biography

Kia Ora, My name is Walla' Altounesi, and I am a third-year Bachelor of Design student, double majoring in Interface Design and Media Design. I will be graduating this year and hope to begin working in the design industry, applying the skills I have learned at the University of Waikato.

I have a Diploma from Jordan, and I used to be a graphic designer there. I came to New Zealand in 2011 as an immigrant, but I needed to learn English, so I worked hard and tried my best to learn English and integrate into New Zealand society. I discovered that language is the basis for communication and understanding people’s cultures; New Zealand is multicultural. I have worked in the creative industry since 2009, when I was in Jordan.

When I came here, I decided to complete my studies, and I enjoyed all areas of design. I have chosen Interface Design and Media Design because I had already studied communication design in Jordan. I gained more skills and knowledge by doing the projects at Waikato university because we had to memorise information in Jordan, and practical work was limited. In addition, I am a teacher aide in the ESOL department at a local primary school.

I got the chance to gain the necessary skills and learned a lot by completing many design projects. I love designing and creating different projects because I am a visual person. I enjoy learning about many programs and solving problems. I also enjoy working and gaining more experience and expertise with my lecturers and classmates. I know that Waikato has been a great help because it has many subjects in Graphic Design, enabling me to gain more skills. Waikato has helped me focus this passion for design in distinct areas and acquire the necessary skills. In addition, Waikato has given me so many great opportunities to link European and Arabic designs to help a greater range of people in New Zealand.

project description

New Zealand receives many people as refugees each year and does its best to help resettle them here. However, some people have limited English or are non-English speakers. This makes it difficult for the kids to adapt, speak, and communicate with adults and children at their school.

Creating an app to help them learn English, communicate with other children, make friends, explain what they want, how they feel, and understand the Kiwi way of speaking will help them settle and adapt to New Zealand more easily and enjoy school time. It could also make their time in mainstream classes more productive, so I focused my app on what I have seen that the kids need every day at school. I found during this project that one sentence can be responded to in many different ways, even though it has the same meaning. Children can be stuck in one response that they are familiar with, limiting their interactions. So, I have added the pop-up screen for more options when asked a question with some appropriate answers in the Kiwi way of speaking. The NZ Learners app would help students improve their English and communicate with Kiwis.

NZ Learners app