Goal: Create an interactive website on Figma speaking on a historical event that is backed with extensive research.
Topic: I chose to speak on the 228 incident of Taiwan and the events that followed, leading to the democratization of Taiwan. This covers the 228 incident, the White Terror period, student movements, and engaging media related to its history.
Target Audience: this interactive story is tailored to high school and university level students (ages 16-25) who are interested in learning about Taiwanese history.
Research: The 228 Incident (1947) was a violent anti-government uprising followed by the brutal KMT crackdown that killed thousands of Taiwanese civilians and marked the start of the subsequent 38-year White Terror period of political repression. These traumas, including mass executions and the suppression of local identity, forged a powerful shared historical memory that fueled the democratic movement, culminating in the lifting of martial law in 1987 and start of student led movements fighting for democracy.
Alongside news articles and organizations related to this topic, I discovered a sum of entertainment media which stemmed from this tragic historical period, from movies and TV shows to video games, where I decided to create an interactive story that flows in an illustrative and slightly comic style way.
Wireframes & Drafts
Illustration & Lettering
Changes
My draft intended to display all of the 228 and White Terror victims, but after doing more research, a full list of names were not available, and showcased at physical memorial sites in Taiwan, thus I created a visual that touched on a few victims that had a documented story behind them.
Initially, my call to action was to encourage visiting 228 historical museum sites, but after realizing that requires traveling to Taiwan, I decided to encourage my audience to engage with digital media that sheds light to that history through a carousel. These include the show and video game "Detention", and movies "A City of Sadness" and "March of Happiness".
Figma