Today Kat Downs, Information Designer at The Washington Post, details her experience designing and building the impressive interface for the series “On the trail of a serial rapist.” I asked her to describe her experience organizing this data-rich story into a clean and compelling interface because I think that many of you will be faced with a similar situation (if you haven’t been already). I know I was overwhelmed when I produced “Above the Law?” for The Roanoke Times! Years of court cases, connections, archival footage, and the endless other resources may become baffling, but the trick is to parse and present it in a consistent manner. I hope you take the time to read about Kat’s trials and tribulations so you are prepared when you are tasked with a similar assignment!
I recently stumbled across The Washington Post’s “Best of the Post 2009″ feature and thoroughly enjoyed looking through the 21 interactives, 35 videos, 17 photos, and 27 photo galleries that they highlighted. Obviously the Post staff was quite busy this past year, and they certainly have a lot to be proud of from the wealth of content showcased in their annual round-up.
I came across the recent Washington Post series “Fatal Flights: A Perilous Rush to Profit” over the weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed going through the stories, graphics and multimedia elements. If you haven’t checked out this package yet, make sure to put it on your “To Do” list …
Happy 2009 everyone. I am slowly catching up from two weeks out of the country and another week without phones or internet, so bear with me. While I sift through my RSS feed and delicious links, make sure to spend some time with Washington Posts’ “Best of the Post 2008.” With 19 interactives featured, it’s a great excuse to delay doing work on a Monday morning. There always seems to be a few I missed during the past year, as well as the oldies but goodies.
