Airport Delays

This is a neat interactive graphic done by USA Today Travel. It shows the airport delays around North America. I think this graphic is useful if you are flying with connecting flights. It lets you easily check all the airports you are going to stop at to see if you will encounter any difficulties. This graphic lets you click on the airport's dot and see on a scale how far behind the scheduled time flights are arriving or departing. It's also nice that the reader can choose the airport they use most regularly and have its conditions pop up at the top of map when they return to the map for later use.

There is a big weakness in this map: the legend. The legend is a small white box in the top right corner that isn't immediately seen when the reader looks at the map. The mouse has to be on top of the legend box to see the options. Until the reader sees the legend box, they are confused as to what the different colors and shapes representing the airports mean. If I was to re-do this map, I would make the legend a permanently open box within the map.