Visual Journalism for your ears in New York Times

This olympic graphic isn’t making much visually fuzz about itself. Some lines, some dots and the icon of the event. all nice, – but look, there is a subdued play-button as well. And the headline promises us an Olympic musical? (The url promises a symphony, which I think it’s more correct).

Well then – hit the play button, and now you can hear just how close the athletes is finishing in some of the tight events in the Olympics. Each dot gives out a tone …

Surprisingly this simple added sound-element made me click most of the play-buttons. I wanted to play and hear the tones, even if – to be honest – they sound a bit alike. Or maybe I just need to develop my auditory senses a bit to truly acknowledge this.

This idea will be copied all over the place
I’ll maintain however, that the Olympic musical needs more than one tone, if I’m going to appreciate and play with the idea the next time I see it. As it stands I’ll compare this one-piano-tone to a straight vector in black and white, and as you’ll know I prefer the 3D full-colour-version of my graphics. The idea is really good, and it will be successful and copied all over the place now. Congrats to Amazing Amanda (Cox) for coming up with this groundbreaking one.