Advocating for domestic workers

roma.domesticworkers.org

ROMA / NDWA

Winner of two Golden Globes and three Oscars, ROMA partnered with the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Participant Media to create a website that shares domestic workers’ reactions to the film, and helps them receive fair benefits and compensation.

ROMA & the National Domestic Workers Alliance

Overview

In ROMA, Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón delivers a vivid, emotional portrait of a domestic worker, Cleo, which asks us to explore how we can make a difference for the women who care for our families and our homes: the real-life Cleos everywhere. Domestic workers face low pay, rampant sexual harassment, and a lack of benefits. The National Domestic Workers Alliance advocates for the rights of domestic workers and helps them get standard employment benefits and fair compensation.

The Challenge

NDWA and Participant Media approached Wide Eye to create a website that captures the essence of the film ROMA in telling the stories of real life domestic workers. Wide Eye was faced with the challenge of creating a visually compelling narrative landing page that fused the stunning look and feel of the film with the National Domestic Workers brand, all on a highly accelerated timeline to coordinate a launch in time for the Golden Globes.

Interactive storytelling

A beautiful result

The end result is an elegant and immersive storytelling experience that operates beautifully across a range of devices.

  • Interactive storytelling
  • Adapative & responsive
  • Advanced animations
  • Full screen lightboxes
Interactive storytelling

A beautiful result

The end result is an elegant and immersive storytelling experience that operates beautifully across a range of devices.

  • Interactive storytelling
  • Adapative & responsive
  • Advanced animations
  • Full screen lightboxes
Interactive & Responsive

Telling a Visual Narrative

In an effort to accommodate a compressed timeline, Wide Eye nimbly merged together a process of research, content planning, and visual style concepting into a single ideation phase that required active input from our UI Developer and Interactive Art Director. Our primary goal through that process was to outline a cogent, narrative flow for the project that would accommodate clear and compelling calls-to-action balanced with an engrossing, cinematic style that mirrors the film. Our development team played a critical role in this process by championing a unique animation approach that then informed every subsequent creative phase.

To bring the interactive experience to life, our team employed several front-end technologies: HTML5, CSS3, CSS Transition, GSAP, TimelineMax, ScrollMagic, among others. The end product is a seamless experience that uses animation and simple design choices to educate visitors about the reality of work conditions for domestic workers. An added challenge was then to make the highly interactive user interface accessible to as broad an audience as possible. The design and development teams worked tirelessly to ensure the experience functions well across all standard devices: mobile, tablet, and desktop.

"ROMA is an opportunity to change the way we value domestic workers in our culture, and to encourage audiences to take action."

–Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance

Accolades and Awards

The Roma / NDWA website launch was a phenomenal success, receiving accolades from director Alfonso Cuarón and high ratings and an honorable mention on Awwwards.com. Recognition like this does not come easy on such a nuanced and important project, and Wide Eye could not be more proud of what we accomplished.

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