Visualising Conflict/Peace: A Digital Atlas for Peace and Conflict Research

Goals

The atlas was conceived to address a gap in peace and conflict research: the absence of a reflexive, multiperspective digital publication format capable of hosting complex geospatial narratives without reducing them to simple truths or resolutions. The IfL needed a platform that could grow iteratively as new cases were contributed, support interdisciplinary workflows involving cartographers, researchers, and visual designers, and remain accessible to both academic specialists and a broader public interested in conflict and cooperation in Eastern Europe.

Challenges

The project posed several significant challenges. The content itself is inherently complex — cases involve sensitive topics such as war, trauma, displacement, and contested borders, requiring careful information architecture that neither sensationalizes nor oversimplifies. Each case needed to surface multiple, often conflicting perspectives through embedded reflections, interactive map visualizations, and layered navigation. At the same time, the platform had to accommodate a continuously evolving content structure: new cases, new visual methods, and new thematic categories are added over time, making extensibility a core technical requirement. Integrating diverse visualization formats — from static cartography to interactive Leaflet and Mapbox GL JS maps with scrollytelling elements — within a coherent editorial layout added further complexity. Accessibility was likewise non-negotiable for an international academic platform.

Approach

PROGRESSIVE digital worked in close collaboration with the editorial and visualization teams at IfL throughout development. The partnership covered the full web design and development cycle, including UI and UX consulting to translate the editorial vision into a coherent digital experience. Given the atlas's academic context and the sensitivity of the subject matter, the design approach prioritized clarity, restraint, and navigability over visual spectacle. Key UX decisions — such as how embedded reflections surface within a case, how the three-dimensional filtering interface behaves, and how interactive visualizations integrate into the reading flow — were worked out iteratively in close dialogue with the client team. Six custom Drupal modules were developed to address project-specific requirements, including custom component logic, mobile display handling, and CKEditor tooltip integration.

Outcome

The result is a fully accessible Drupal 11 platform that launched with nine published cases spanning regions including Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Abkhazia, Transnistria, Serbia, Croatia, and the Fergana Valley. Cases are filterable across three independent taxonomies: Methods and Visual Approaches (such as counter-mapping, dealing with uncertainty, and visual testimonies), Thematic Focus (such as borders, hydropolitics, or memory culture), and Regions and Countries. The platform is designed as a living infrastructure: the editorial team can publish, revise, and expand cases continuously without requiring developer intervention, supported by automated workflows and in-context content editing.

Key features

Each case integrates interactive geospatial visualizations — including Leaflet maps and Mapbox GL JS-powered 3D representations — directly alongside editorial text, making the platform as much a visual publication as a research repository. A signature feature is the reflexive layer built into every case: embedded hover highlights and a dedicated Reflection dialog reveal the assumptions, decisions, and perspectives behind each visualization, making the production process transparent rather than presenting maps as neutral facts. Scrollytelling effects powered by Scrollama and GSAP animations create an immersive reading experience suited to the complexity of the subject matter. The Library section complements the cases by offering methodological resources for researchers working with cartography and visual methods. The platform uses Matomo for privacy-compliant analytics, keeping user data within the research institution's own infrastructure.

What makes this project special

The atlas sits at an unusual intersection of academic research, critical cartography, and digital publishing — a combination that placed high demands on both the content architecture and the interface design. Rather than a conventional research website, it functions as an evolving collaborative knowledge infrastructure that grows with the research network. Its reflexive approach — surfacing the process behind visualizations rather than hiding it — required thoughtful UX decisions about how to layer information without creating cognitive overload. Building on over 110 contributed modules and 15+ frontend libraries, the platform achieves a level of editorial flexibility and visual sophistication that positions it as a model for digital publication in the humanities and social sciences.