Interactive examples

AP political interactive displays great data visualization and video help feature

Former colleague Seth Gitner pointed me to a complex data interactive by the AP tracking presidential fundraising numbers. Yes, we are all probably sick of looking at 2008 election graphics. But, I encourage you to spend some time with this project because it is a great inspirational example for data visualization. It also features an innovative video help feature, by displaying an AP reporter (using a chromakey affect) at the bottom corner of your screen.

The amount of data and different viewing options within this project are immense. There are animated bar charts for “Total Receipts,” “Contributions,” “Total Spent,” “Cash on Hand,” and “Percentage Spent.” Each of these then can be broken down by month in 2008, or quarter in 2007. You can view each candidates total contributions by state using a map or a grid. A timeline graph is used to display contributions by day, with an overlay of important dates. An interactive graphic displays funds raised by contribution size for all candidates. Lastly, finance details are broken down for each of the 17 candidates by income, expenses, committee details, and individual contributions.

The video help feature was definitely my favorite part. The time it took to create the eight+ videos with a chromakey affect is baffling, but I believe it was necessary for such a data-heavy and confusing interactive. These videos were unobtrusive since they were nicely positioned to integrate at the bottom of the screen, and the user had the ability to stop it whenever he/she chose.

I did notice a few flaws in the project, but overall I am extremely impressed by the scope of this project and the time and dedication that it took for the producers to pull this all together. The only room for improvement I see is to have each section deep-linked so a user can more easily link to and comment on a specific feature of the site. Otherwise, kudos to multimedia producers Troy Thibodeaux, Elizabeth Davidz, Matt Ford and reporter Jim Kuhnhenn!

Other posts that might interest you:

• Guantanamo Bay interactive presents data effectively
• USA Today’s "Campaign finance tracker" is overwhelming at first, but stick with it
• Who’s winning for best multimedia coverage of the 2008 election?

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