Kat Downs | Blog | Interactive graphics, multimedia projects, and visual journalism

October 5, 2009 on Multimedia, Work

Yesterday we launched a multimedia narrative on the Battle of Wanat, one of the deadliest battles that have taken place in Afghanistan since the war began. I designed and developed this timeline in collaboration with Greg Jaffe, Liz Heron, Ben de la Cruz, Laris Karklis and several others.

It combines video, audio, maps, documents and photography to tell the story of what took place on July 13, 2008, when Taliban fighters launched a major assault on a small U.S. Army outpost in Afghanistan, killing nine soldiers and wounding 27. It chronicles the battle from the perspective of a lieutenant killed in the fight, Jonathan Brostrom, and his father, who has been seeking answers to what went wrong.

Posted by Kat Downs on Monday, October 5, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Tags: audio, Ben de la Cruz, Flash, Information Graphics, Laris Karklis, Multimedia, The Washington Post, Videos, Work

September 2, 2009 on Information Graphics, Work

This graphic was published today, accompanying a story by James Grimaldi about how the Redskins are selling their tickets to brokers. The graphic explores lawsuits filed by the Redskins since 2005 and tickets sold to one broker in 2008. It also shows which tickets they filed lawsuits over and then resold to the broker. The lawsuits are sortable by amount and status, and the tickets are sortable by game.

Posted by Kat Downs on Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Tags: graphics, Information Graphics, investigations, redskins, sports, The Washington Post, Work

August 30, 2009 on Information Graphics, Work

I worked with Sarah Sampsel to create this interactive timeline of Ted Kennedy’s life, which has been used with coverage of his death and funeral this past week.

Posted by Kat Downs on Sunday, August 30, 2009 at 9:42 am
Tags: Information Graphics, obituaries, Sarah Sampsel, timeline, Work

August 24, 2009 on Information Graphics, Work

I said I was going to publish some of my recent work, so here goes. All of this stuff has been done in the past several months and has been published on washingtonpost.com.

I worked on this interactive graphic about North Korean prison camps last month. It explores the five major camps and goes into detail about camp 15. Laris Karklis did the maps, Blaine Harden wrote the text, and I did the design and build.

In April, I worked with Amanda Zamora and Alexandra Garcia on this panoramic timeline of the scene of the shooting of DeOnte Rawlings. It uses three panoramic images, a map, and multiple hot spots to lead the reader through the sequence of events that led to Rawlings’ death. I used the same technology (Flash Panorama Player’s hotspots plugin) for this as I did for the Skipjack pano piece I posted below, but I think this is a much more sophisticated use of hotspot technology.

In April we also launched the D.C. budget game, which people can use to learn more about the city budget and what programs would stay or go with varying levels of funding. Users can save their budgets and compare their choices with other users.

For Barack Obama’s first 100 days, I created this sortable photo gallery that lets readers see exactly what he was doing. Load time is pretty slow, so future iterations will be much leaner.

Scene In: This player for a new series on fashion in D.C. by Alexandra Garcia utilizes the new AS3 video player Jesse Foltz created and features a logo illustration by Noel Smart. I designed the series player and built out the functionality. A new episode comes out every other Thursday.

Posted by Kat Downs on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Tags: Alex Garcia, audio, Flash, graphics, Information Graphics, Laris Karklis, Maps, The Washington Post, timeline, Videos, Work

May 21, 2009 on Design and infographics, Work

I was just poking around my old blog posts and realized that this blog is about to turn five years old on June 7. In honor of that milestone, I plan to completely redesign the blog and add some features. I’m also going to be posting some of my more recent work in the next few days/weeks.

I realize my last post was more than a year and a half ago, and a lot has happened in the interim. About a year ago, I started working at washingtonpost.com. I’ve been working on some really interesting projects, focusing primarily on creating interactive graphics, special report pages, and multimedia presentations.

Here are a some examples of multimedia projects I’ve worked on since starting at the Post:

Seeds of Peace: I did this project last July, but I was really happy with the way it turned out. Ben de la Cruz did a wonderful job on these three video stories and a Q&A video, so I had amazing art to work with for the splash page of this piece. A really incredible story of what’s going on in Uganda as civil war continues and people are displaced.

Egypt Panoramas: Post multimedia journalist Alexandra Garcia shot these beautiful panoramas of Egypt on a recent trip. I created this interface, with the pano moving behind the map of Egypt, which also acts as a menu. This project was built totally through XML, so it was really easy to reuse, as we did for the Venice Biennale.

