that was felt throughout the book.
The type speaks to the deterioration idea in that it is peeling and cracking, and starting to disappear from the surface it was painted on due to its age and poor treatment. It represents how at first things seem to be starting to change and Sweetland wants to prevent that change, but in the process he begins to lose everything he wanted to hold onto.
Climate Crisis Information Poster
This project was a part of the Information Design class, in which we were given sets of data with the goal of designing an informative poster about the climate crisis. A major element of focus was to connect the different sets of data together, so that the viewer could easily make the connections and understand the bigger picture.
The sketches mainly focused on different ways to layout the content that would be included, and experimenting with different ways to have the data interact with the other elements on the poster. For the first draft of the poster, I had used colours that I felt represented a sense of urgency, which changed later on. These colours were linked to each of the four years that I selected for the data range.
Parks Canada App
The goal of this project was to create an app for Parks Canada, in order to make the campsite booking process more accessible on mobile devices. As a part of the Interactive Design class, there was a large focus on the elements that you could interact with inside the app. Through a brand analysis and UI research, the app was designed with a large focus on users booking campsites.
Research focused on the existing Parks Canada campsite booking process, which many users found to be challenging. User personas were created to understand the types of users and their needs in the context of the app. This involved the creation of a journey map through which one of the users would take, creating the basis for the app flow. This then led into the initial app sketches.
Low fidelity wireframes were then developed based on the sketches and journey map. This followed the process of signing up for an account and then booking a campsite. Medium fidelity wireframes followed the low-fi ones, with a rough layout of the overall design.
Once in the high fidelity and prototyping phases, the app went through multiple subtle changes in layout and content. The dark green and cream colours related to the earthy tones and outdoors environment in which the app focuses on.
