Notes on a Lecture by Edward Tufte
by Peter Durand

Seminar on the Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Wednesday August 16, 2000
Fairmont Hotel, Chicago

Description: Edward Tufte has written seven books, including Visual Explanations, Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Data Analysis for Politics and Policy. He writes, designs, and self-publishes his books on information design, which have received more than 40 awards for content and design. He is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design. His current work includes digital video, sculpture, printmaking, and a new book called Cognitive Art.

For more: www.tufte.com describes Edward Tufte's books, one-day course, and artwork. If you need further information, call Graphics Press at 203 272-9187, or fax 203 272-8600, or email tufte@graphicspress.com.

To order books by Tufte:
Graphic Press LLC
PO Box 430
Chesire, CT 06410
ph: 800.822.2454
fx: 203-272-8600

The Main Issues

Metaprinciple

Principles of Visual Displays of Information

Rules of Magic

Secrets to Effective Presentations

Interface Design
Content rules design

Moral Lessons for Decision-Making

Wrap up
 

[click on thumbnails to see examples]

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To follow is a brief summary of my notes on a very extensive, all-day session on a complex matter.

One of Tufte's main premises is that there is no information overload. Instead, there is only a proliferation of poor design that does injustice to data and to the audience.

The Main Issues

  1. The challenges of expressing of 3-dimensional or 4-dimensional data set in 2-dimensions (aka. Flatland).
  2. The resolution and detail of information being presented ( bits + surface area + time )

Thoughtful design shortens time in decoding information.

Metaprinciple
The visual display assists thinking!
Designers should always ask themselves: “What is the intelectual task at hand?”

Principles of Visual Displays of Information

  1. Always enforce data comparisons: “Compared with what?”
  2. Show causality: “How could this have happened?”
  3. Show multi-variables: “How much change? How long? How many factors?"
  4. Completely integrate words, data and images: “What can you do to bring more clarity to the issues?”
  5. Content is king: “How can a designer do no harm to the content's substance, quality, integrity, and purpose?”
  6. Information is stacked in space(and time)
  7. Use small multiples: “How can we see the sun rotated? Record it's sunspots over time!”

The rules for clear displays of information are the opposite of the...

Rules of Magic

  • Retard understanding
  • Avoid repetition
  • Never inform the audience what you are planning to do or why
  • Achieve the smallest, most in perceptible, but effective change.

Examples Displayed

  • 1st Edition of Gallileo
  • 1st Edition of Newton
  • 1st English Edition of Euclid
  • Naploleon's Russian Campaign
    by Minard
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Presentations

Understanding presentations needs both channels:
(1) Audio as the COGNITIVE channel; and,
(2) Visual as the AFFECTIVE channel.

Data needs CONTEXT and COMPARISON

All presentations need to leave PHYSICAL TRACES (ex.: take-aways, hand-outs, objects, momentos)

Show micro as well as macro data (adjust for inflation or population growth... or else YOU'RE LYING!!!)

Show ALL your SOURCES (footnotes equal integrity and trust to get to the origins of information and ideas)

EFFECTIVE VISUALS integrate images and annotations (gestures, lines and color link annotations and data to meaning)

Don't get it original; GET IT RIGHT! (Galileo said that Talent imitates, but Genius steals.)

Visual data only improves with quantity; only then to PATTERNS emerge.

Secrets to Effective Presentations

  1. Show up early; something good is bound to happen
  2. Frame your presentation; tell the audience what you'll say, who cares, why it matters, what it means...
  3. Never apologize; keep yourself from being the prmary content
    (suggestion--try to avoid the 1st person singular case)
  4. PGP Complex explainations are best broken down to examples (particular-general-particular)
  5. Leave traces; give the audience something to take away
  6. Respect the audience; they are precious. Do not be tempted to "dumb things down" or to hide your ignorance behind a veil of jargon.
  7. Avoid bullets and abbreviations
  8. Use humor sparingly and effectively to include and open up, not to alienated or deride.
  9. There is nothing like practice, practice, practice. Use a video camera: watch it straight, watch it in fast motion, turn off the monitor and listen to the audio
  10. End early; something good is bound to happen

Interface Design

Tufte's approach to interface design is aimed at providing The User (aka, The Loser or The Victim) with as many options up front as possible.

The design should do as little harm as possible in masking options or in replicating the hierarchy of the client organization! The optimal situation is to have 80% of the screen realestate dedicated to content, not navigation or advertising.

In most situations, the screen is monopolized and gobbled up by:

  • administrative debris
  • metaphors and muscle-bound icons
  • operation system tyranny
  • advertising and banners

    “No matter how cool your interface is, no matter how good it is, I wish there were less of it.” ~A. Cooper

Sample sites
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Content rules design.

Designers need to constantly ask:
“What's the most powerful visual element and how does it relate to the content?”

Really good design of information is self-effacing.

Moral Lessons for Decision-Making

Show causality [include all cause and effect mechanisms, not just outcomes]

Show ALL the data [order data by substance and provider the viewer to view it all if they choose]

Escape the obvious [get away from the obvious and ask yourself, "What do I REALLY need to see?"]

Wrap Up

In presentations, use appropriate media for specific tasks:

Paper for high magnitude and high resolution data transmission

Voice for high magnitude reasoning and decision-making

REMEMBER: Bad presentation of essential data is a life-or-death matter. Witness the Challenger shuttle disaster.

[ please direct any suggestions and requests to Peter Durand at peter@alphachimp.com ]

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