Morgan CamilleriProduct designer · Developer
FREN
Memory cardFile 10Removed from the App Store

Unown Keyboard

2016iOSiPhoneObjective-CDesign and development

An iOS keyboard extension using Pokémon's Zarbi alphabet, offered in several languages down to Japanese.

This product is no longer online: the app has been removed from the App Store.

Data · iPhone

  • Zarbi Keyboard on iPhone — screenshot 1
  • Zarbi Keyboard on iPhone — screenshot 2
  • Zarbi Keyboard on iPhone — screenshot 3

The project

Unown are letter-shaped creatures. Turning them into a real keyboard meant working with the keyboard extensions introduced in iOS 8, a constrained space where every interaction has to be relearned.

So everything ran on gestures: swipe right for a space, left to delete, down for a comma, up for an apostrophe, and a double space for a full stop. Released internationally as Unown Keyboard, with keywords reaching Japanese and Korean, it was a niche I chose deliberately.

What the app did

  • An iOS 8 keyboard extension, usable across every app
  • Swipe right for a space, left to delete
  • Swipe down for a comma, up for an apostrophe
  • A double space for a full stop
  • Animated characters
  • An international release, reaching Japanese and Korean
Attachment2016
A custom iOS keyboard (iOS 8 extension) using the Zarbi/Unown alphabet from the Pokémon universe, with multilingual keywords down to Japanese and Korean.

App Store listing, at the time

What this project says

The ability to target a precise niche with a sharp technical product — an iOS keyboard extension — and make it accessible to an international audience.

Third-party intellectual propertyThis project used an alphabet from the Pokémon universe. It is neither official nor affiliated.

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