This paper reviews research on learning from dynamic visual representations and offers principles for the design of animations and simulations that assure their educational effectiveness. In addition to established principles, new and revised design principle are presented that have been derived from recent research. Our review focuses on the visual design and interaction design of these visualizations and presents existing research as well as questions for future inquiry.How do animations and simulations have to be designed in order to be educationally effective? This paper will review research on learning from dynamic visualizations and present findings related to visual design and interaction design of animations and simulations. In the past we were limited to images that, once drawn, could not be altered; today we have tools allowing us to view animations, visualizations that play at a constant rate and rigid sequence that cannot be altered by the viewer, and even to manipulate simulations, visualizations that allow viewers to manipulate the rate of the animation, as well as view and review different parts of the display in any sequence (Hegarty 2004) or manipulate parameters of the model underlying the