Every month our team holds open office hours via Google Hangout where anyone can join us to get feedback on projects, ask questions and learn from the group.

Kate Golden from WisconsinWatch stopped by the Nerds Office Hours with an idea last month where she wanted to figure out a way to present opinions from opposing sides of an issue as text annotations within a story that was primarily made up of graphics.

She explains:

At WisconsinWatch.org, we were bulletproofing a series of 12 animated GIFs and provoked some interesting, critical (and longish) responses from opposing sides. Instead of changing the piece, I wanted to add the responses as annotations, preferably hidden by default to avoid weighing down the layout. This led me to the News Nerds office hours. The second-best thing about the pop-up footnotes they came up with is that it is fairly easy to implement. The best part is that it allows me to take a page from the fantastic web comic xkcd (thanks to Ben Keith). The inspiration is here and the gist of the solution is here.

The result is a story told through 12 sandy animated GIFs with annotations, and here's a look behind the scenes at the code.

Take a look at the end result and let them know what you think!

P.S. - You can sign up for a slot to join our next open office hours on Thursday, May 7 from 4-6 ET. Hope to see you there!