interactive visualizations of election results

November 05, 2008

Like many folks in America, I watched the election results stream in through television and Internet sources. The television cnn experience was fabulous in a cheesy, over-the-top kind of way that we’ve come to expect of our tv news. I thought the hourglass display of exit poll survey data was very nice and I wish they had posted it on the web. On the Web, I liked the dailykos interactive map for pure usability (easy to read graph of electoral votes and the ability to zoom into each state to see results per county). However, the visual design of the NYTimes was, as usual, quite lovely: readable with clear navigation (also with the zoom in county results feature).

Each of the sites I looked at was well done. The production values were high and I can imagine what kind of prep went in making these interactive visualizations happen. I was dismayed to see no credits to the individuals who created these pieces. Every photo in the New York Times has a credit, why not the information graphics and interactive charts? If anyone knows the stories behind these, please let me know. I’m very interested in the people who made them and the stories behind the work, whether it be the design process or the data feeds. With any luck, some of these folk are bloggers.

Daily Kos (click for full size images):

clicking on a state would zoom into election results per county:

NYTimes

CNN

CBS News