Interactive Pieces to Inspire Your Content in 2015

Why does interactive content matter? According to CBS News, the average person is exposed to as many as 5,000 ads a day. That means that all day, every day, people are inundated with advertisement after advertisement, sometimes thinly veiled as content. It only makes sense that people start to tune out the marketing messages around them.

The best way to make them sit up and take notice is to create a piece of content so awesome, it doesn’t even feel like an advertisement anymore. One great way to do that is by creating an interactive piece. We’ve talked about interactive pieces on Designerly before; here’s a great new list for 2015.

1. Walking New York

This takes some of the best walking paths in New York City and makes them interactive by using 360-degree views from Google Street View. The landing page starts with a birds-eye view of Manhattan. The visitor is instructed to simply click and drag on the panoramic photo. One can rotate the view, see which streets to walk down and note significant landmarks. Once done looking at the current walking route, simply click on Next Location to go to another part of the city and take another virtual walk.

2. The Internet in Real Time

Have you ever wondered just how much is going on in cyberspace, right now? This design looks at the Internet in real time. To give you up-to-the-minute information, the site draws from known statistics about uploads and social platform usage. There is a counter that starts to count up from the second you hit the page until you leave.

3. Distance to Mars

This page is pretty simple, but when you look at it more closely, you realize just how detailed it is. In the background is an image of outer space and the interactive part of the page poses the idea that if Earth were 100 pixels wide, then you’d have to travel this far to reach the moon. When you click on the down arrow, the screen scrolls down until you reach the moon. Instead of taking three days in a rocket, it takes about three seconds on this scale. After you see how long it takes to go to the moon, visit Mars – and fully grasp the vastness of space as it zooms you across tens of thousands of pixels.

4. Change Your Story

If you’re looking for a site with great animation effects and use of parallax, Change Your Story is a perfect example. The site is interactive as the piece allows you to personalize the experience by adding details such as your sex and weight. As the story moves through different screens, you’ll make additional choices. With each choice you make, the story could end very differently, making it true interactive content from start to finish.

5. Species in Pieces

This interactive site uses a geometric art project to teach site visitors about endangered species. When you first reach the site, it will generate 30 pieces for you. Each piece has additional interactive features, such as information, a view you can view and even wallpapers you can download. You can select a piece randomly, go in order or choose any you’d like via the pieces ring.

6. Your Life on Earth

This site is provided by the BBC and gives you a bird’s-eye view of how the Earth has changed since your birth. You put in your birthdate, gender and height and you’ll get details such as how many times your heart has beaten and how far you’ve traveled through space. You can see how much the tectonic plates have moved or how many earthquakes have occurred since your birth.

As a website owner, one of the most difficult tasks you face is lowering your bounce rate and keeping your viewers engaged. Interactive content is entertaining and fresh. Visitors will stick around to try it out and hopefully you’ll be able to teach them a thing or two and gain a loyal following.