Tips for creating stunning interactive infographics. The best examples of using interactive infographics on landing pages This is not science fiction

Over the past few years, infographics have evolved from static images to rich, interactive experiences with animation and video elements tailored to unique content. It is no longer limited to pre-made, one-size-fits-all templates. And today's selection contains the best examples of infographics that demonstrate what an interesting and informative experience looks like.

Most of the infographics in this list were chosen to show various ways, with which designers approach data visualization. However, there are also a few “hybrids” here that illustrate the blurring of the lines between infographics and rich media experiences when creating engaging content and compelling stories on landing pages. Deviation from traditional forms means we are entering more complex media territory, and it is this kind of experimentation with technology and storytelling that will be critical to shaping the future graphic design.

1. Wind map

The Wind Map is a breathtaking piece of design that shows wind direction and speed over the United States. This design has an artistic rather than a utilitarian purpose, and this is wonderful: it is very pleasant to just sit and watch how the thin, thin threads wind across the map. A simple but well-thought-out example of how infographics showing shape trajectories benefit from animation and moving images.

2. In flight

In 2014, The Guardian launched an infographic called In Flight, which showed real-time data on commercial flights (it doesn't seem to be updated anymore, which is a shame) and also included a lesson on the history of aviation. The hushed conversations between air crews at the start of the interactive show create a special atmosphere. It seems like infographics are slowly turning into cinematic experiences these days. At least "In Flight" points in that direction...

3. Dial Moon

There's not a lot going on in the Dial A Moon infographic, but it serves its purpose pretty well. In 2015, thanks to NASA, infographics of the lunar phases were updated every hour, and there was no need to go to Google in search of this mysterious information. Now you can view pictures by manually entering the month, day and time.

4. Day with Pluto

Nature magazine publishes a lot of interesting infographics for its science-interested audience. Among them was one about the famous spacecraft flyby near Pluto (24 Hours Of Pluto). The infographic included a lot of text information, but the visuals made it easy to understand the highlights, from the structure of a dwarf planet to the process by which its moons formed. The text part is now available on the Internet, as well as two animated videos from the infographic.

5. How American houses have changed

Take a journey through the great American Dream as reflected through the evolution of home styles. This well-illustrated infographic lets you get behind the wheel of a car (also changing as you scroll to keep up with the era) and navigate your way from the 1900s to the 2000s, passing buildings that were popular during individual decades. Along the way, you'll encounter a wealth of useful material (including the socio-political conditions of the time, as well as fashion trends), and it all ends with a question that challenges you to imagine the future of the American home. The Decades Of American Homes infographic is a great example of horizontal scrolling, and it comes in handy here.

6. The evolution of marketing analytics

In its Evolution of Insight infographic, user intelligence company Vision Critical tracks the development of the marketing technology market around the world from the 1890s to the present day. It functions similarly to the How American Homes Have Changed infographic, and thus allows you to compare the effectiveness of using an interactive timeline for two very different stories. The Decades Of American Homes infographic has the benefit of seeing homes as you drive along, which is much more intuitive than traveling through the Great American Analytics. Good infographics are created around the content, not around it.

7. LGBT rights around the world

The Guardian grabs another spot on our list with this nifty infographic explaining the legal landscape of LGBT rights across a range of issues (marriage, workplace discrimination, hate crimes, etc.) in every state in the world. Moving around the semicircle provides a quick and easy way to compare statistics between different countries, and the infographic composition keeps the global status front and center. There is also a powerful call to action here, aiming to bridge the gap between awareness and activism.

8. Inequality is fixable.

Another great example of an interactive infographic, Inequality Is Fixable, invites the audience to dive into an issue while making it deeply personal. The viewer is guaranteed to remain interested in material that tells him or her how much his/her boss is underpaying and why. By making the user part of the story, developers pique curiosity and guide the user through all the necessary steps right to the Call-To-Action at the end.

“We let it happen—how can we fix it now?”

9. Draw for yourself: How family income predicts a child's chances of going to college

Many of the infographics on this list use animation and interactivity to provide a rich experience. Visually, this infographic from the New York Times (You Draw It: How Family Income Predicts Children's College Chances) adheres to the classic chart format, but it also uses understanding of user behavior to expand the scope of infographic design, namely the technique of proactive and interactive visualization. By asking readers to draw their own curve, they introduce an element of self-interest and thus provide people with truly valuable information.

Not the worst result! The vertical axis is the percentage of children who went to college. Horizontal axis: parental income percentile

10. How Americans Die

With the exception of the title image, this example uses mostly just plain old charts to visualize the content. But this is not at all boring, since users can independently navigate through the data by moving the cursor along the graphs. This makes it much easier to compare, for example, the number of suicide-related deaths in the 70s compared to now (hint: it's on the rise now), something a static chart wouldn't do as neatly.

11.

