Design and technology showcased on Election Night
By Matt ScottIt’s finally here…Election Day! But it’s really Election Night, since besides the act of physically voting, there’s not a lot going on during the day as we all wait to start tracking the returns on TV and online. It’s always interesting to see how the news networks use design and technology to quickly and accurately present the results to viewers and site visitors.
During the primaries, CNN set the bar with the most interactive electoral maps, right down to John King selecting, with a few screen touches, individual precincts to check on results. We’ll see tonight how the other networks are ready.
The Wall Street Journal gives us a preview of some of the glitz that we will see tonight.
In a recent posting, David Weir, discusses our inability to concentrate on anything but the election today. And he comments on what I always thought was funny…when CNN has multiple experts all commenting on results as they look at their individual laptops – what, no iPhones or Blackberrys?
For many of us, we’ll probably have the TV on, but we’ll visit the same news networks online — I stay with the three “cable” networks (CNN, MSNBC, and Fox) — to have a bit more control over tracking the results that we’re most interested in.
But, if you prefer your news online:
MSNBC.com provides downloadable widgets
CNN.com allows you to select a few key races (“yourRaces”) you want to follow…the updated results will stay on your screen.
And all three — Foxnews.com, CNN.com, and MSNBC.com — have cool, interactive maps, of course.
Tags: web design, web development, widget
November 4th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I’m really into the InDecision2008 blog’s election map, with only the swing states in the shape of our country, and in “Electoral Map” you can actually change the electoral votes yourself! Brilliant! If only it were this fool-proof. http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/10/30/jon-stewart-and-stephen-colbert-to-join-forces-for-live-election-night-special/
November 10th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
The amount of visual data displayed at once (go Tufte!) was incredible – especially on the HD channels. Sure kept me watching!
I loved the CNN “drawers” of information, but I would much rather see a clear satellite feed of just someone’s face than that silly beam-me-up-Scotty “hologram” thang. That was just wasted technology – kind of like calling a video conference call “telepresence” so you can remarket existing technology that never took off…
November 10th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Edward Tufte must have been in heaven during this election! I really enjoyed a silly graphic from the NY Times magazine a couple of weeks ago (http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/11/02/magazine/02wwln-lede.graphic.ready.html). Such a full story in so few pixels!