HBO: The Jinx

The Background

Working with GLOW Digital Agency, we created site that would work as an information hub for HBO documentary series, The Jinx. Over the course of the show's season we designed additional updates of information that helped viewers to continue being engaged with the show while they waited for the next episode. By the end of the season we had reached beyond our expectations for site visitors, and the show gained incredible popularity.

The Creative Direction

While each episode of the show would dive deep into the mysterious events that surrounded the show’s subject, Robert Durst, there was plenty more information that the show’s Director and Creator, Andrew Jarecki, wanted to share. For that reason we set out to build a site that offered viewers a chance to dive deeper, having access to photos, blog entries, podcast episodes, and a wealth of information housed in one place. The aim from there was to create a site that was straightforward, well organized, and easy for users to navigate.

Timeline

4 weeks to build initial site
1 week for each episodic update

Role

Visual Designer

Skills

UX Design,
Visual Design

Client

Home page

Borrowing design styles from the show’s key art, I created a moving cinemagraph image to welcome users with instant beautiful motion without the high memory cost of using video assets.

A video section allowed viewers of the show to jump right into a media they are familiar with. We presented the full first episode to capture the attention of viewers and spark more interested viewers to tune in weekly.

Each week new chapter sections offered more content for fans to dive deeper into the mysteries that surround the show.

Chapter Pages

With consideration to the wide age group of fans interested in the show, we made sure to keep the site very strait forward and user friendly. I created a navigation with drop down menus to explore more of the chapters.

Behind the scenes photos

Each chapter page had a section to explore photos that were connected to the material referenced in their respective episode. The behind the scenes photos were gathered from archives that the director kept while learning about Robert Durst for over a decade.

Additional footage

While each episode was edited to fit a succinct story within a manageable amount of time, there was more footage that ended up on the cutting room floor. I created a video page to allow viewers a chance to see some of these rare gems that didn’t make it into the show.

Who’s Who

I created a page as a dedicated reference point for all individuals involved in the show. This included everyone from the show’s main subject, Robert Durst, to the people he grew up with, the investigators involved in the crimes documented in the show, and everyone else right down to the show’s creators, Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling.

Personal Bios

As the user navigates the page they can open personal bios on individuals, all organized by each case documented in the show.

Episodic Blog entries

As each episode airs a media team at HBO also wanted to be able to update the site with breaking news related to the cases discussed in the show. At the time when we were building the site we had no idea how important this page would become by the final episode.

Episodic Podcasts

Taking additional notes from popular true crime podcasts such as Serial, HBO was interested in creating an audio companion to the show. Each week as new episodes aired more podcast episodes became available to the public the discuss the show in more depth.