Creating interactivity

At its best, a static visualization is like a powerful photograph—a carefully conceived, arranged, and executed vision that manages to portray the sequence or motion of a story without the actual deployment of movement. In my humble opinion, delivering such an immersive experience through static design is the most elegant demonstration of data visualization.

That said, enhancements in technology over the past decade have created incredible opportunities for talented developers to construct powerful interactive visualizations. From the rapid diffusion of fast access to the Web, the development of advanced software, and programming environments, through to the immediate access to millions of live data records and the range of responsive platforms on which we can now access information, the richness of potential interactivity can lead to some incredible work.

We are currently witnessing a generation of outstanding interactive visualization projects, representing a paradigm...