CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY 8

MODULE 6

THE 12 BEST TYPES OF INTERACTIVE CONTENT FOR HIGHER ENGAGEMENT:

INFOGRAPHICS, WIDGETS, & MORE

We’re living in a golden age of quality content. This means that consumers can afford
to be picky when it comes to deciding what content to pay attention to and what to
ignore. And among the best types of content for keeping them engaged are interactive
infographics. In a world where more than 7 in 10 consumers will only engage with your
marketing content when it’s personalized to them, interactive infographic design cuts
through the noise and speaks directly to them.
Just how effective can interactive content be? High-quality visual interactive content
boasts a 70% conversion rate. That far exceeds the typical conversion rate for any
other type of content.

Interactive content encourages interactions that keep your audience actively involved in
the story you’re telling. It encourages self-guided learning and user-driven discovery,
which empowers users to follow their interests and learn in the style that works best for
them. In comparison, video, motion graphics, and some other types of visual content
drive the story for the reader. That’s great if you want to guide them along a particular
journey. But when you have tons to share, interactive content can often make for a
more engaging, and ultimately more educational, solution. 
Just a few of the interactions it might encourage include: 
 Clickable elements
 Animated illustrations and graphs
 Tooltips 
 Buttons 
 Radio buttons and checkboxes
But these are just elements that can appear in any individual piece of interactive
content. So let’s take a look at 12 of the most popular types of interactive design —
from infographics to quizzes to widgets — that successful marketing campaigns deploy.

1. QU IZZ ES
Whole companies have been built up around the power of interactive content. Take
BuzzFeed as a prime example. Just one of its many wildly popular interactive quizzes
earned more than 40 million views. And for the vast majority of these quizzes, people
follow through to the end. Those are some impressive returns on your investment. 
Quizzes are engaging because they tell the user something about themselves. They
deliver results that feel personal and personalized. And they’re generous: a good quiz
doesn’t feel like it’s selling you something. Rather, it’s about communicating something
that’s meaningful to or engaging for the reader. 
If you’re worried that quizzes just aren’t useful in your industry, think again. Not all of
them have to answer that age-old question, “Which Disney villain should you be for
Halloween?” Quizzes can be relevant to any industry. They can boost engagement and
returns in any industry, as well. 
For instance, a quiz could help potential customers decide which one of your products is
right for them — or if your products are the right fit at all. They’ll appreciate the
personalized results. They’ll also feel more confident in their buying decision once they
reach the end of the quiz.

2. WIDGETS
Bite-sized widgets can be easily embedded on any website. Their job is to help users
interact in simple ways to reach a decision, make a calculation, or obtain other
personalized results. 
The hugely popular Domino’s Pizza Tracker, which helped reinvigorate the struggling
brand, is just one example of a widget offering personalized feedback. 
Take this interactive calculator widget for TurboTax as another example: 
Widgets offer an effective and versatile way of adding interactivity to any page. 

3. MAPS
If you’re sharing data from a variety of geographic locations, your audience probably
won’t be interested in reading through every data point you have to share. Rather,
they’re probably most interested in learning about the states or the countries where
they live or have other personal connections. 
So rather than making them scroll through an excessively long infographic to find the
information that’s relevant to them, consider an interactive map. Users can hover over
different locales to see key information. Alternately, they can click through to a
separate landing page with more relevant data.
This interactive map for The Solutions Project offers data both on hover-over and click-
through, so users can decide how deeply they want to explore each state. 

4. GAME S
The explosive popularity of Pokémon Go offers just one example of how gamification is
revolutionizing the way marketers reach their audiences. Gamification is now an
extremely popular marketing technique. And when it comes to using interactive games
to woo your customers, the options are truly endless. 
Whatever you do, ensure the game is fun enough to keep them playing. That means
keeping the sales messaging light or even non-existent. First, give them something they
love. Trust and confidence in your brand will come next. Only then can you make a
sale. 
5. GRAP HS & CHARTS
Have you ever seen a graph that was so packed with information it was hard to read?
Maybe every bar in a bar chart was labeled. Or maybe there were so many slivers on
the pie chart you couldn’t tell which was which. 
Data visualization can be extremely powerful. But the best interactive infographics only
show the minimum amount of information necessary to understand the graph — at
least at first. They then offer ways to interact with and understand the data
visualization on a deeper level. Perhaps when you hover over a bar you learn its exact
value. Or when you click on one slice of a pie chart, it grows larger, and more
information on that segment appears.
This way, your audience can gain as much or as little information as they want on any
given topic you cover. 

6. INTE RACTIVE INFOGRAPHICS & MICROSITE S

When you’ve got a lot of compelling information to share, a small widget just won’t do
the trick. And while a static infographic might seem like a fine choice, it doesn’t offer as
many options for categorizing and systematically revealing details, since users won’t be
able to click on and engage with different parts of the design in an interactive way. 
That’s why an interactive infographic or microsite might be the best choice for your
content design. You’ll be able to share a wealth of data and fascinating information
without worrying whether you’ll lose your audience’s attention. That’s why the Nuclear
Threat Initiative chose to make an interactive microsite when it was time to educate
world leaders on the importance of biosecurity.

(to be continued)

- END -
 CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY 8
Worksheet No. 6

QUESTIONS :

1 – 5 What are the elements that can appear in any individual piece of

interactive content ?

Identify the type of interactive content.

________________________ 6. If you’re sharing data from a variety of
geographic locations, your audience probably won’t be interested in reading
through every data point you have to share. Rather, they’re probably most
interested in learning about the states or the countries where they live or have
other personal connections.
________________________ 7. Gamification is now an extremely popular
marketing technique. And when it comes to using interactive games to woo your
customers, the options are truly endless. 
________________________ 8. Whole companies have been built up around
the power of interactive content. Take BuzzFeed as a prime example. Just one of
its many wildly popular interactive quizzes earned more than 40 million views.
________________________ 9. When you’ve got a lot of compelling
information to share, a small widget just won’t do the trick. And while a static
infographic might seem like a fine choice, it doesn’t offer as many options for
categorizing and systematically revealing details, since users won’t be able to
click on and engage with different parts of the design in an interactive way. 
__________________________10. Their job is to help users interact in simple
ways to reach a decision, make a calculation, or obtain other personalized
results.