charity: water
Thirst: An Interactive Narrative
The Project
In 2018 Scott Harrison, the founder and CEO of charity: water, wrote a memoir about how he came to be the leader of a nonprofit making a difference in the world titled Thirst: A story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World. His personal story is colorful and dynamic, full of references to visual content, and Scott decided that the printed book would benefit from a digital counterpart. With that in mind, the Thirst website was created to house the visual side of the story.
Role + Responsibilities
Lead Designer
Visual Concepts, Narrative Map, Visual Design, Web Design
Experience the site firsthand at thirstbook.com using the password TOGETHER
A Multimedia Bonanza
Scott’s story in Thirst is robust, colorful and jam packed with references to visual content. From photos of his childhood to his MTV VJ video application to postcards for club events to a library of portraits from his time with Mercy Ships – the content was endless. This was the key motivator in creating the digital experience to pair with the book, with so much content at our disposal that isn’t really made for a printed book why not find a better way to present it?
With this in mind, I began to work through the type of content that would need to be incorporated into a web experience and identifying opportunities for unique treatments like sliding before // after for Mercy Ships portraits or contained scrolls for the scans of his mothers’ letters so that users could be fully immersed in the story with functionality curated in ways that best fit the content.
