The social share function produce an image that is customised to your query

Really well-executed explorable explanation

Part of a growing trend of reader response stories, aka online vox pops

The circle timeline showing the difference between organiser and police estimate of crowd sizes are a really nice touch.

Both a really good guide and a really good example of how to design a guide

Nice use of audio in a scrolly-telling story.

Nice use of interactivity for personalisation

Sometimes, being really literal in your visual language works. I also liked the social feedback showing x% of readers making the same choice

Some really interesting and thought-provoking experiments in alternative formats

This is the first time that the FT has used poetry as a journalistic tool - to convey an emotional truth about the Irish border

Cartoon + Explainer = Cartoonxplainers

Excellent write up of a project exploring alternative formats for news. Well worth reading.

A really good visual explainer. I particularlly like how the first paragraph introduces visual elements that reappear and are expanded upon later

An excellent survey and defence of the interactivity in storytelling by Elliot Bentley

Documentation and material like this workbook are key to setting out and improving processes

Smart and simple use of branching narratives. The fact that it is an op-ed piece allows it to get around the issue of hypothetical situations.

A good piece of data journalism that using natural language processing

This piece builds wonderfully on Nicky Case's explorable explanations and Bret Victor's ladder of abstraction

This is an excellent talk filled with practical tips about design and storytelling

Giant. Cockroach. Illustrations.

Rule number one of interacting with new audiences: Surprise first, then inform

Interesting use of the list format to present this information

A really interesting mixture of scrollytelling, ambient drone video, and traditional layout

A nice example of using 3D data visualisation to explain complex findings in microbiology and immunology

I couldn't agree more with the sentiments expressed in this piece. In particular, the need for design that 'slows down the reader, engage her more deeply, encourage her to lean back and absorb.'

I'm particularly impressed by the use of the legend to set up expectation that there should have been some action taken.

Nice use of small multiples to do a survey-the-experts story

A great reference list of visual stories for inspiration

An ambitious and well-produced news game from Bloomberg.

Really thoughtful, minimalist layout makes this really easy to read.

Shows the value of compiling a new data set. Also, a really evocative opening.

A good example of using interactivity and exploration to show, not tell. Also a masterclass in establishing repeatable patterns to go from simple to complex examples.

Annotating a chart to add context and explanation is the best way to make it tell a story. Annotations on video are just as effective.

A masterclass in narrative pacing when it comes to visual digital storytelling.

A good example of using rhetorical scroll to make a point about just how often Trump has lied.

This feels like a missed opportunity to me. The quiz format is an emotionally powerful way to get readers into the story, but is framed around the premise that they want to become Facebook moderators. It could have instead been used to prompt discussion or to learn more about why the rules are as they are.

A very good example of an 'explorable' visualisation. The rotated scatter plot is particularly genius

On mobile phone screens, horizontal space is a scarce commodity, but vertical space is near infinite

I find poll trackers to be interesting case studies in what can and cannot be made into a template.

Bloat is something that doesn't leave room. You're not leaving room for other people. You're not leaving room for creativity. You're not leaving room for wonderful things to happen, because they happen in the gaps between stuff. They happen when things are easier to do.

This essay by Lisa Charlotte Rost explores the tension between getting information across quickly in data visualisations, and the need to first make a reader curious about the information being conveyed.

A good example of what Maarten Lambrechts is calling explorables. I particularly like how it is made up of a series of small simulations that follow the same design pattern.

Very nice integration of charts and text, especially the opening headline and icons combo.

The opening visualisation is masterful because it simultaneously does two things well — it tells the overall story at a quick glance, and also rewards closer examination to reveal the different impact on based on age and geography

Rosling generated broad public interest in his charts by adding information, not taking it away or dumbing it down

A good round-up of Trump staffing trackers made by different news orgs. It highlights how many design decisions have to be made even for something seemingly simple, and how this can give rise to different approaches in solving the same problem.

