Normally numbers don’t do anything for me. Numbers don’t explain clearly — they confuse, and distort and complicate. That’s why I like words. But when numbers are personalized and shown visually, it’s like they’re transformed from abstract values to sentences and paragraphs.
Data for your area
The Washington Post’s Top Secret America uses lots of numbers to illustrate the growth of counterterrorism organizations since the Sept. 11 attacks. But the Post goes a step further to make the data significant — the interactive map shows data specific to the user and his or her location.
Screenshot of Top Secret America
The interactive graphic shows how counterterrorism organizations increased after the Sept. 11 attacks — there are now nearly 4,000 organizations in the U.S. There is a two-minute video that starts playing when the site first loads and viewers can choose to watch or skip the introductory video. The map is a more hands-on approach to information than a text article or video. It allows users to interact with the data.
Viewers can type in their city or zip code and find counterterrorism organizations in their area. They can choose what information will be displayed by choosing organizations pre-9/11 or post-9/11, the jurisdiction — federal, state or local — and the type of organization — law enforcement, emergency management, homeland security, counterterrorism (Joint Terrorism Task Force) and intel.
The interactive map shows where counterterrorism organizations are with a colored circle. If you click the circle, the counterterrorism organizations in that specific zip code come up in the map and the number of these organizations that are new since 9/11 in that zip code.
The number of total counterterrorism offices by state is shown in a bar graph at the bottom of the map. This further explains the data through visuals. Viewers can easily see California has the most offices — 359. They can see how their state compares to the others.
Allowing users to view data sets specific to their location is an important technique. It personalizes data for users and makes it significant — it gives data meaning. Viewers are more interested in what happens and exists around where they live. They don’t care as much about counterterrorism organizations in Michigan if they live in Alaska, but they might be interested to know there are several organizations in their city — it may give them a sense of security. Giving this option is very important for viewers.
This information might be interesting to law enforcement, reporters and everyday citizens because people are more interested in what happens around their home. The map can show only organizations around a user’s home or workplace. This intense personalization mirrors social media websites.
Comparing neighborhoods through visuals
Screenshot of infographic
I’m returning to the Los Angeles Times multimedia project called Mapping L.A. to further explain the impressive interactivity. The project provides crime analysis by neighborhood with graphs, maps and tables of information — lots of numbers. Viewers could easily get lost and bogged down with all this information.
But the Los Angeles Times helps viewers understand the data by employing important techniques to make the data meaningful:
- personalizing the information — like the Post’s interactive map, users can search their neighborhood or an L.A. county address to find crime in their area
- breaking down crime into categories — violent or property
- different types of graphics, like a timeline of crimes listed by date
The project is very inclusive — all for the benefit of the viewer and perhaps in an attempt to prevent crime. Crimes are also listed out by location, type and date and time and information for the police agency that covers the neighborhood is also provided.
By looking at this interactive graphic, at the times and locations that crimes occur, people might change their habits if, for example, they walk around neighborhoods at night and see crimes occur more often at night.
Viewers can also see trends of crime with this infographic — if crime has increased or decreased in the last few years and in what neighborhoods. And the categories allow viewers to focus on violent or property crime, so they can see if a specific type of crime is prevalent in their neighborhood versus others. This may affect where people choose to live or buy a home.
Breaking down numbers and showing them through representations, graphics and maps is a more effective way of showing data. Both the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post succeed in interactive projects that inform viewers.