BABYN YAR
Go Interactive was not the first choice as a project outsourcing vendor for the Babyn Yar international project. ‘The Foundation and Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center’ was initiated in 2016 and primarily focused on documenting the history of the tragedy and proper commemoration. As the Foundation grew and the volume of collected documents and testimonies increased exponentially, a need arose to create a comprehensive educational platform based on the expanding collection of documents, the expertise of the academic contributors, and available to general use. After the initial unsuccessful experience, the Foundation entrusted the software development part of the project to Go Interactive and our team of dedicated Ukrainian specialists. The Babyn Yar tragedy has its own special place in Ukrainian history and delegating the creation of an educational platform to the Ukrainian team in 2020 was a decision of major importance.
Since the Babyn Yar Memorial Center collected pieces of historical research, there was a need for a section of the website aimed at making those findings accessible to the public. Our developers created a kind of easy-to-use database of more than 7000 digital items: photographs, videos, electronic books and essays, collections, and art objects with an advanced filter and search.
This sophisticated database of names not only gives people an instrument to find their relatives by simple typing but also serves as a vivid visualization of Babyn Yar in history and space. Each of more than 20,000 personal cards has a source section, and web instrumentation to suggest changes, additions, and corrections for moderation. Above all, there is an additional visualization instrument called ‘descendants’ map’, which draws visual connections with other countries outside Ukraine.
Made in conservative black and white colors, this section serves as a content delivery platform. It allows the administrators to add articles, electronic books and booklets, and links to the photographs, accessible to every visitor of the website.
It is a platform that allows people to share their personal stories, memories, and opinions. The visitors can use the filter options to find and watch the videos they appreciate the most. The database of videos has a built-in video-watching interface based on the YouTube platform experience. Apart from being a viewer, users can appeal to becoming either an interviewer or a guest. Each option includes a contact form interface, and moderation options for the administrators.
As the activities of Babyn Yar Memorial Center went beyond the scope of just the accumulation of information, key international developments and events in Ukraine deserved its own news section. The user may surf through the database of content and open each piece of news in a pop-up window without leaving the current parental page.
In contrast to the NAMES section, this database of people combines text and visual narration in the form of personal stories and reminiscences. Each Ukrainian Righteous has its own individual page with stories, memories, pictures, and a contact form for the reader to address the person.
One of the most skill-demanding and time-consuming sections of the platform, when it comes to the development process. It not only gives access to more than three million archival items but combines information from different sources.
Looking further forward, the development process of the BABYNYAR.ORG educational platform allowed Go Interactive to knock a team of twenty talented Ukrainian IT professionals together.
On Go Interactive's side, the development team included: a) two experienced Project managers with a background of supervising large teams: b) a team of five Backend developers; c) Ten Frontend software developers; d) An experienced QA engineer.
The technologies used: Django web framework (Python) for the Backend part and React Javascript library for the Frontend of the BABYNYAR.ORG educational platform (https://babynyar.org/en/)
