Atlas
A collaborative web platform for mapping, sharing, and exploring the mysterious hallways of Lumon Industries, built with class-wide brand guidelines and individual creative execution.
Role: UX/UI Designer
Tools: Figma
Course: IXD 414, University of Kansas, 2025
Design a multi-device, multi-state web platform for map creation and sharing. The class collaboratively established a consistent brand guideline system, including specific fonts, colors, and UI elements- and each student was required to work within those constraints while making independent creative decisions about their chosen subject matter. I chose Severance, Apple TV+'s psychological thriller, because of its rich community of fan-made hallway maps and the obsessive detail fans bring to mapping the labyrinthine corridors of Lumon Industries.
The Problem
Severance fans have created hundreds of unofficial maps of Lumon's hallways, but they're scattered across Reddit, fan wikis, and Discord servers with no unified platform to discover, compare, or build on each other's work. Atlas is the answer: a community platform where fans can sign up, upload their existing maps, build new ones collaboratively, and interact with other mappers.
Design Decisions Within Brand Constraints
Working within a class-wide brand system was itself a design challenge; I had to make Atlas feel like Severance (clinical, slightly unsettling, corporate-yet-mysterious) while staying within the shared guidelines. I leaned into the cold blue color palette from the brand system and used grid-based layouts that echo Lumon's sterile aesthetic. The map builder flow was the most complex UX challenge, balancing a powerful creation tool with a clean enough interface that a casual fan could use it without feeling overwhelmed.
Key Design Decisions
The landing page introduces the platform. Sign up and Sign in flows. User profile page with personal map collection. Dashboard showing recently saved and discovered maps. Map viewer with commenting functionality. Map builder is a multi-step creation flow, including naming, style selection, and canvas building. Discover page, a gallery of community maps to browse and explore.
The Full Design
A full web platform flow covering sign up, map discovery, map building, and community interaction.
Reflection
Designing within shared brand constraints taught me a valuable professional skill, most real design jobs involve working within an established system, not starting from scratch. The Severance theme pushed me to think about emotional tone in UX, not just functionality. The clinical aesthetic of the brand aligned perfectly with the show's atmosphere, which made every design decision feel more intentional. I'd push further by adding real-time collaborative map building and a version history feature so fans could track how their maps evolve over time.