A big part of my job at PublicSource is about connecting people to stories through creating experiences online.

As PublicSource’s Interactives & Design Editor, I work at the intersection of journalism, design and technology to make your experience with news and information more enjoyable and entertaining. Your support makes innovative stories and design possible. Right now, all gifts are being doubled by The Fine Foundation.

One of the signature projects I worked on this year was designing and developing the website for our collaborative series, Good River: Stories of the Ohio. Supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the National Geographic Society, the series focuses on the environment, economy and culture of the Ohio River watershed, produced by seven nonprofit newsrooms spanning five of the 15 watershed states.

Natasha Vicens shows off a black PublicSource T-shirt
Natasha Vicens shows a PublicSource T-shirt all $50+ donors can receive this year-end.

I developed the website and project brand with Louisville Public Media developer Alexandra Kanik (formerly of PublicSource!). When we set out to design the project, we knew we faced a unique challenge: a watershed is not something people identify with or generally even know about. Our goal was to create a visual space to pull people into stories and display the project’s fabulous multimedia elements — including maps, 360 videos, radio stories, documentary video and photo essays. Some of my favorite design elements from the series include the project’s cool color palette, the wavy line dividers that create subtle movement and intrigue across the site and the scrollable map on the landing page.

Another highlight of my year was getting to work with our fantastic data and design interns. I worked closely with the talented Nora Mattson, an information systems major at Carnegie Mellon University, to stitch together a data page for the Covering Climate Now series, a global collaboration of more than 300 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Most recently, I loved working and learning from Remy Davison, PublicSource’s first design intern. Remy graduated earlier this year from CMU with a degree in communications design and has created marketing materials for PublicSource, data visualizations and lead art for stories.

Your donation to PublicSource will help us produce more important visual journalism that gives you, our readers, a more innovative and enjoyable storytelling experience.

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Know more than you did before? Support this work with a MATCHED gift!

Through Dec. 31, the Wyncote Foundation, Loud Hound Foundation and our generous local match pool supporters will match your new monthly donation 12 times or double your one-time gift, all up to $1,000. Now that's good news!

Readers tell us they can't find the information they get from our reporting anywhere else, and we're proud to provide this important service for our community. We work hard to produce accurate, timely, impactful journalism without paywalls that keeps our region informed and moving forward.

However, only about .1% of the people who read our stories contribute to our work financially. Our newsroom depends on the generosity of readers like yourself to make our high-quality local journalism possible, and the costs of the resources it takes to produce it have been rising, so each member means a lot to us.

Your MATCHED donation to our nonprofit newsroom helps ensure everyone in Allegheny County can stay up-to-date about decisions and events that affect them. Please make your gift of support now.

Natasha is PublicSource's creative director. She runs the organizations visuals team, edits and produces interactive graphics, data visualizations and web packages for PublicSource. She manages the website...