Best practices for designing effective interactive documents

The goal of most interactive documents is to magnify specific points of data, making them easy for users to identify. To achieve this goal effectively, you must make certain decisions before you begin creating your document.

The best practices are grouped into the following sections:

• Choosing datasets for an interactive document

• Layering information in an interactive document

• Planning an interactive document's outline and structure

• Placing data and visualizations onto an interactive document

• Positioning and formatting document objects

For information on the objects that allow you to implement these objectives, see the following sections:

• Layering data in interactive documents: Panels and panel stacks

• Providing interactivity to users: Selectors

• Enabling Grid/Graphs to control other Grid/Graphs

• Providing Flash-based analysis and interactivity: Widgets

• Enabling transition animations for Grid/Graphs and panel stacks in Flash Mode (Web)

• Adding title bars to Grid/Graphs

• Enabling quick switch for Grid/Graphs

For general best practices related to designing a document, see Best practices for designing effective documents.

Related Topics

• What is an interactive dashboard-style document?

• Design ideas and examples

• Designing a simulated portal environment

• Designing the right interactive document