The Weight of One
An interactive story about a rupee's purchasing power from 1950 to 2025, with multilingual copy and a 3D coin.
Open live projectBased on the project's source. This is an editorial visualization, not a financial calculator or investment recommendation.
My contribution
- Built the interactive timeline and language/lens controls.
- Combined a Three.js coin with a static-image fallback.
- Published the methodology and source links alongside the story.
Overview
Readers choose a lens and follow one rupee across the decades in this short, scroll-led experience.
Problem
A price index is hard to relate to without concrete examples. I wanted a more approachable way to show what changes over time.
Constraints
- The methodology and illustrative examples need to remain distinguishable.
- The experience should work without WebGL or motion.
Approach
- Organized the story into decade-based chapters.
- Added language and reading-lens selection.
- Kept methodology and sources available at the end.
- Made 3D rendering optional on reduced-motion and low-memory devices.
Implementation notes
Readable content before optional 3D
Reasoning
The coin is part of the presentation. Reading the story shouldn't depend on a GPU or a large JavaScript download.
Tech stack
- TypeScript
- React
- Three.js
- vinext
- Cloudflare Workers
Result and impact
A published web experiment combining storytelling, interaction, and source-backed content.
Learnings
- A visual enhancement needs a good fallback, especially on phones.
- Showing the method matters as much as making the story engaging.