The Corona pandemic touched all of our lives – a fact that the New York Times (NYT) article “How America Lost One Million People” touchingly reminds us of. We have chosen it as our first Visualization of the Month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One million is a number that humans can barely grasp in terms of its size. This is precisely where one of the challenges for information design in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic arises: How can large numbers be visualized in a comprehensible way? Moreover, in this case, this large number of deaths additionally includes the impact that each individual case had on the lives of their loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NYT project rises to the challenge. A team of graphic editors and journalists makes this impact tangible in an impressive way by depicting each death as a small, black dot. This visual principle succeeds in enabling readers to grasp the sheer number of people involved. This is supported by the predominant black and white color scheme, which symbolizes death, loss, and finality. Thus, already at first glance, the seriousness and negativity of the topic dealt with becomes quite clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While reading and individually scrolling through the article, the number of black dots increases. Eventually, they fill almost the entire screen, which gets darker and darker with each additional dot. Through this connection between the active scrolling and the animation of the website, users can control the speed of movement. This control and direct response to their own actions further enrich the user experience of the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the article continues, the dots fill in the space below the well known curve of COVID infections and mortalities. Thus, they give meaning to this otherwise abstract and disembodied graph. Then the dots spread out to draw a map of the United States and its urban centers where the cases cluster. This very powerfully makes tangible both the local and national effects of the pandemic. In particular, the transition between diagram and map creates a visual metaphor of ash and ghostly appearances that support the main theme at the animation level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n