What makes interactivity work here? Personalisation creates relevance, plus satisfying feedback when you see what the real answer is as well as how you compared to others

Masterclass on how to use interactivity to explain complex issues. Of particular note is the use of repeated UI patterns to teach people how to use the simulator.

A news-game for the US election.

Liked: Its semiotics (what it reminds people of). The mini game dodging election monitors link the mechanics to the message. How it highlights some of the more egregious voter suppression tactics.

Disliked: The predictabiility of the outcome of the choices mean that they don't feel as meaningful. The fact that the 'Oregan Trail'-type resources are merely cosmetic and not part of the game mechanics.

This piece shows what can be done when the author is aware of the possibilities and constraints of the medium, and not just responsible for the text of the article

This is the best recent example of integrated multimedia storytelling. Besides seeing how far we have progressed technically since Snowfall in 2012, it is also instructive to note the evolution in mindset and team organisation needed to make this.

Innovative and effective storytelling. The simplicity of the presentation masks a lot of technical complexity needed to pull it off.

Should we design stories that are responsive to different screen sizes and platforms?
Yes

Should we design stories optimised to particular settings, to the extent that they convey their central message only when viewed in a certain way?
Yes

There's nothing flashy in here. The interactivity doesn't call attention to itself, and yet it does something that simply could not be done without interactivity. A really well-designed piece.

Rhetorical scrolling is the technique of using scrolling to help readers better grasp large numbers. The xkcd example works well because the large number (length of time since 20,000BC) is used as contrast to make a point about how fast temperature has risen recently. The BBC example works less well for two reasons. There's no corresponding point being made, and the scale varies so scrolling actually distorts the reader's understanding of the large number (i.e. distance to the centre of the earth)

Bells and whistles galore

A really great example of how to help the reader switch contexts between text / photos / charts

Having your brain switch between processing text and processing images requires a big cognitive load. More so if the change is abrupt/jarring. This is a good counter-example of what not to do.

Xenographphboia: a fear of unusual graphics (and how to cure it)

An excellent example of how to use animation (and yes, GIFs) to explain complex processes

Note how there can be different variations on the same theme

What it takes to really understand what your users want

This only took half a day to make

Useful piece on some of the decisions that have to be made when using maps for data visualisation

How to create a strong emotional impact with just a 3D model and some flashing lights

How to explain a data set by taking someone through from simple to gradually more complex charts

Shows what you can do with a timeline if you use it to tell a story instead of just marking events. Also note the manpower involved in making this.

First iteration of the FT's in-hous solution for making interactive quizzes

A good example of a story that can't be done without code. Also, the value of showing something directly rather than telling people about it

Bugs!

In case you ever wanted to geek about about the scientific evidence on how humans perceive graphics

Judge graphics the same way you judge stories written in prose. Why was this good? Clarity, conciseness and gives context

Why there's no magic to any of this and no one can give you the answers

Compare and contrast the two approaches (Scroll down to about halfway on the FiveThirtyEight story to the 'Stephen Curry is one of the best' chart). The LA Times one is clearly more detailed and prettier (and interactive!). But the other tells you more.

A story woven from 4 years' worth of police arrest transcripts: A masterclass in how to tell a human story about the aggregate of all the records instead of individual arrest stories

A great example of what interactivity is particularly good for

A creative, visual way of drawing a reader into an audio story

Data journalism started way before you think it did. Scott Klein's newsletter showcases early newspaper examples

What it takes: a lot more thought was put into what it was good for, rather than technically how to do it

FT effort at visual storytelling for long-form, investigative journalism

Useful tips on how to use charts to tell a story

Note the headline. This is a weather chart, but the headline makes explicit the reason why you would want to look at this. It makes you a promise that the interactive then delivers on

The biggest new experiment in how to deliver and present the news to mobile users

Note the reason why a map was used in this case: because the geography was important to highlight the correlation between nuisance abatement cases and minority neighbourhoods.
Note too how a map was not used in the table about the judges further down, despite geographical information about which district the judges were in.

Works great on mobile. Notice the (very small) amount of text