Product Design & Strategy
2025
SAIT Design Studio 1
Granted Website
Background
Every year in Alberta, more than 20 million dollars in scholarship money goes completely unclaimed and through our research at SAIT, we found that 50% of students feel almost completely in the dark about where to find financial help. This gap shows that the current system is failing to connect life changing opportunities with the students who need them most.
Core problem
The current scholarship landscape is a visual and navigational mess. Students are forced to deal with outdated portals that look untrustworthy and overwhelming. This "visual noise" is a major reason why students give up. My challenge was to solve this through design: replacing chaos with clarity. I needed to create a brand system and motion language that reduces anxiety and guides students through the "maze" of information with confidence.
Solution: From Maze to Path
The Grantline represents the bridge between a student’s current financial struggle and their future academic success. Visually, I designed it to be minimalist yet authoritative. It functions as a navigational guide that connects different stages of the scholarship journey. This concept directly addresses the "Information Overload" by providing a singular, clear trajectory, ensuring that the student never feels "in the dark" again.
The Grantline Logic
The "G" (The Engine): Represents the name Granted and the technical precision of the search-matching engine.
The Graduation Cap (The Goal): A universal symbol of academic success, integrated to show that every data point leads to a student's graduation.
The Tick Check (The Verification): Hidden within the geometry of the "G" and the cap is a checkmark symbol, representing the "Verified" status of every scholarship. It signals to the student that the search is complete and the reward is secured.
The Grantline (The Trajectory): These elements connect to form a singular, clear trajectory, ensuring that students never feel "in the dark" during their financial search.
Semiotics of Color
Green (The Anchor): Provides the "Safety" needed for financial products. It tells the student, "This is a legitimate place to put my banking info."
Yellow (The Reward): By reserving Yellow for the "Result," you are using color to trigger a positive emotional response. It’s the "Gold" at the end of the Grantline.
Orange, Pink and Purple (The Engine): they are being used at the same level prevents the brand from feeling "materialistic." It keeps the product feeling fresh and student friendly rather than an old school bank.
Typography
Font Choice: Kanit is used for primary headers to provide a modern, geometric impact. Manrope is used for all other styles to ensure professional, clean legibility.
Readability: Body text utilizes a 160% line height. This generous spacing is a deliberate choice to reduce cognitive load, helping students process complex eligibility criteria without search fatigue.
Hierarchy: Specific weights, from Medium to Extrabold, are used to establish a clear linear narrative.
The Key Takeaway
Grid Anchored Navigation: Far from being just decorative, the line is a functional anchor tied to the UI grid, providing a constant "North Star" across every screen.
Reducing Cognitive Load: By creating a linear narrative, the Grantline guides the eye directly to what matters, deadlines and eligibility, cutting through the usual search fatigue.
Granted: A High-Trust Platform
Granted replaces fragmented government portals with a single, verified destination. By combining a rigorous information hierarchy with the Grantline navigation, the platform eliminates the confusion that leads to abandoned applications. The result is a frictionless, system-driven experience that allows Alberta students to focus on their goals rather than the paperwork.
From Screen to Reality - SAIT Capcon Event
On April 22, 2026, GRANTED launched at SAIT's Capstone Convention. For the first time, the brand system lived outside a screen
Capcon was the moment everything came together. After months of designing, testing, and refining, the brand finally existed in the real world. A poster. Bookmarks on the table. Business cards in people's hands. Industry guests, faculty, and fellow graduates stopped, asked questions, and stayed longer than expected. Six people, one vision, one day to show what we'd built. The numbers validated the work: 92% match comprehension, search time down from 8 hours to 3 minutes. When the brand is right, the product sells itself.
Results and Impact
Most students stop looking for scholarships because the process feels like a second job they didn't ask for. By using the Grantline, we turn that messy search into a clear, guided path. The impact is simple: when a student feels less overwhelmed, they are more likely to finish what they started.
Team Credits
Kevin Mai: Graphic Lead, Brand Strategy, Visual Development, Motion Graphic, UI/UX Support
Ivy Porras: Product Management, UI/UX Lead, Web Design support, Brand Support
Michelle Babani: Marketing Lead, Brand Development, Video Concept Planning, Video Editor
Mharvic Inocentes: Web Design and Development, Technical Lead,Data Management