Since Snowfall debuted to widespread attention and praise, The New York Times has maintained its reputation for excellence in multimedia journalism. The publication team uses a combination of infographic design and in-depth storytelling to create an impressively engaging experience. They have more striking examples, but The Russia Left Behind is a work that has caused a certain resonance. The infographic functions as an interactive tour of Russia (you navigate your way on a map).

12. Bond's cars

If you ever want to experience the history of James Bond by looking at his cars, then thank British car dealer Evans Halshaw for giving you the chance. His interactive Bond Cars infographic lets you explore the make and design of each of Bond's cars, plus gives you a few extra interesting facts. Using the ubiquitous slider tactic, you can also "reveal" the car in all its metallic glory (only a single-color design is given by default). This is how the authors creatively solved the problem of the need to include photographs that do not quite fit the aesthetics of the infographic.

13. Colors of movement

The Colors Of Motion is an infographic series that analyzes films based solely on their color palette, derived from combining all the frames. If you've ever wondered, now you have the answer. Can't find a title in the database? Just send the developers a message - they accept requests.

14. Royal tomb in Peru

National Geographic has a pretty impressive collection of what they call "interactive graphics" (most of which are accompanied by detailed text descriptions, such as Trajan's Column), but we've chosen this relatively simple example to highlight the uses techniques are really effective in interactive infographics. “Peru’s Royal Wari Tomb” reveals the peculiarities of the burial of a noblewoman of those times. The focus moves from the mummy's wrappings to its decorations and position. By dividing information into small pieces and allowing the user to navigate between them, interactive graphics avoid the most insidious pitfalls: data overload and visual effects. Moreover, each subsequent interaction enhances the experience, making it much more rewarding than if everything were presented at once. Our brain has a mechanism that rejects overwhelming stimuli, and this type interaction becomes an excellent solution for the user, making it easy to absorb information.

15. What is the “Scottish Referendum”? Explanation for non-British people

The Guardian, like the New York Times, is committed to multimedia journalism, and their video does a great job of one of the main functions of infographics: putting cumbersome information into manageable form. For many of us living outside the UK, the referendum is a very confusing topic. Luckily, this video (Scottish Referendum Explained For Non-Brits) will help you quickly learn about the important aspects without requiring you to dive deep into the history.

16. Public health

The Atlantic's mission was to develop a vision for improving public health. It commissioned Truth Labs to develop a 3-part series on “Population Health” into digital storytelling. The artist's main goal was to preserve the natural scrolling of the document and the user's normal reading experience, while creating an experience that differs from a visual perspective. To bring it to life, they borrowed tools and strategies from film, but also relied on a set of design principles to support readability as a key rule.

17. Joho’s grains

Austrian coffee producer Joho's has created an immersive multimedia experience, Joho's Bean, to tell the story of the origins of the coffee bean. The narrative seamlessly combines audio, video and photography to engage almost all of the user's senses. As you follow a farmer through a coffee plantation, you hear , the sound of birds chirping, the sound of roasted coffee beans being packed in bags, and the sound of busy streets and traffic in the city. Total immersion!

Joho's takes you on a journey explaining the origins of their coffee beans

18. Pristine road

The Wild Path is an interactive travelogue experience created using Canvas. The main element is the map, which animates the path on the map as you scroll the page. The project may not work in all browsers. But it comes with an accompanying article that explains all the behind-the-scenes technologies for creating infographics.

19.

The Guardian's coverage of the 2016 US presidential election (Live Election Results) brought a fun element to the serious business of poll numbers and polling stations. An interactive infographic tracked votes in four states. By default, the graph showed results for the entire country, and if the user hovered over an area on the map, it showed which numbers the candidates scored there. Presidential candidates were presented as funny pixelated avatars. As the infographic was updated in real time, the people colored in the states they won. From time to time, a quote would appear in a bubble next to the candidate.

Reflection of election results in real time

The future of data visualization is interactive.

But how do you create truly amazing interactive infographics?

Infographics are everywhere, and lately it is increasingly becoming interactive.

In today's article we will share with you the secrets of creating interactive infographics, as well as links to useful resources.

1. Understand psychology

Before you make an infographic interactive, it's important to understand why you want to make it interactive.

As detailed in this infographic, people perceive visual information better. We are much more likely to read, understand and remember a presentation if it has engaging visuals. is effective tool training, but it can become even better.

Kinetic learning is a great alternative because people learn better through physical activities.

That's why adding interactivity to promising area visualization will help you create even more memorable and effective infographics.

This combination of visual and kinetic approach makes animated infographics the content of the future. Of course, for some themes it is better not to use interactive elements, but in most cases they will only improve the content.

Movement adds meaning to information, allows the user to control the experience, and engages the imagination in a way that static infographics cannot.

2. Add scrolling effects

Chip virtual reality is that to others you will look like an idiot

Google's Cardboard Design Lab is a good "tutorial" for beginning virtual reality designers

Infographics - like an adventure game

The problem with Unity is that it's not so easy to make a good thing for the web.

