Vera and Graphicacy worked together to transform the stories of several mothers into a multimedia scrollytelling page comprising central narration alongside original photography of the women featured, audio clips from their interviews, callout text boxes and two new data visualizations based on findings presented in the associated research paper.
For the first visualization, Graphicacy designed a color-coded constellation of moving dots to depict the total number of incarcerated men. As readers scroll through, the dots split to illustrate the number of incarcerated men with minor children.
The second visualization incorporates bar charts to contextualize the income loss associated with a co-parent’s incarceration. The charts show how this amount compares to other annual expenses for U.S. households, on average, including housing and utilities, food and in-state college tuition.
The visualizations support the page’s other components, including photo treatments. Graphicacy used a full-width scroll effect for some of the photo transitions, incorporating a fade to black or white to convey the emotional tone of the story in the moment.
The scrollytelling page ends with a call to action section that invites readers to support organizations and initiatives fighting for reforms at both national and state levels.
