A beautiful way to capture ugly data.
Sheila Crosby / Interaction Design
Source: New York Times http://tinyurl.com/nfc38d
One of the challenges we face with our clients is how to visualize large data sets. Today, NY Times published an interactive map capturing homicides in New York City from 2003 to 2009. Subject matter aside, this is a beautiful presentation of the information. The layout is clean, simple and easy to navigate. It encourages exploration by using the familiar Google way to navigate a map.
The reader gets the good news at a glance. Homicides in New York have dropped from 597 to 162. The presentation of the data enables the reader to sort by a variety of specific measurements, i.e. month of incident, information on both the victim and the perpetrator, age of the individuals involved, etc. The map features exactly where the homicide takes place, allowing the reader to see where large pockets of activity have taken place. The design enables the reader to dynamically update the map according to year and even offers the feature of entering in a specific zip code.
I learned a lot about a subject matter that I normally wouldn’t have spent a great deal of time researching. In a perfect world, this would be a map showing the reader where to buy chocolate.
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