The Descent

The brief

Create scroll-based visual storytelling that teaches something.

The idea

Numbers like eleven kilometres mean nothing until you have to scroll through them. The page gets darker as you go down, light fails exactly where it really fails, and animals start making their own.

Decisions

• The colour of the page is the science: red goes first and blue goes last.
• A gauge reports depth, zone and pressure the whole way.
• Facts were checked and shaky ones removed, including a disputed diving record.
• It ends on the seabed, in silence.

How it came together

1. Mapped real depths to scroll positions.
2. Built the water colour from a table of depth stops.
3. Reviewed every claim and removed four that did not survive checking.

How it works

One canvas repaints the water, rays, marine snow and bioluminescence from scroll position.