Netflix’s DARK is a sci-fi mystery series that spans several timelines, generations and interconnected events. With a complex time-travel narrative and equally intricate family relationships, viewers have to pay close attention to follow the mind-bending show, or feel… left in the dark.

With that in mind, we partnered with Netflix to build an official interactive guide to accompany the series. It serves as an aid for new viewers to understand the fundamentals of the story, and is the go-to place for invested fans to build up their knowledge.

Because of how the story’s complexity grows with each episode, it was also crucial to include filters that ensure a spoiler-free experience, limiting information according to what viewers have already watched and translating a complex narrative into an uncomplicated interface. And for the real fanatics, there are plenty of Easter eggs to discover.

Built to provide key information on characters, locations and events, users can browse full-page articles or start with the vast family tree, which illustrates the intricate relationships between characters spanning generations, worlds and timelines. Graphical elements played a key role in the development. For the design, we paid tribute to the show’s look, feel and storyline, with animated timelines that take the user through the narrative. The overall mood, typography and kaleidoscopic transitions were inspired by the show’s aesthetics, as well as the eerie music that seals the atmosphere.

Translating a nonlinear narrative that takes place in different decades and parallel worlds into a simple, linear site was no easy task. Once the writers summarized 750 key events in eight languages, the show runners double-checked the enormous amount of content, including the multiple versions of each image to make sure there were no spoilers present.