Dan Nolan

Visual Designer
User Experience Designer

DJN monogram
Project:

Un(re)solved

Year:

2021

Roles:
  • user experience
  • visual design
  • CSS
  • animation
View live site >
The Un(re)solved All Cases section showing a 3D interface of leaves representing each victim.

Awards Update

Un(re)solved has been honored with these awards:
  • IDFA: Award for Digital Storytelling
  • SIMA: Journalistic Achievement & Creative Advocacy
  • SXSW: Innovation Award for Visual Media Experience
  • ABA: Silver Gavel Award for Multimedia
  • Webby: Websites & Mobile: Best Individual Editorial Feature (Honoree)
  • Scripps Howard: Excellence in Multimedia Journalism
  • NABJ: Digital Media: Interactive Feature
  • Edward R Murrow: Excellence in Innovation
  • ONA: Excellence in Immersive Storytelling
  • Emmy: Outstanding Interactive Media Innovation

Un(re)solved is an ambitious multi platform project made up of an immersive web documentary, a podcast and an augmented reality installation—led by creative director Tamara Shogaolu. Our project examines racist murders of the civil rights era and the FBI’s efforts to reinvestigate these crimes today.

I was Lead Designer for Digital at FRONTLINE during this project. I focused on UI/UX design and visual storytelling for the interactive documentary; overall design and branding for the project; and I worked on interface and visual design of the augmented reality app. I worked closely with creative director Tamara Shogaolu and a team of illustrators and animators from Ado Ato Pictures.

A Database of Cases and Victims

An important piece of the project was to show all 152 victims that the FBI and Department of Justice included as part of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. I started sketching out different ways a user could experience this display of victims to help shape the direction of the project in its very early stages.

Early sketches and wireframes of the Un(re)solved database experience showing the list of victims and a victim's case summary page.
Early mobile screen mockups showing the victim database interface and case summary page. Each screen has an accompanying sketch explaining animations and behaviors.

I created rough mockups and prototypes exploring how a user could move through a memorial of victims and access details about their lives and cases.

A rough mockup of the victim database showing Maceo Snipes in the center.
A rough mockup of the case summary page showing Maceo Snipes and a photo of his next of kin.
A rough mockup of the database filtering screen showing a list of themes and locations to filter by.

Our creative director was inspired by the symbolism of trees and our final experience involves the user moving through a quilted forest (read more about the symbolism of the project). So we decided to create a meaningful connection to the rest of the experience by presenting each person on a leaf.

An orange leaf with Alberta Jones' portrait on it.

I designed 19 colorful leaves that we used as the base for all of the victim images. One leaf for each state where a person on the list was killed.

Eight leaves against a black background, each one a different color and type of leaf. The leaves show a combination of photographic and illustrated textures that make up their depth and color.

In the final memorial experience, the user moves through an immersive 3D tunnel of leaves made up of all the victims on the Till Act list.

A screen showing the main All Cases section with a 3D interface of leaves. The theme in the center reads “Deaths Involving Law Enforcement.”
The main All Cases screen showing a 3D interface of only yellow leaves from Mississippi.

The experience can be sorted by location or by themes like “open cases” or “deaths involving law enforcement.”

A filtering interface screen showing a list of piles of leaves, one for each state.
A filtering screen showing a list of piles of leaves, one for each theme.

Each of the 152 people on the Till Act list has a case summary page with details about their life and about the investigations of their death. Some cases feature an audio interview with the victim’s next of kin.

Jimmie Lee Jackson's case summary page showing his portrait on a leaf and a photo of his next of kin.
Delano Middleton's case summary page with his portrait on a leaf and featuring a photo of his next of kin.

Immersive Story Experience

The memorial of 152 people from the Till Act list is part of a larger interactive documentary experience that includes immersive chapters detailing the lives and cases of four individuals from the list.

A user experience flow diagram displaying all the unique sections of the Un(re)solved web documentary.

We start the experience with a video introduction—showing the victims on a colorful quilted background that connects to the colorful leaf treatment that will be used later.

A portrait of Maceo Snipes from the introduction video.
A portrait of Carol Jenkins from the introduction video.