Virtual reality is like headphones for your eyes

Virtual reality requires a safe environment; you cannot go into it “on the go”. This limits what VR can do

Closed the session in the first half of the day Archie Tse from The New York Times with the provocative topic “Why the NYT is doing less interactive work.”

NYT's work is based on three rules of visual storytelling:

1. If the reader needs to click instead of scroll, then something out of the ordinary must happen.
2. Assume that tooltips and any other hover effects will never be seen by anyone. If the content is important, make sure the reader sees it right away.
3. If you want to make something interactive, remember that it will be expensive to make it work on all platforms.

You will have to redraw your graphics 2 or 3 times to make it work on both desktop and mobile

How these rules changed the NYT's approach:

1. Most visualizations are now static
2. There are more texts
3. If movement in the picture is needed, it appears during scrolling

(The fourth point states that they still do interactive work. But now the reason must be VERY meaningful).

We did “multi-steps”. Users stopped at step 3. Readers just want to scroll, not click

Archie Tse: Scrolling Vs. clicking

For the past 18 weeks, every Sunday evening Andy Kriebel has been posting the infographic and the data it's based on on VizWiz. The task is to set aside about an hour of time on Monday, quickly analyze the visualization and make your own version.

Below we publish the results of last week - Slavery in the 21st century.

#MakeoverMonday by Andy Kriebel. Detailed description and interactive - on Andy's blog:

#MakeoverMonday by Andy Cotgreave. Detailed description and interactive - on Andy's blog:

I also learned that 51% of people in the world are younger than me, and 63% in Russia are older, and that my chances of dying right now are not that great. The numbers suddenly stopped being “statistics” and struck a chord with me.

Data visualization - uses large data sets with less manual design work; based on algorithms. For example, the interactive work of the New York Times.

Visual art - unidirectional coding. Beautiful but difficult to decipher visualizations, such as the computational art of Kunal Anand.

What's the problem?

As a result, many works attract only sophisticated users, but do not allow uninitiated readers to understand the essence of the issue, thereby defeating the purpose of visualization - to inform the public. This is why it is so important to recognize and understand the problem of visual literacy in the context of visualization.

A new “visual grammar” of journalism

Here are three works that experiment with ways of presenting interactive journalism. They look impressive, but their interpretation can be a difficult task for many.

Gay rights in the US, state by state

The number of data sources and tools for processing them available today clearly shows that never before have so many people tried to get used to the world of data visualization. And when there is such a number of materials available for study, there is only one question "Where to start?" can be intimidating for every newbie. So, which libraries are the best and what do the professionals recommend? This will be discussed in this article.

Talking about data visualization and not mentioning it is the same as talking about the history of creation personal computers and not say a word about Steve Jobs. D3 (Data Driven Documents) is, without exaggeration, the most important and market-dominant open source JavaScript library that is commonly used for creating SVG graphics. SVG (from the English Scalable Vector Graphics) is, in turn, a format vector image, supported by web browsers but previously little used.

The D3 library owes much of its popularity to the sudden interest in SVG among web designers, which is largely due to how well vector graphics look on high-resolution screens (particularly the Retina displays used in Apple devices), which are becoming more and more common.

“Let’s be honest, if the problem is SVG-based data visualization, then all the other libraries are not even close to solving it,” says Moritz Stefaner, an independent data visualization expert and company owner Truth & Beauty. "There are also quite a few interesting projects, created on the basis of D3, such as NVD3, which provides standard graphics components - ready to use, but customizable; or let's say Crossfilter is simply an outstanding data filtering tool.”

Scott Murray, programmer designer and book author Interactive Data Visualization for the Web, agrees with the previous opinion: “D3 is extremely powerful because it takes advantage of everything browsers have to offer. Although it also has reverse side: If the browser does not support something, for example, 3D images based on WebGL (from the English Web Graphics Library), then D3 will not support it."

And although this library is truly universal, it is still not ideal solution for any task. “The main drawback of the D3 library, so to speak, is that it does not prescribe or even suggest any particular approach to visualization,” adds Scott Murray. “So it's really a tool for loading data into the browser and then generating DOM components based on that data.”

While D3 is a great tool for custom images, if you want to create a standard graph without much work on the visual aspect, then you might find a tool like Vega. As a framework developed on top of D3, Vega provides an alternative for displaying graphics components. Using Vega, you can visualize data in JSON format European Journalism Center and Data Driven Journalism project. The exact dates of the course are not yet known, but you can register now.

In five days, course participants will be able to learn what data journalism is, how it works, and what key skills they should master to become a specialist in this field. Figure out where to look for data to support your stories and how to find new ideas in existing data. Learn the art of turning boring data into a compelling story, infographic, or even an interactive visualization. Get acquainted with the basic principles of graphic design that a journalist needs to know.

The course instructors are five of the world's leading experts in data journalism and visualization.