Responses by Studio Airport.

Background: A new interactive multimedia feature by Emergence Magazine, this site explores four stories of tree migration in Maine and what is at stake as forests shift away from the ecological and human communities they have long inhabited.

Design core: The interactive design brings together essays, films, photography and animated infographics to tell the story of tree migration in the most immersive and urgent way possible.

Favorite details: The infographic that shows the deep-time concept of trees migrating over land for more than 20,000 years—in contrast with the 100 years to come—was a delicate challenge. The result gives a direct translation of tree populations moving over northeast America.

Divergent paths: If we had to design the site again, we would wait on designing the infographic before all the figures had been 100-percent cleared and signed off by fact-checkers. The process of adjusting these complicated infographics took us more time than we thought.

Navigation structure: The main story starts with an introduction to the definition of what tree migration is and why it’s a problem. Once arriving at the story of the Black Ash tree, the user can shift towards more short stories about the birch, red spruce and sugar maple by using the side panel on the left side of the screen. In this way, readers can see a more holistic view of the different stories and how they interconnect.