The New York Times created an interactive data visualization, Connecting the Dots Behind the 2016 Presidential Candidates , to help readers understand the people behind the candidates in the 2016 presidential election. The introduction explains that although the candidates change, often the people behind the campaigns do not. Visualizing data in this way, allows the reader to get a comprehensive look at who is where and where they have been in the past. The visualization begins with Hillary Rodham Clinton who by far has the most connections. Her network is broken into Clinton loyalists, Obama operative, pro-Clinton super PAC, and other key strategists.

Viewers can hover over circles to highlight the connections or see who belongs to which group by selecting a box at the top of her visualization.

The caption explains that the size of the circle is proportional to the number of people in each group. Campaigns are darker and administrations along with other organizations are lighter.

The interactive’s way of visualizing data allows the reader to make connections, literally, that they may not have made otherwise. Besides Hillary Clinton, candidates include Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker. The New York Times has several other ways of visualizing data regarding the election including information on candidates’ backgrounds, who is running verse who is not, and who has the campaign money.