Interactivity to the Rescue

Abstract

As the news moved from print to digital media, dynamic, interactive content was seen as a key ingredient to higher reader engagement. Now after a few years of experience we learn that the “interactivity wherever possible” approach is not necessarily the way to go. Studies suggest that readers often do not notice, or do not care too much about hover/click/discover features inside graphics or charts—especially if the implementation is ragged. In this chapter I want to summarise the current research on interactivity—especially in the news context, to show what practitioners say about standards and the usefulness of interactives, and finally offer some rules of thumb for when and when not to use interactives.