Editorial project

The Shape of a Practice
Anthropocene Curriculum

The challenge: While working for HKW (House of World Cultures), a world-leading cultural centre in Berlin, Germany, our small editorial team was tasked with transforming 100+ complex academic case studies about climate change and local environmental practices into an accessible, interactive digital archive. Contributors included artists, scientists, academics, and activists from around the world, each presenting research in vastly different contexts and languages.

Approach: A comprehensive information architecture and content strategy that made dense academic material navigable and engaging. The solution centered around an innovative "research desk" metaphor – each case study appears as a table viewed from above, with draggable items that users can explore, examine, and dive deeper into.

Key elements:

  • UX copywriting: Wrote clear, accessible abstracts, metadata, and item descriptions for complex academic content – making research more searchable and approachable

  • Style guide development: Created consistent voice and tone guidelines that balanced academic rigour with accessibility

  • Interactive design collaboration: Worked with developers to create an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that encourages exploration

  • Accessibility focus: Ensured content was navigable for diverse audiences across disciplines and geographic contexts

  • Scalable system: Content architecture allowed case study materials to be repurposed in later in other digital publications

Impact delivered:

  • Transformed academic materials into an engaging and interactive digital experience

  • Created reusable content systems that extended the project's reach beyond the original 2020 event

  • Enabled interdisciplinary collaboration through clear, inclusive language

  • Built sustainable information architecture that supported multiple publication formats

Skills showcased: Content strategy, information architecture, UX writing, accessibility design, interdisciplinary communication, digital publication development. Distilling complex content into clear, engaging experiences.