Interactive examples

Times are tough? Get inspired!

It’s easy to mope and groan about the economy, our industry, and the inevitable changes that are taking place. But, let’s look at the glass half full and get inspired to make the most of the situation, eh?

Listed below are 15 inspirational packages and sites for you to peruse. I have featured many of them in the past, but hopefully this collection will motivate you to get excited about your potential and what lies ahead …

The Columbus Dispatch: Death Perceptions
“Death Perceptions” examines the lives of 10 individuals who face death in their daily job, including a paramedic, surgeon, and highway patrol trooper. In addition, producer Victor Black utilized Ohio’s death certificate data from 1960-2006 to create a database of recent deaths, broken down by demographic statistics and cause of death. By using animation to display the results, these interactive graphics are extremely informative and engaging. According to a previous blog post by the producers, “The project’s theme and design didn’t call for a lot of color, so we felt animation during the display of the query-results helped make otherwise static information more dynamic.”

BBC News: Mapping UK’S Teen Murder Toll
“Mapping UK’s Teen Murder Toll” takes an in-depth look at teen murder rates by utilizing maps, a database, and graphics. The database contains not only pictures and demographic data of the victims, but also provides links to full stories about each incident. Users can search by name or location, or browse through all 80+ deaths. Although the graphics are not currently interactive, producer Christine Jeavans hinted that interactivity and more data visualization efforts will be included within a future update. Read more about the project here.

JSOnline: Wasted in Wisconsin
“Wasted in Wisconsin” is a 72-part series detailing the drinking epidemic in Wisconsin and what is being done to stop it. The “Sobering Reminders” map successfully integrates a database of victims with a map, allowing users to interact with 70+ victims’ profiles and stories. Producer Alison Sherwood also added maps, timelines, and other graphics to complement each written story. “Ideas for other interactive elements came from the many graphics in the series and the sheer amount of raw data that we had collected,” she previously blogged.

USA Today: The Smokestack Effect
“The Smokestack Effect” is the result of an EPA study which tracked the path of industrial pollution in relation to that of U.S. schools. In addition to allowing users to search for their school, an interactive map is also provided to display the schools at greatest risk in each state. A simple step graphic details how wind direction and multiple industries can create overlapping plumes, the dangerous byproduct that is affecting schools across the country. In this case, interactivity and data visualization played integral roles in communicating this important safety concern to USA Today readers.

LA Times: The Homicide Map
“The Homicide Map” was a valiant effort to integrate interactivity with a visual interface to accommodate the immense data in their homicide blog. Users can filtering their search by demographic information on the left, time period on the top, or by name on the right. Furthermore, navigational tools within the map as well as in the photo gallery make this package extremely interactive and engaging. Former editor of interactive technology Eric Ulken led this team of programmers to build this immense database, using AJAX for the UI and PHP for the underlying database app. “Since then, we’ve started doing more of our UI work in Flash (see Los Angeles Connections), and we’ve been playing with Django as a framework for building database apps (see California’s War Dead),” Ulken said.

Although I only highlighted five packages, there are hundreds of other inspirational examples of multimedia journalists taking storytelling to the next level by incorporating data visualization, map mashups, and interactivity into their online presentations.

Here is my “Top-10″ list of publications that I believe are doing the best multimedia out there. Check out their multimedia pages, listed below, for endless inspiration:

• Bombay Flying Club
• Los Angeles Times
• MediaStorm
• South Florida Sun-Sentinel
• St. Petersburg Times
• The Globe and Mail
• The New York Times
• The Roanoke Times
• The Washington Post
• Wisconsin State Journal

So, no more pouting about our dying industry. Spend some time getting inspired, then invest in technology to tell that story that was put on the back-burner. No time is a better time than today, folks!

Other posts that might interest you:

• BBC News uses data wisely in “Mapping UK’s Teen Murder Toll”
• JSOnline tackles Wisconsin’s drinking problem in an extensive interactive presentation
• Death Perceptions combines compelling storytelling with reinforcing data

© 12 April 2009 Innovative Interactivity (II).