Using multimedia (sound, motion, graphics) may more fully engage the brain and help bring data to life. For example, images from the National Institutes of Health show brain activity that relates to processing and speaking words when multimedia is used.
While advertisers have known about the effects of multimedia and made effective use of it, there is the potential for making empirical data more engaging. While it can be stated what the cost is of say pollution, it also needs to be conveyed in a visual way.
The New England Journal of Medicine is starting to realize the importance of animated data. For example, the journal has used animated data to show the shifting patterns of obesity in a community. There is also a publication — Journal of Visualized Experiments — now available that examines the use of video to convey data.
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