The Serengeti Lion – Roy Wilhelm

National Geographic

The Serengeti Lion

An immersive, interactive storytelling experience showcasing the lives of lions in Tanzania's Serengeti

Photographers capture hundreds or thousands of photos when they shoot for National Geographic. A rigorous editing process results in only a handful of photos selected for publication. Such was the case when photographer Nick Nichols and his team presented hundreds of photos and videos they captured of Serengeti lions in Tanzania. Watching Nick’s presentation, a photo editor knew instantly that we had to build something special to showcase the remarkable images. The photo editor brought the challenge to my team, and we got to work.

Role

Lead and sole designer –
UX, wireframes, UI design

The Solution

My team gathered examples of the most interesting interactive video and photography projects we could find. We critiqued each project discussing what worked well and what wasn't working. We used this competitor analysis to develop a set of guiding principles. The Serengeti Lion project had to be Simple, Immersive, and Compelling.

Start

Section

Gallery

Gallery — Caption

Index

Motion & Interaction

As the Serengeti brings to mind wide-open plains, the team knew early in our process that the project would have a primarily horizontal, left-right layout and motion.