Dive Deeper was developed as a supplement to the TVO series The Water Brothers. In each episode, brothers Alex and Tyler Mifflin travel to a new destination to bring awareness to an issue affecting Earth's waters. Only so much information can be shared during the broadcast episode, pushing us to develop Dive Deeper. In addition to allowing our team to disseminate more important information as to how the audience can have a role in protecting our water sources, DD is a creative outlet which allows us to experiment with interactivity, coding, design, and more.
Our goal was to create a seamless set of scrollable stories responsive and accessible across a variety of mobile, tablet, and desktop platforms. Throughout each section, information is peppered (and revealed with a click) in an accessible and non-intrusive manner.
The goal behind our strategy with Dive Deeper was a simple one: to allow viewers to interact and engage with The Water Brothers show content in even deeper detail. The viewer controls the speed and pace of information discovery by simply scrolling through the page animations, and the details reveal themselves (with the option to click and find out even more where appropriate).
We used a combination of PNG images, and animated SVGs to allow viewers to engage on desktop, tablet, and mobile. The six stories offer custom designs and animations for each episode of the series. Relevant clips from the show are also included, as well as b-roll footage that was not seen on the television show.
At the end of each digital episode, users are prompted with a link to another organization so they can learn more and also put their new knowledge into action, creating real change in the world around them. This was also included at the bottom of each Dive Deeper story.
What makes this project unique is its format: the interactivity increases the audience's engagement, elevating the more passive regular documentary viewing, to an active experience more suitable for further action.
The end result of Dive Deeper's first run (as the second is now in production) is six unique and beautiful stories, with clean and accessible bits of information which compliment each episode of The Water Brothers Season 3.
Our technical objectives for the project were met through the custom built platform we created for the scrollable stories.
In terms of social good, the result of Dive Deeper is an increased interaction between the show's young, digitally-savvy audience and the subject matter at hand. With the inclusion of prompts at the bottom of each DD story, we were able to point the users to resources that encourage them to learn more about water issues and how they can be involved in the conservation of this precious resource.
