Marking Country & the Research Centre for Deep History

A $3 million (AUD) Laureate research project titled ‘Rediscovering the deep human past: global networks, future opportunities’ had two key deliverables with which I was concerned:

• The Research Centre for Deep History, a collaborative and transdisciplinary research endeavour. The Centre ‘learns from Indigenous history, being inspired by its ways of thinking about time, people’s embeddedness in Country, stories, and song over such a long span’; this includes working with Indigenous knowledge custodians, scientists, archaeologists, historians, and other relevant experts.
• Marking Country (MC), an interactive scrollytelling site. MC visualises Australia’s deep history, extending far beyond the two-and-a-half centuries since the arrival of British ships.

I joined the Laureate research project as a UX/UI developer at the Australian National University in 2018, prior to the evolution of those two subprojects over the next five years.

They were originally looking for a database developer.

In the Beginning

The research grant applicant included the a digital deliverable for the research, so this was a requirement. It was initially pitched as an interactive atlas pulling data from specialist Humanities software. Combined with the need to make news posts about research and events, the initial solution was a website that housed the ‘Interactive Atlas’ and associated news posts.

I conducted thorough research; I collated numerous types of maps from different topic fields, asked the team to contribute to the mood board, and facilitated discussions. I detailed the main concerns for the website’s functionality and features; ultimately this boiled down to having something interactive and dynamic. I showed examples of interactivity on websites for data they may collect.

I also co-created personas with my colleagues to align the team with the demographics of the audience; it was a useful exercise to inform their understanding of our audience.

I created wireframes for the Centre site, which were given to the graphic designer for branding material creation. I proposed building the atlas using a side menu for the desktop as those maps functioned the best. Images are included in colour based on a request… Which makes them more of a half-mockup.

The First Build

Unfortunately, the resulting design was better suited to print instead of the web. The nested margins were eventually a challenge to handle on mobile devices; I had to make layout adjustments.

I eventually built the first version of the map, which functioned quite differently to the final version.

I chose Gatsby (React) and Strapi for the build due to speed and research archival concerns; Gatsby was the most popular framework in 2018 for generating static sites, and React would render me replaceable. The university wouldn’t allow me to set up any kind of CI/CD workflow, so updating was a painful process involving SSH and FTP.

I chose LeafletJS for the atlas due to its responsive support out of the box and ease of extension.

Trashing the First Build

The nature of the content created was evolving. Researchers were producing article-like content, which was difficult to figure out how to embed into the map. After much deliberation, we eventually settled on using a map on the homepage to show the location where fieldwork and co-creation with indigenous communities were undertaken. Visual aids were required to see how the content would sit.

Marking Country (now named!) is prioritised, with the other items accessible through the menu and footer.

We requested researchers to prepare storyboards even if the content wasn’t fully fleshed out in an effort to think about things dynamically; this worked partially. Regular iterations were required until the next release; crunch-time did not help.

There was other feedback in approaching this version as well. I created simple mockups to indicate a new look and feel post-release. One would assume this is enough, but after the pages were built, one piece of rather enjoyable critique was that it was ‘too colonial’.

This time I took charge of redesigning the website differently - I made radical suggestions and incorporated the brand’s actual theme colours. After multiple rounds of feedback, I rebuilt the site in an article-like format but prepared for animation; the site was to be transformed after this latest release.

Final Form

Colleagues began feeling conflicted about the website because, by now, the Centre had numerous outputs besides Marking Country. The Marking Country map features on the homepage, and so featuring other unrelated content was starting to interfere with the presentation of Marking Country.

The decision was finally made to split the websites. I rebuilt the Centre site on WordPress. In doing this, I axed the Strapi portion of the site with a sigh of relief.

I gleefully converted the site over to Svelte prior to the final beta launch. I followed WCAG 2.1 standards as best as I could for accessibility, implementing features like keyboard navigation, alt text for images, and screen reader compatibility. It took a while to convert the site over from a static, article-feeling site to something dynamic, but I accomplished it. I also solidified the design system as I swept through the codebase.

The site is currently undergoing testing, and final changes will be wrapped up in May 2024.

Challenges

There were numerous challenges:

1. The highest impact issues were in project management. Academics who work with traditional media don’t have experience managing software projects. To mitigate the effects of this, I worked with one colleague who stepped in as website manager to shield me from being overburdened with project management in addition to designing and building the projects.
2. Advocating for design as a discipline and its associated processes. I would start this process and likely host an information session earlier in future projects.
3. Academic IT bureaucracy. Simple requests regarding hosting and other issues can take months to resolve. Working within those timeframes and taking initiative is something I’m now used to.

Reflection

This project spanned five years, a timeframe in which I grew phenomenally due to experiences with this project, and all the others I did alongside and could use for comparison.

Overall, the biggest takeaways for me were my confidence in my expertise and the understanding that I should be firmer in my communication and advocacy. I now advocate early for decisions in favour of design and development best practices, the benefit of which is felt across my work.

I’m now familiar with the nature of evolving research. From this standpoint, I would treat digital products as prototypes until the actual research materialises and lasting decisions can be made.