BRANDING DESIGN

2025

Inclusive Reality Lab at School of Computer Science

University of Auckland

About
Inclusive Reality Lab

Founded by Dr. Yun Suen Pai, the Inclusive Reality Lab (IRL) is based at the School of Computer Science, University of Auckland. IRL envisions a future where technology seamlessly bridges social and ability gaps, fostering an inclusive and prosocial world. Our research explores how reality itself, both physical and digital, can be harnessed to understand cognitive, behavioral, and emotional states, assist individuals in their daily lives, and augment human abilities. By designing adaptive and empowering technologies, we aim to create a world where diverse individuals can thrive, connect, and reach their full potential.

My Contributions

Branding Design: logo, branding visual elements, font, use cases

Style Guidelines

(WIP) Web Design

Project Goals, and My Approaches

Goals and tasks

By holding hearing sessions, I collect information and understanding on IRL’s vision, objectives and set goals and expected outputs of the projects.

Although this lab is newly established, when we kicked off the project for branding design for Inclusive Reality Lab, there are already lab members who were preparing their research presentation at conferences and seminars, so the primary objectives of the project were quickly defined as

  • Create the logo and styles that represent IRL’s vision and works

  • Create style guidelines for branding materials usage

  • Create reusable slides theme that satisfy current needs of lab outputs

  • (next phase) Design for IRL website

Research

  • Collected inputs from the lab director, Dr. Yun Suen Pai, and the lab members in order to form the descriptions of the potential audience, stakeholders of IRL, such as gender, age, religion, education level,  minor and major disabilities, technology awareness, etc. As this is an academical research lab, I also did research to understand the associated relation with University of Auckland, in order to align with the higher-level requirement of brand identity.

  • Collected inputs on brand personality, usage scenarios of branding materials, desired visual impressions

  • Gather ideas and interpret them to sets of requirements for ideations

Ideation

  • Brainstorming logo ideas, fonts ideas based on the inputs from researches

Design Mentor: fostering teamwork for individual growth and improved collaboration among design teams

Throughout the project, I worked closely with designers, engineers, Product Owners, and client managers to transition their PictLink product team into a more agile workflow. The young engineers and designers on the client side were highly motivated to learn. By collaborating together, we successfully built a proactive product team that embraced change, demonstrated curiosity, and confidently worked as a cohesive unit to create great products.

In addition, I worked continuously with the design manager to improve the performance of the design team. Upon joining the project, I met with the design manager to discuss the challenges faced by the team, including:

  • Designers were unfamiliar with Figma.

  • Individual products were handled by 1-2 designers, but they lacked a shared design format, leading to inconsistent designs across products.

  • Junior designers struggled to find growth opportunities within the company.

  • User research findings, while valuable, often did not align with the product team’s priorities, creating frustration on both sides as critical issues were not adequately addressed.

To address these challenges, I focused on creating an environment where designers from different teams could collaborate effectively and strengthening the connection between the research and design teams.

Key initiatives included:

  • Mentorship through Projects: I worked alongside junior designers in co-design activities, encouraged them to take ownership of their design tasks, and provided feedback by asking questions like “why” rather than simply giving answers.

  • Weekly Meetings: I organized regular meetings to check on everyone’s status, collect topics for discussion, and invite relevant people to share knowledge and experiences, fostering a culture of “team knowledge.”

  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: I encouraged designers to seek input and support from engineers and researchers, promoting co-creation and increased teamwork across different processes.

  • Workshops and Training: I conducted sessions on branding design, planning and sharing research findings with both research and design teams, improving research outputs and creating a shared understanding of processes.

Over several months of collaboration, these practices led to a consistent and cohesive design system across the client’s product ecosystem. Designers gained more opportunities to share their opinions with other teams and receive direct feedback, further enhancing their growth.

As I prepared to leave the team to move to New Zealand, I focused on equipping the designers with the confidence and skills to lead projects independently. While there was still more to achieve, I am proud of the progress made before my departure.

One of the most meaningful moments during my time as a Design Mentor came when I received this feedback from a manager after the final group retrospective before I moved to New Zealand:

「今日の振り返り会。デザイナーという立場で、誰でもできる環境を考えていて、今まで出会ってきたデザイナーとの違いにびっくりでした。

デザイナーさんは良い意味で、ユーザーに響くデザインを誰よりも良い物をつくる！ってマインドでやっていると思ってました。だけど、ジクンさんのように誰でもできる、という観点を言えるデザイナーって本当にスキルがあるから言えることだなって感動しました。」

“During today’s reflection session, I was struck by how you, as a designer, think about creating an environment where anyone can contribute. It’s different from the other designers I’ve met before.

I had thought that designers, in a good way, were driven by the mindset of creating something that resonates with users better than anyone else could. But I was truly moved to hear someone like you, with real skills, express the idea of making design something anyone can do.”

Department Manager from FuRyu

Key Takeaways

Even when the problem and its cause seem obvious, translating it into actionable questions requires a deep understanding of the business, available resources, and constraints across all teams. This process demands collective collaboration to find effective solutions.

As designers, our role isn’t always to assert our own opinions first. Instead, guiding clients toward making better, informed decisions can often be more impactful.

In Japanese culture, digital products frequently undergo a process of continuous “add-ons.” This can conflict with the common UI design principle of helping users maintain focus, presenting a unique design challenge.