Client and the challenge

The Centre on Armed Groups works to reduce violence and end armed conflict, utilising a network of over 100 specialists across the globe providing research, dialogue, and advice. When journalists at The Economist or The New York Times need to understand what’s happening in Myanmar or Sudan, they call on the Centre’s experts.

The organisation’s output could no longer be contained on their website, which also didn’t give a holistic picture of the reach and the depth of their expert network. The site also needed to be easy to navigate and simple for their growing team to maintain and regularly update.

Approach

We envisioned the Centre holding a position between the specialized platforms where insiders and experts talk without mediation, like War on the Rocks; and media where the information has to be more accessible for the broad audience. So we tapped into both worlds to create our own design vernacular.

Information architecture

We organised the Centre’s research along two axes: thematic directions and geographic regions. Every report is also tagged with the experts who created it. This provides three pathways into the content: by topic, by region, or by expert, with the added benefit of being able to easily see the expert’s other contributions.

The homepage became a sequenced narrative, featuring research outputs, an interactive map showing where the Centre operates, along with expert commentary on who does the work and what they’re saying. Each section is structured to answer a different question, yet in combination, the sections communicate what the Centre actually is.

Design principles

Editorial hierarchy
Not every report needs to be equally weighted. The homepage leads with featured research showing breadth and current priorities. Varying image sizes signal curatorial judgment. The homepage is updated monthly to reflect new content and changing priorities.

Geographic legibility
The interactive map visualises coverage across regions and conflict zones. For an organisation whose value lies in distributed expertise, showing ‘where’ they focus matters as much as showing ‘what’ they focus on.

Structured for discovery
The themes-and-regions taxonomy now ensures years of valuable research are easily navigable. Every publication carries metadata. Whether you are a donor exploring the Horn of Africa or a journalist tracking armed group economies, you can now find relevant work easily.

Uncluttered professionalism
We worked with white space, considered typography, and restrained photo treatments to give the project credibility without it looking overly corporate.