This is not about the tile matching clicker game Cookie Mania. This Cookie Mania was a UCSC graduate student project teaching high school and college students the different existing internet cookies, viruses and security vulnerablities, and ethical buisness practices.

I was offered to join the project after a programming friend of mine told me about it. Fixing up my resume, I headed over to the Baskin labs, met with the project lead, and began working as a UI/UX artist.

At first I began laying out simple mock-ups for the in-game website, adjusting the potential navigations, setting up the colors. It's a tricky thing making the apperance of a website that fits the game's aesthetic but not making an actual website. While making the mock-ups, I created placeholder icons and symbols. Since they liked the designs, they were added to the game.

The project was originally done with in-person meetings but once the pandemic came around, we moved online and did our best to keep up our progress. There were some adjustments needed to make sure the website designs worked well with the programmers but it went fairly smoothly.

By the time summer rolled around, the last bit of work was submitted and the paper for the project was done. I didn't have the chance to visit Stoke-on-Trent in the UK for the conference but it is on my list for future visits. One day.

- Mirs (written June, 2023)