Reader comments are ubiquitous on the web, and there was no shortage of opinion from readers on election day in 2008. We wanted to capture the mood of our readers, distilled down to a single representative word, as they returned to our site to watch the results and read our coverage of the events throughout that day. The resulting visualization, upon exploration, illustrated how the supporters of each candidate felt, and how their moods would fluctuate throughout the day.

The interactive tools on the NYTimes.com website stand out for their clarity, inventiveness and responsiveness to the user and to the historical movement.