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<p><a href="/">Delta is a visualization program </a>built by Nik Hanselmann, a creative technologist in <a href="/">The Times’s Research and Development Lab</a>. But what exactly does a visualization program like Delta do? Michael Dewar, who also works in the lab, explains.</p>



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<p class="c-qa-block__question"><mark>Q.</mark> What was the seed for this idea? When did it get underway?</p>



<p class="c-qa-block__answer"><mark>A.</mark> In 2013, Nik and I did some work to see if we could extract interesting behavioral patterns from reader data without imposing any preconceived ideas about how we think people use NYTimes.com. Nik started experimenting with ways of showing all the different behaviors as little rows of pixels stacked on top of each other.<br>It turned out to be a little abstract and hard to understand, so Nik built a visualization that showed those same events in an easier context: individual page views emanating from a global map of the earth. The globe visualization he made turned out to be quite powerful, especially because he made it work on a live data stream, giving you this amazing live, low-orbit view of the audience.</p>


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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="700" height="373" src="https://sa1dev.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/image-3.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-22215" srcset="https://refactatla2dev.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/image-3.jpg 700w, https://refactatla2dev.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/image-3-300x160.jpg 300w, https://refactatla2dev.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/image-3-180x180.jpg 180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Rep. Greg Steuerwald, R-Avon (Credit: Rep. Greg Steuerwald)</figcaption></figure>



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<p class="c-qa-block__question"><mark>Q.</mark> How do you treat comments about stories in which there are many unanswered questions?</p>



<p class="c-qa-block__answer"><mark>A.</mark> We try hard to make sure people do not use the comments section to throw unfounded accusations at innocent parties. We were very careful during the Boston bombings, for example, not to allow the popular accusatory strains of online sleuthing on our site.</p>


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<p class="c-qa-block__question"><mark>Q.</mark> Can you recall a time when you all had to make tough judgment about whether to open an article?</p>



<p class="c-qa-block__answer"><mark>A.</mark> Most recently, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — the missing jet. We waited too long to open that article for comments. As it became clear this plane would take quite a while to find, we realized that the speculation itself is a big part of that story. Not to mention collective fears about flying, disappointment that planes don’t stream flight data to a separate location. We eventually did have a long series of great comments about the tragedy, but for those first few days I think our readers missed out on that collective experience of mourning and asking questions.</p>


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<p class="c-qa-block__question"><mark>Q.</mark> Do readers correct each other or share theories in the comments?</p>



<p class="c-qa-block__answer"><mark>A.</mark> We do have a great culture of folks clarifying facts and figures that are mistaken.<br>When it comes to theories, we do see some of that, but more often, hints of conspiracy meet mockery.</p>


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