Responses by Studio Lovelock

Background: The State of European Tech is an industry leading report researched and written by international technology investment firm Atomico. With help from developers Matt Collins and Mike Allanson, we devised a digital version of the report that would enable users to delve into the most comprehensive data-driven story of European technology. We created a bespoke content management system that allowed the team to create, edit and manipulate charts alongside more standard content.

Highlights: We were eager to create an aesthetic that felt authoritative, precise and enticing. This translated into the striking blue lead color, coupled with data type illustrations that allude to exact measurements and contours. Finally, we added background animation on the overview pages and transitions to elevate the overall sense of quality as users move through the site.

Challenges: Balancing the density and complexity of the content with a clean, visual aesthetic that created a distinctive identity without compromising the clarity of the information. Perhaps the most challenging thing was figuring out what we needed to build; we ensured that testing was a prominent part of our process.

Navigational structure: The report is written in a linear narrative form with a beginning and an end. We wanted to retain that structure while still enabling users to engage at different levels. Given the quantity of data, there needed to be a simple structure that users could grasp quickly and move around the report without too much effort, whether by browsing or seeking out specific information.

Technical features: The site consists of two parts: a “headless” CMS on the backend and a static HTML site on the frontend. The backend is built in Python with Django, Wagtail CMS and Django Rest Framework. The frontend uses React and Gatsby. The charts are created with Highcharts, with some shared JS to build chart previews in the CMS and the full charts on the frontend. Finally, there’s an AWS Lambda function to create customized PDFs on demand via the frontend.