Edward Tufte and Information Design

Edward Tufte

Recently, I attended a one-day seminar taught by Edward Tufte, who has four books on information design.  Tufte is one of these rare thinkers, who makes these connections that most people rarely, if ever, do make.

During this workshop, Tufte had the class of almost 500 people look at different pages in his various books.  To be perfectly honest, I was impressed and scared of this man's intellect.  Yet, I found Tufte to be warm and engaging.  He smiled, asked me where I worked, and he autographed my book. I mumbled something.

Why You Should Read Tufte?



History of Rock and Roll (Infographic)

 Tufte is going to challenge you to be a better thinker. His books delve into how information design should be respectful of the intellect of each person.  As shown above, an information graphic about the history of rock and roll shows several datapoints:

1. Artists (their genre, their timeframe, their influencers, and who they influenced)
2. Overall sales by decade
3. Genre sales

This wave of information allows the audience to pick and choose their entry and exit point.  You probably start with the artists that you know, and then you explore how their influencers and who they influenced.  you get a better picture and make deeper connections because the information graphic has these different data points.  This design respects the knowledge of the audience. 



Napoleon's Failed March to Moscow


Tufte will also explain ways to better design your information evidence. The above information graphic shows Napoleon's failed attempt to conquer Russia during the winter. The brown line (on the top) shows the troop levels as they begin their march towards Moscow.  The black line shows their retreat.  You can note several things here:

1. The tan line is initially wider becase their are more troops.
2. The tan line gradually decreases as the march goes to Moscow.
3. The tan line touches the black line to illustrate the retreat.
4. The black line gradually decreases to a very thin line.
5. At the bottom of the graphic, we see the cold temperatures.

Tufte explains how at one crossing Napoleon was in a carriage, while his soldiers actually fell through the ice.  Clearly, the cold weather affected the movement of the troops, possibly as much as battles and skirmishes. 

I love the examples from Tufte.  His lecture was first-rate.  I highly recommend it!

Where Tufte Might Be Going to Far?

Tufte Notes as a Bulleted List

Tufte blames technology for bad thinking. He talked for about 30 minutes in this class about how Powerpoint enable poor thinking by its very design.  He gives a harsh critique of how Powerpoint might have enabled the Challenger shuttle disaster.  Tufte's points do have merits:

• Powerpoint does default to bulleted lists
• Bulleted lists encourage encourage an over-simplification
• Things in a bulleted list have equal weight

Yes, I was being very "tongue in cheek" by showing a bulleted list. 

The irony of the entire day is that Edward Tufte was telling over 500 people to not use bulleted list for information chunking and presentation displays.  Yet, I have over 20 pages of notes done as a bulleted list of information chunks.  On the right, you will see another person who shared their notes.  Notice how the information is basically a bulleted list of thought chunks.

This is a minor criticism here.

In my humble opinion, Tufte goes too far when you blame a tool for the crime.  It is the same argument that people give for high fructose corn syrup causing childhood obesity or guns causing violence.  These tools (high fructose corn syrup, guns, Powerpoint) might be enablers, but they do not cause the core issues (obesity, violence, poor thinking). 

Poor thinking causes poor thinking.  Poor design causes poor presentations. 

Yes, the NASA scientists are not designers.  Yes, they used Powerpoint.  And, they probably own guns and ate pancakes with high fructose corn syrup.

I think Tufte's argument is a non-sequitur. 

And, I still don't care!

We do need better graphics.  We need better thinking.  We need to respect our audience.  We need to look at classical designs (like Tufte does) to improve our current ones.

Study his books.  Go Tufte's classes.  He is a great lecturer and gifted teacher. 

Don't drink all the Kool-aid, though.  You might get a stomach ache.  But, it sure tastes good. 

I loved the class.  I love the books, too.