Work Two kinds of knowledge, one river

Homepage design for the Yukon First Nation Salmon Stewardship Alliance, featuring a hero section titled 'Calling the Salmon Back', three photographs including an Indigenous man drumming by a river, and a list of five priority areas above a strategic plan download button.
User interface for the Alsek River Salmon Forecast 2025, displaying three gauge charts indicating run levels for Chinook, Sockeye, and Coho salmon, each positioned above a downloadable infosheet button.
Custom salmon stock gauges give the YFNSSA team a simple way to turn forecast data into clear visual indicators. In Directus, the client can set each forecast value using a 0–100 slider; on the front end, that value dynamically moves the gauge needle, updates the accessible meter data, and connects the forecast to its river, species, title, and downloadable PDF.
User interface of a publication library featuring category filters and two detailed resource cards for a Juvenile Fish Identification Key and Yukon River Salmon Organizations, complete with cover images, descriptions, and download buttons.
The Resources Hub lets YFNSSA upload, tag, and organize PDFs through Directus, with live filtering on the front end so visitors can quickly find documents by category.

Fourteen First Nations, three jurisdictions, one fish

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Challenge

The Yukon First Nation Salmon Stewardship Alliance needed a digital space that could speak to the depth of salmon stewardship (cultural, ecological, and scientific) without losing clarity. The platform had to serve a wide audience, from Yukon First Nations to researchers, partners, and the public. Complex information like salmon stock health, stewardship priorities, publications, and events needed to feel organized, respectful, and easy to navigate.

Solution

I built a fast, lightweight site on a flexible backend, so the team has room to grow into it rather than out of it. The custom pieces do specific jobs: an interactive salmon stock meter, image credits, structured news and partner content, and a searchable publication database with live filtering. In Directus, staff set each forecast with a slider, and the gauge, the accessible meter data and the linked infosheet all move with it, so updating a forecast is a minute's work instead of a ticket to me.

Results

The alliance can publish a forecast the week it lands instead of the month it lands, and a researcher, a Chief and a curious kid all arrive at the same gauge and read it correctly. Two kinds of knowledge sit on one page without either being framed as the footnote, which was the real brief underneath the technical one.

Credits

Creative direction, design and development
Mikayla Ericsson
Account management
Bianca Jorgenson
Studio
MBDC