Project description:

For the better part of the last decade, Syria has only seen conflict. As war ravages the country, control of the region has ebbed and flowed between ISIS and its proxies. 

 

But with time forces have pushed the Islamic State to a corner of the country. The project illustrates how they’ve been forced to slowly retreat over time.

Impact reached:

The project was widely shared on social media since it illustrated the retreat of ISIS. Also, it was able to clarify the extent of ISIS’ control of the area. 

Techniques/technologies used:

The piece was primarily made using D3 (Data-Driven Documents) library to show the scale of each power blocks control in Syria. Used in conjunction with a scroll trigger which transformed the visualisation as the user scrolled down.

 

What was the hardest part of this project?

Although the visualisations smooth transitions between each other, it took a while to perfect this. Also, the formatting of the data so that it worked well in this particular visualisation took us a while to achieve

What can others learn from this project?

Conflict can be reported in many ways. Although we’re sometimes restricted to ground reporting in war zones, we can also demonstrate a way to report the story through digital sources.

Project links:

graphics.reuters.com/MIDEAST-CRISIS-ISLAMIC%20STATE/0100913M1H0/index.html