David Sleight

Senior Director, Design & Product

Photo of David Sleight

David Sleight was ProPublica’s Senior Director, Design & Product. He became ProPublica’s first design director in May of 2014, and was responsible for ProPublica’s overall design and presentation across platforms.

In 2016, Sleight was named a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and was the recipient of a Communication Award from the National Academies for his work on ProPublica’s “Killing the Colorado” series. Projects he has worked on have been recognized by the Pulitzer Prizes, the Online News Association, the Society for News Design, Malofiej, PDN, the Society of Illustrators, and American Photography and American Illustration.

Previously, he worked with startups as a consultant specializing in user experience, editorial presentation and product design. Before that, he led the interactive design team at BusinessWeek.com, and helped build some of the first web-based textbooks at Pearson Education.

In Colfax, Echoes of Another Conflict

A photographer who covered the war in Iraq appreciates how threats can come to seem routine.

Open Burns, Ill Winds

The Pentagon’s handling of munitions and their waste has poisoned millions of acres, and left Americans to guess at the threat to their health.

Lost Mothers

An estimated 700 to 900 women in the U.S. died from pregnancy-related causes in 2016. We have identified 120 of them so far.

How the U.S. Triggered a Massacre in Mexico

The inside story of a cartel’s deadly assault on a Mexican town near the Texas border — and the U.S. drug operation that sparked it.

Kafka in Vegas

Fred Steese served more than 20 years in prison for the murder of a Vegas showman even though evidence in the prosecution’s files proved he didn’t do it. But when the truth came to light, he was offered a confounding deal known as an Alford plea. If he took it he could go free, but he’d remain a convicted killer.

Sold for Parts

One of the most dangerous companies in the U.S. took advantage of immigrant workers. Then, when they got hurt or fought back, it used America’s laws against them.

Photos: Returning to the Roots of Case Farms’ Workforce

One of the most dangerous companies in the U.S. took advantage of immigrant workers. Then, when they got hurt or fought back, it used America’s laws against them.

Minority Neighborhoods Pay Higher Car Insurance Premiums Than White Areas With the Same Risk

Our analysis of premiums and payouts in California, Illinois, Texas and Missouri shows that some major insurers charge minority neighborhoods as much as 30 percent more than other areas with similar accident costs.

In Their Own Words: CIA Cables Document Agency’s Torture of Abu Zubaydah

A trove of recently released cables and Zubaydah’s own declassified account describe what happened when the al Qaeda suspect was held at secret prison.

When Evidence Says No, But Doctors Say Yes

Years after research contradicts common practices, patients continue to demand them and doctors continue to deliver. The result is an epidemic of unnecessary and unhelpful treatment.

2016: The Year in Visual and Interactive Storytelling

Sometimes words aren’t enough to tell a complex story. Here are some highlights from ProPublica’s visual and interactive stories this year.

Breaking the Black Box: How Machines Learn to Be Racist

Artificial Intelligence is only as good as the patterns we teach it. To illustrate the sensitivity of AI systems, we built an AI engine that deduced synonyms from news articles published by different types of news organizations.

Breaking the Black Box: When Machines Learn by Experimenting on Us

As we enter the era of artificial intelligence, machines regularly conduct experiments on human behavior. Here’s a look at how software used by the New York Times and New York Post uses you to test their headlines.

When Algorithms Decide What You Pay

The phone you use, the computer you own and the ZIP code you live in can all be factors in what prices you see when shopping online. Welcome to the world of mass customization.

Breaking the Black Box: What Facebook Knows About You

We live in an era of increasing automation. But as machines make more decisions for us, it is increasingly important to understand the algorithms that produce their judgments.

Busted

Tens of thousands of people every year are sent to jail based on the results of a $2 roadside drug test. Widespread evidence shows that these tests routinely produce false positives. Why are police departments and prosecutors still using them?

A Gunfight in Guatemala

Enrique Degenhart tried to clean up Guatemala's immigration service. His story is part of a nation's extraordinary fight against corruption.

How We Built the New ProPublica Mobile Apps

The design thinking behind our latest updates for iOS and Android.

Re-introducing ProPublica’s iOS App

Meet the new ProPublica for iOS, completely rebuilt from the ground up.

‘We’re Sitting Ducks’

Houston, home to millions of people and one of the largest shipping lanes in the world, is unprepared for the hurricane that could bring ecological and economic disaster.

Follow ProPublica

Latest Stories from ProPublica