Moscow's Mercenary Wars.
This longform explores the growing presence of Russian private military companies around the world. It features data visualizations, satellite imagery, and scrollytelling animations.
Project Overview
This project was created by the CSIS iDeas Lab in partnership with the CSIS Transnational Threat Project. The goal was to do a deep-dive, longform story on the chosen research topic to demonstrate how multimedia and design elements can enhance written research.
I worked on this project in two roles: as project manager & lead developer.
As the project manager, I...
- helped to put together the interdisciplinary team of iLab staff who would work on the project
- created a "Project Charter" to outline the objectives, timeline, and other specs of the project
- worked alongside other iLab staff in an editorial capacity - reviewing the written content & pitching creative ideas for how we could display the text or add visual elements to the piece.
- Led a series of retrospective meetings on what went well/didn't go well, and worked with others on the team to implement those takeaways on later projects
As the lead developer, I...
- Worked with other developers & designers to brainstorm the design and functionality of, and ultimately implement, the site
- learned how to use GSAP's ScrollTrigger to create scroll-based animations & scrollytelling sections
- worked with Mapbox to create a map based on satellite imagery, using animation to give the user a "tour" of the military base