Interactive Graphics: Recipe For Success

A designer with USA Today has revealed the secrets behind its successful interactive political feature.

Juan Thomassie told Poynter Online about the process behind putting together USA Today’s Candidate Match Game.

The interactive graphic enables users to see how their opinions on key issues match up with the declared views of the future presidential candidates.

And this month saw the website launch Candidate Match Game II – where the field has been whittled down to an Obama-McCain head-to-head.

The original game has attracted some 2.5 million unique users since it launched in September 2007.

According to Thomassie, the success of the feature is down to three elements:

1 Design

2 Content

3 Development

The designer said that the content side requires the most effective teamwork and communication.

And it’s the feature’s development which is the crucial ingredient for a successful online interactive game, asserted Thomassie.

He stated: “Each piece of the equation in interactivity requires some level of programming and familiarity with dynamic content, often dealing with databases and queries and presentation of the data.”

“Interactivity takes more and more skills, more teamwork and more people involved to bring all of those skills into the project,” noted Thomassie.

He concluded: “If someone comes to the page, interacts with the graphic, spends time digging for more content - spending at least 5 or 6 minutes on a page - it’s worth it.”