Election Night Graphics! Storytelling on Speed!

I’m dizzy. It was abundantly clear that the networks had worked overtime to find ways of telling the incoming results stories clearly and succinctly. But I have to say, it felt more like living in a pinball machine. My eyes were frantically darting around to find context and meaning in under a second. Georgia results. No, wait, it’s one county in Georgia. What is that 54%? is it blue or red? No – it’s percentage of votes in so far. No, wait – it’s percentage of same-day votes – over there in that yellow bar graph. The grey in the bar graph means …. what? The screen is quietly wiped and I realize I am nowlooking at total national numbers. But wait – it’s with only 7% of votes counted. Trump is up. Next slide Biden is up. Oh, it’s a new state.

Okay – hats off to them for trying. Our ability to respond to graphics and layout and color was s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d. Add the music – that bit that lets you know that a major announcement was imminent – and my stomach flipped over and over again.

Wine didn’t help.