3 ms·

I recommend getting his books, or just The Visual Display of Information (http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdq

by thrush 13y ago

I recommend getting his books, or just The Visual Display of Information (http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi) if you don't want to go a seminar.

haberman 13y ago
Just to put in a contrary opinion, I was really disappointed in this book and I don't understand the praise it gets. Here's my extensive review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/review/R11NYC3OE3LBE http://www.amazon.com/review/R11NYC3OE3LBE
- Silhouette 13y ago
  Personally, I came to very different conclusions. I found the book thought-provoking, and while your criticisms seem to be factually accurate, so was the original material you were criticising in each case I checked. I am upvoting you anyway, because we should never take things for granted just because someone famous said them, and because I appreciate that you took the time to make a careful and reasonable argument even if I personally disagree with it.
  - haberman 13y ago
    I am really curious to know what you took from this book. I am really confused about why people like it so much. For example, do you like Tufte's box plot? Do you like his revised bar chart? Do you strive, in your own graphs, to "erase redundant data-ink" in the way that Tufte advocates?
    - Silhouette 13y ago
      I read the book not long after it was first published and relatively early in my career. What I found useful was not the spartan presentation. I do a lot of custom UI and data visualisation work these days, but even my plainest designs don't tend to be as extreme as many of Tufte's examples. However, numerous projects I've worked on have been influenced by his underlying themes, like avoiding misleading presentation and unnecessary clutter, using graphics to convey patterns and relationships that wouldn't stand out from the raw data, and most of all how effective a customised or completely original presentation style can be depending on the nature of the data and what you're trying to illustrate. Maybe if I read the book for the first time today I'd regard a lot of the ideas as obvious or trivial, just as I don't need to read another article on different types of colour scheme or how to choose well-matched fonts any more. For on-line use, where we have tools like colour and animation and interaction readily available, I certainly do things very differently. However, a lot of the way I look at data visualisation and graphical illustration today was no doubt shaped by reading Tufte early on, and so I give him the credit I feel is due.

by thrush 13y ago

I recommend getting his books, or just The Visual Display of Information (http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi) if you don't want to go a seminar.

haberman 13y ago

Just to put in a contrary opinion, I was really disappointed in this book and I don't understand the praise it gets. Here's my extensive review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/review/R11NYC3OE3LBE http://www.amazon.com/review/R11NYC3OE3LBE

Silhouette 13y ago
Personally, I came to very different conclusions. I found the book thought-provoking, and while your criticisms seem to be factually accurate, so was the original material you were criticising in each case I checked. I am upvoting you anyway, because we should never take things for granted just because someone famous said them, and because I appreciate that you took the time to make a careful and reasonable argument even if I personally disagree with it.
- haberman 13y ago
  I am really curious to know what you took from this book. I am really confused about why people like it so much. For example, do you like Tufte's box plot? Do you like his revised bar chart? Do you strive, in your own graphs, to "erase redundant data-ink" in the way that Tufte advocates?
  - Silhouette 13y ago
    I read the book not long after it was first published and relatively early in my career. What I found useful was not the spartan presentation. I do a lot of custom UI and data visualisation work these days, but even my plainest designs don't tend to be as extreme as many of Tufte's examples. However, numerous projects I've worked on have been influenced by his underlying themes, like avoiding misleading presentation and unnecessary clutter, using graphics to convey patterns and relationships that wouldn't stand out from the raw data, and most of all how effective a customised or completely original presentation style can be depending on the nature of the data and what you're trying to illustrate. Maybe if I read the book for the first time today I'd regard a lot of the ideas as obvious or trivial, just as I don't need to read another article on different types of colour scheme or how to choose well-matched fonts any more. For on-line use, where we have tools like colour and animation and interaction readily available, I certainly do things very differently. However, a lot of the way I look at data visualisation and graphical illustration today was no doubt shaped by reading Tufte early on, and so I give him the credit I feel is due.