The victims’ names, written in a script typeface, form a dense texture that makes up the main title treatment. The title animation immerses the user into their names as the experience transitions into the next area where the chapters are presented.

We introduce the four in-depth stories within an immersive forest experience. We created this abstract, quilted forest where each victim’s chapter is represented by a tree and a different section of the forest. We ask the user to speak the name of the person killed in order to move forward and experience their story.

The chapter selection screen showing two simplified, quilted trees in a dark, abstract forest.
A blue, backlit forest scene with the name, “Peter Francis,” and a user interface displaying the text, “Say their name to begin.”
Tree models and illustrations by Ado Ato pictures. Layout and UI by Dan Nolan.

The immersive story continues within each chapter as the user moves through a horizontal space containing narrative text, animation, audio stories featuring the victim’s next of kin, and primary source documents like newspapers and letters.

A screenshot of the chapter experience showing a background image of Roman Ducksworth with his wife and baby. There's a path of light through the middle of the screen and a collaged image of a letter with text underneath reading, “Dear Mrs. Ducksworth…”

A path of light acts as a guide through the space. There is a theme of light and shadow throughout the experience where the user’s movement and progression become a source of light and reveal the victims’ stories—this was inspired by the Ida B. Wells quote, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”

A chapter image with blue a blue light path and an image of an old telephone illustrated on a leaf.
A collaged, textured image in all blue featuring Peter Francis with his baseball team.
A chapter screen with a green light path and a textured image of a church in the background.
A green, textured and illustrated image with men holding Jimmie Lee Jackson's casket at his funeral. The words “Racism Killed Our Brother” are displayed on a banner on a building in the background.
A chapter screen with an orange light path and a background image of Flora Shanklin. Alberta Jones is the foreground as a photo-illustrated image on a leaf.

Augmented Reality App and Installation

The Un(re)solved project also features a traveling augmented reality installation. The exhibit displays quilted panels with the names of victims from the Till Act list. The augmented reality app allows visitors to access more information about each victim and listen to audio stories while seeing light particles and leaves visualized in augmented reality. I worked with the team from Ado Ato pictures to refine the app’s visual design and user interface in the final phases of development.

A screen from the Un(re)solved app with an instruction showing how to scan an AR marker.
An Un(re)solved app interface screen showing the name, “Clyde Briggs,” width an orange, circular quilt icon and a button reading, “Listen & Explore.”
An app voice interface screen with the name, “Clyde Briggs,” and text reading, “Speak his name to hear his story.”
An app screen with a collaged image of a list of names from the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. There's an audio player at the bottom labeled “The List.”
Installation set design, quilt star icon and app UX design by Ado Ato pictures. App UI and visual design by Dan Nolan.

Promotion

The Un(re)solved brand is rich with color and visual assets. Once our project was launched I created promotional imagery allowing us to extend the brand onto our social channels.

A black background with an array of colorful leaves arranged in 3D space. Each leaf has a dark silhouette of a person on it. Large text across the center reads “Un(re)solved.”
A dark image with an orange light path and a tree in the background featuring two images of Alberta Jones, one in the background and another in the foreground displayed on a leaf. Large text at the top reads “Un(re)solved.”
Four colorful, illustrated, 3D trees sit in a dark, abstract forest. The trees have collaged images of the people featured in the Un(re)solved main chapters. There's a main title at the top reading, “Un(re)solved,” and festival laurels at the bottom that say, “Tribeca Festival 2021 Official Selection.”

We also created a unique instagram account with seamless imagery as another way to experience the project and learn about the victims from the Till Act list.

The Un(re)solved Instagram account showing posts that display the title of the project and leaves with victim's portraits on them.
The Un(re)solved Instagram account showing a middle section of posts with colorful leaves and victims' portraits.
The Un(re)solved Instagram account showing the first several rows of posts featuring colorful, illustrated trees at the bottom with images of victims collaged on top of the trees and leaves.

Thank You

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

In the fall of 2019 I had the opportunity to visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. It is a harrowing display of the victims of lynchings in this country—many thousands of names etched on steel slabs, hanging from the roof. I learned a lot from this trip and it helped shape the way we approached telling the stories of the Till Act victims and their families.