This blog presents visual information in pedagogical contexts; considering how information is presented in visual form and how we can learn from these presentations.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Time Magazine visual graphics on historical topics

For the last six years, Time Magazine has presented graphical representations of information on their magazine website. With a current catalog of 180 graphics, the Time collection is an interesting study in the evolution of web graphics.

The earliest of these graphics titled, "The Shuttle's Triumph and Tragedy," is simply a five panel time line presentation, with each panel containing an image and chronologically arranged summary information about the Space Shuttle Columbia.



the next four graphics were focused on the War in Iraq, a trend in military content that has continued to this day.

This graphic from 2004 is also a time line, but is interestingly static. Although the information is arrayed nicely on the time line, the graphic lacks an interactivity, something we may now come to expect from online graphic.



This 2005 graphic on the Civil War military leadership in the Union Army featured an enhanced level of interactivity across four screens and within screens on roll-over effects and pop-up graphics.




Two Time graphics attempt to represent historical spaces in Monticello and Jamestown.








A more recent 2009 graphic on FDR's war-related actions is decidedly flat in terms of information array and intereactivity. Hopefully, this will not prove to be a new trend at Time.



..

Followers

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Map