Interactives
Interactive visuals can enable the viewer to examine and interrogate data in depth and detail in ways that are immediate and intuitive. An apparently simple picture can be used to enable comparisons, relationships and insights with a flick of a cursor. The physical interaction can develop an engagement that can't be achieved with a static diagram, spreadsheet or other forms of database. Here’s an example from our recent project about carbon majors. Below are other recent examples.
Carbon Majors interactive
The Carbon Majors report names the institutions responsible for extracting the oil, coal and gas that’s causing warming of the planet. Instead of allocating between countries, as has up to now been the case, any institution that produced more than eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide in any given year is identified in the study together with their cumulative contribution to the problem we all now face. This interactive allows you to explore the Carbon Majors data, but also shows the remaining atmospheric carbon budget available to have a reasonable chance of keeping average global warming below 2 degrees Celcius. Move the slider to see the rapidly diminishing global carbon budget.
2d ozone map
This interactive 2D map of the atmosphere allows users to explore the distribution of ozone for themselves. Each white spot represents 10 billion billion billion molecules of ozone. It allows for questions to be raised, such as 'what effect does ozone have on atmospheric temperature?' or 'why does ozone sit where it does in the atmosphere?'. The buttons turn elements of the map on and off, and you can drag the map to explore vertically.
3d ozone map
This 3D map of the ozone layer shows a 20 km x 20 km area of land (centered over the peak of Mount Everest) and all the air above it extending to an altitude of 100 km (the edge of space). Each floating particle represents 10 billion billion billion molecules of ozone. The region marked in orange indicates the ozone layer.
The Ozone Globe
This interactive and self-running globe displays current ozone distribution and also celebrates each country’s ratification of the Vienna Convention and implementation of the Montreal Protocol.
Resource indicators in Asia Pacific
We created an interactive web-tool to allow policymakers to explore the database of resource indicators from the Asia Pacific region in detail and in an intuitive way. There are 2 'views' to this interactive: a geographic map and a heatmap. These allow comparison between a wide range of economic indicators for different countries. Mousing over the countries reveals the actual data.