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We often spend time talking to organizations that initially believe developing one or more static infographics is the best approach. Many times, we discover that their objectives, narrative, existing content, and the profile of their target audience suggest we should be considering developing an interactive work product instead. As infographics become a more prevalent form of communication, we look ahead to other meaningful ways to impart information. This article serves as an introduction to interactive visualizations, with more detailed articles on the topic still to come. (more…)

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Data visualization has long been an important part of content distribution and interaction. As the Web evolves, its visual storytelling abilities continue to trend toward social, and so do the technologies that run alongside it.

In our latest technological data visualization project, we integrated the two in what we’re calling a Socially Generative Visualization, or SGV. An SGV is essentially a living, evolving graphic. Imagine a malleable infographic that you log into with your social credentials, contribute your own data to help populate alongside the data being gathered from other live respondents, and receive a visual experience that is essentially never the same twice. (more…)

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We’re excited to announce that our interactive, Ad Infinitum: Global Advertising Spend,  has been been chosen as a finalist for The Economist-Nielsen Data Visualization Challenge, offered through a partnership with InnoCentive, an organization that crowdsources innovation for challenges faced by organizations around the world. The competition was steep, with seven finalists leading the pack of hundreds of entrants. (more…)

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With a fun visual interactive idea in mind, we wanted to celebrate the fall here at Column Five headquarters by participating in No-Shave November and growing our facial hair for a worthy cause. Hurricane Sandy hit the eastern seaboard just as we ditched the razors. Soon, we learned that one of our own, Kirk, and his recent bride lost their home in the storm’s destruction. Forced to evacuate their NYC apartment as the hurricane rolled in, they returned to the city to find most of their belongings destroyed and their apartment uninhabitable. We knew we’d found our cause. (more…)

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As a “Hello World” project to get acquainted with the capabilities of processing.js, a JavaScript port of the Processing visualization language, we’ve developed an interactive cellular automata explorer. Before diving into the specifics of how the imagery is generated, we’ll present a little more background on cellular automata. (more…)

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The History Channel came to us hoping to explain the finer points of the new, modern version of jousting—Full Metal Jousting. Far from the medieval sport their audience might already be familiar with, this piece needed to have an ESPN-worthy look and feel to help bring legitimacy to the event. One of History’s chief concerns was that the distinction between medieval jousting and Full Metal Jousting was not completely understandable. They tasked us with clarifying the major differences between the two. (more…)

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The team here at Column Five is made up of some very special people. They come from all walks of life; they’re creative; and they work very hard. They’re also very interesting. One staff member a week will be profiled on our blog, from our oldest project manager to our newest designer, to introduce the people behind the infographics.

Brian Wolford
Hometown: Irvine, CA
Project Manager
Started May 5, 2010 (more…)

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The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation have been tracking economic freedom around the world for over a decade, using the Index of Economic Freedom, and have created 10 benchmarks for which to gauge a countries economic success — from property rights to entrepreneurship — in 184 countries.

The map was rendered using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) to allow for maximum compatibility with modern browsers and internet devices. This method was chosen with the increasing popularity of mobile browsing on tech gadgets like iPhones and iPads in mind (and necessary since Apple does not support Flash).

The map was created using D3.js. D3 is an advanced JavaScript library for creating visual representations of large datasets (data can be displayed graphically in a way that is quicker, more responsive and more interactive). D3 assists in the creation and manipulation of SVG documents, which means that the user experience becomes more dynamic. As the data changes and/or a user interacts with the page, the way the data is represented dynamically alters.

The flexibility of this technology allows the user to easily navigate through complex datasets, drilling down to the most relevant data points and filtering out anything not immediately relevant.

See the entire interactive on our site here, or view it on The Heritage Foundation site here.

via: The Heritage Foundation

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