Failing the Chesapeake: This small interactive piece acts as an anchor on the index page of the series. It features a then and now photo piece, a timeline, and several charts showing declining health of the Chesapeake. I also created an interactive panorama from a panorama Whitney Shefte shot of a skipjack, a type of boat used in the Chesapeake.

In the Moment: I did this splash design and set up the video players for this awesome piece the Washingon Post video team did on Barack Obama’s inauguration in January.

Israel Strikes Gaza Strip: During conflict in the Gaza Strip last December, I worked with Sarah Sampsel to create this XML-driven map of Israel that shows attack sites and gives a synopsis of the events as they occurred. We updated this throughout the conflict.

washingtonpost.com

Blood on the Mountain: Also, last summer I worked on this timeline about a murder on the Appalachian Trail. I thought it turned out to be interesting and I like the way the map is incorporated into the timeline. Plus, it’s a fascinating story, which never hurts :-)

washingtonpost.com

And, to top it all off, my very first project at I worked on at the Post: Explore Nationals Park. This project incorporated video, panoramic images and a stadium rendering that we got from the firm that worked on the stadium, HOK Sport. I designed it and put together the dynamic version of some of the graphics, and Nelson Hsu put it all together. It was a great experience to work on something like this when I first arrived and Nelson was a great person to learn from.

washingtonpost.com

I also plan to (finally) post some pictures from India and some stories about the trip.

Posted by Kat Downs on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Tags: Alex Garcia, Ben de la Cruz, Design and infographics, Information Graphics, Laris Karklis, Multimedia, Nelson Hsu, Panoramas, Sarah Sampsel, The Washington Post, the world, timeline, Videos, Whitney Shefte, Work

November 12, 2007 on Design and infographics, Work

SPEEDING TICKETS BY JURISDICTION 2006
This map shows the distribution of speeding tickets in Maryland by range of miles-per-hour over the limit. The pattern varies county-by-county.

BRAC SECTION FRONT
In preparation for the influx of military workers coming to Maryland during the upcoming base realignment, we wanted to prepare a page that explained the process, informed readers of current developments and provided resources for those moving to the area. I designed the BRAC page and the flash graphic in the center of the page, which includes a map of affected bases, quotes from area officials and a timeline of BRAC events. I used archived articles to write all the text for the map portion.

FEATURED COVERAGE SECTION FRONT
A section for special coverage was created during a site redesign in the summer of 2007 and I was assigned to create a page that incorporated unique, compelling stories, in-depth and continuous coverage, multimedia, including photography, audio and interactive, and regular features.

HOME SALES MAP
Using home sales data compiled by a real estate reporter, I created one of two maps that analyzed year-over-year price changes by zip code.

TIMELINE: ART MODELL
This timeline about the life of Art Modell was created to top a gallery of stories about the former Ravens owner. It was one of several timelines that were created using a timeline template that I created in Flash.

RAVENS FOOTBALL CARDS
I designed this new take on traditional football cards as a fun way to let Ravens fans check up on their favorite players.

HURRICANE AGNES: 35 YEARS LATER
In preparation for hurricane season, I suggested a retrospective about the impact of past hurricanes in Maryland. My supervisor suggested an anniversary piece about Hurricane Agnes. The photo desk provided archived photos and I went to Ellicott City to photograph locations that were seen in the archived images. Then I created this piece about the event.

ORIOLES OPENING DAY VIDEO
I shot and edited this video about fans attending the season opener at Camden Yards.

Posted by Kat Downs on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Tags: baltimoresun.com, graphics, Multimedia, Videos

October 11, 2006 on Multimedia, Photography and multimedia, Work

A story I did at CPJW, getting some love. (!)
Critter in Endeavors

Posted by Kat Downs on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Tags: Multimedia

September 9, 2006 on Work

My last project that I worked on at USA TODAY was a audio/photo gallery about people who briefly came into prominence on and in the direct aftermath of Sept. 11, part of a much larger interactive segment released over several days.

Another cool section (that I didn’t work on, but it’s great) is about Ground Zero today, featuring visitors, graffiti, and the only photos from inside Ground Zero where the workers are.

To see the article and the rest of the package, go here.

Posted by Kat Downs on Saturday, September 9, 2006 at 12:17 am
Tags: news, on the web