Interactive examples

Inspiration from NYTimes leads to my best interactive yet!

Yes, I’ve been quiet for awhile but I have a lot to prove for it. After a month of dedication to an interactive on aging and Medicaid for our Age of Uncertainty series, I have finished what is, by far, the most encompassing graphic I have ever attempted.

It all started by getting inspiration from the best: NYTimes, USAToday, WSJ, et al. Taking a lot of their concepts with other innovative ideas for functionality throughout the interactive, I worked directly with our data editor to organize aging and Medicaid data for every locality in Virginia across 40 years as well as nationwide statistics, state by state. This was no small feat. Our XML files exceeded 100 pages when all was said and done. I used animated bar and pie charts to help visualize the information. I added zoom capabilities for the map, dragging timeline sliders, sortable tables and on/off options for additional information. Anything that was possible, I attempted.

Everything about this map is interactive and I have already been impressed by how immersed my test subjects became as they navigated through the project. My hope was that certain realizations would spark awesome conversation and boy was I right! While my boss and fellow coworker discussed the high elderly population on the east coast of Virginia, my sister from New York wrote, “New York has problems! I’ve read before that our per capita Medicare spending is sky high, but this really brings it home!”

Check out the interactive, Geography of Aging, and let me know what you find that is particularly interesting to you. I can personally say that I was most surprised by how drastically the elderly population is going to grow across Virginia within the next 40 years. Drag the slider below the Virginia map to see for yourself! Enjoy!

Other posts that might interest you:

• Roanoke.com launches first drupal site
• Behind the Scenes of Las Vegas Sun’s “Thirst in the Mojave”
• My newest challenge: an interactive detailing a sheriff’s office scandal

© 27 May 2008 Innovative Interactivity (II).