“Data may not contain the answer. The coordination of some data and an aching desire for an answer will not ensure that a reasonable one can be extracted from a given body of data.” While Tukey (1915-2000)
In order to build a successful interactive data visualization, the graph should have these properties: the Novice User, Driving Processes, Data must tell a Story, Data Correlation, Prescriptions: “What should happen next?”
To verify those opinions I choose one of the most famous interactive data visualization introduced by Hans Rosling:
http://www.gapminder.org/tools/#_state_time_value=2015;&marker_select@;&opacitySelectDim=0.00;;&chart-type=bubbles
The Novice User: the interactive visualization is ordered by the time and country. it is very easy for novice user to play with, and obviously we can see overall the life expectancy is increasing. Also, the difference between countries and continent is showed clearly.
Driving Processes: The visualization use animation to show the audience how the population changes years from years.
Data Must Tell A Story: Hans Rosling even make a 4-minutes video for the story part. Pease check the reference.
Data Correlation: The user can immediately know not only of hot spots that require attention, but also effortlessly find trends based on the dynamic relationship.
Prescription: What should happen next?
Please see the youtube down below, there is an overall trend at the end of the video.
Reference:
Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes – The Joy of Stats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
Life expectancy vs Income
Five Key Properties of Interactive Data Visualization