< Julia Laninga - CV

Curriculum Vitae

Julia Laninga

Interactive Media Designer based in Ottawa, Canada. Specialising in immersive and interactive storytelling.

Experience

2019 — present

Digital Storytelling Team Lead

Carleton Immersive Media Studio

  • Creating digital interactive storytelling projects for education and public engagement, with a focus on virtual reality (VR), web, mobile, and desktop experiences
  • Managing multiple high complexity projects simultaneously, with large cross functional teams
  • UI/UX design: creating wireframes, mockups, and prototypes in Figma, and iterating designs based on feedback
  • Working in game engines such as Unreal Engine and Unity to implement user interfaces, develop interactive features, and create immersive environments
  • Understanding the needs of the client and their audience, putting together proposals and project plans
  • Organizing frequent touchpoints with stakeholders to provide updates and facilitate discussions
  • Collaborating closely with developers and technical teams to implement, test, and iteratively refine interactive features
  • Presenting tailored portfolios of work to potential clients and collaborators
  • Ensuring alignment on project objectives, schedules, and deliverables internally and externally
  • Effectively translating complex technical and creative concepts to diverse stakeholders, adapting communication to varied levels of technical expertise
  • Incorporating accessibility and inclusive design considerations throughout the project lifecycle
2018-2019

Research Assistant, Digital Storytelling

Carleton Immersive Media Studio

  • General 3D modeling: hard surface modeling, optimizing, and texturing in Blender, 3DS Max, and Maya
  • Creating 2D and 3D animations

Education

2014 — 2018

Bachelor of Information Technology, Interactive Multimedia and Design

Carleton University

2014 - 2018

Advanced Diploma, Interactive Media Development

Algonquin College

Skills & tools

2D and 3D Design

Figma Prototyping User Experience Design User Interface Design Visual design Adobe Suite Autodesk Maya / 3DS Max Blender Substance Designer / Painter

Research and Planning

Usability testing Journey mapping Storyboarding Miro Google Suite

Development

Unreal Engine / C++ Unity / C# Git / GitHub

Publications and Community Engagement

2025 Indigenous Virtual Learning System: A Network-Based Virtual Reality Platform to Support Indigenous Pedagogy: Demo and poster presented at ACM VRST Symposium, recipient of ‘Best Demo’ Honorable Mention See More
2025 Mentor for Carleton University Design Jam See More
2024 Interview for the Carleton University Newsroom See More
2023 Presenter / Panelist for NAC@50+ initiative, National Trust Conference See More