01 | Midterms, Intro
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In November 2018, I was fortunate enough to work on CNN’s fantastic team of editorial writers, storytellers, art directors to think through the ways show the U.S. midterm elections.
A midterm election is primarily focused on the two chambers of Congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. These two chambers often control the agenda and have a huge impact on the direction of the country. A third of the 100 seats of the Senate were up for election in 2018, and it was our responsibility to show the race as transparently and up to date as possible.
Brainstorming
Our first step was to brainstorm how to visually display information in the form of interactive modules that would bring the live election results to readers in real-time.
My primary role entailed exploring layouts, interactive maps, and thinking about different ways to show Democratic and Republican races by state, county, and district in real-time. Later, I also created ads that would guide readers to sign up for our newsletters through engagement from the primary election page.
Some of the questions we started out with:
What is the most important information that people will want to know during election night?
What will people care about viewing?
How do we show that readers and viewers watching the election will have the most relevant and timely information when they want it, but not feel overwhelmed by the choices?
What is the most unbiased way of presenting this information?
What are some ways we can help the audience understand and interact with the election to make them feel like they are part of the process on election night?
Are there interactive modules that we can build for this particular election but then recycle and reuse for future elections?