There are two types – the “tell a story” type, that make data come to life and give the user a better understanding; and the “work it out yourself” type, which allow the user to play with the variables and find their own story. The first is an extension of traditional journalism, but with far more appealing and engaging presentation. The second is more revolutionary, and allows the audience to become part of the story. Turning a spreadsheet into something you can use, or understand.
I'm not going to talk about audio slideshows. Or video. Or blogs. - the idea first question: is this really an interactive graphic? Usually the answer is NO. Shelf life. Appeal. Updatable? - the data Can be harder to come by than you think - People the design skills, a coder - a platform how is anyone going to find this? Promote, plug, shout - time You don't turn these things around in a day
Topics - what to cover, is it a story that will run for long enough? Events vs themes Originality - or following the crowd Niche - what will your audience expect. E.g. FT and sport. Are you the destination site for EU news? Then do EU data, not BP
Good - Classic FT story - who owns what? Has long-term value. Bad - Should we have spun a bigger story out of it? Made the text more accessible? www.ft.com/carcompanies
www.ft.com/unconventional Good - use of audio as well as data Bad - doesn't go far enough?
FTSE100 - FTSE 100: How the share index has changed www.ft.com/ftse100 Good - excellent snapshot of how things change Bad - data limitations, data availability
Oil executives pay www.ft.com/ceo-pay Good - find your own story Bad - data availability?
Deficit buster www.ft.com/deficitbuster Good: Find your own story Was top of the news agenda, cited by Sky, BBC, other papers. The story was written around the graphic. Bad: Give people the data! (again)
Campaign Finance - New York Times http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/campaign-finance/map.html
Just because you compare it to GDP / Population etc doesn't make it more interesting, or might make it misleading?
![How do you build them? ,[object Object],[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)