I don't really think Tufte is appropriate for a design discussion. He's a mediocre charts and graphs guy (he's no Cleveland, Tukey, or Few; if you go to one of

I don't really think Tufte is appropriate for a design discussion. He's a mediocre charts and graphs guy (he's no Cleveland, Tukey, or Few; if you go to one of his talks he basically reads directly from his books and makes fun of PowerPoint.) Design is more the arena of people like Dieter Rams. You can't design an application, a chair, or a home with sparklines.