Tufte Talk: Words of Wisdom

Fellow Wiglets:

Last week I went to Philadelphia to hear Professor Edward Tufte speak about presenting data and information. Here are some bits of wisdom from his seminar:

• On the web, we can never have information overload, only bad design. Compare print’s resolution of 1200-2400 dpi versus a monitor’s resolution of 96-120 dpi.


• Do not be an onion – reduce the layers. Bring as much information upfront and do not keep breaking it down to its smallest piece. Minimize the number of tiers or layers to only a couple.


• Integrate images and evidence into the text as part of the argument or explanation – do not separate text and graphical data. For a good example of this, see sparklines:


• Always cite sources – documentation instills credibility. Include where the information was found, who produced it (people, not companies), etc. And do not forget to cite yourself as the author and take some responsibility!


• Know your audience, and do not be afraid to write similar to other sources they read. If our audience is business men and women who we know read incredible amounts of information from the stocks page of the newspaper, do not be afraid to replicate, in good design.


• No glitter – we are an information source, not a fashion star. Do not get carried away with fancy decorations and just serve the meal; use a normal arrow, not a 3D rotating arrow.


• Use “adjacent in time” (flat interface) design instead of stacking linearly. For instance, if comparing images, place them side by side instead of flipping to two different pages. We are capable of interpreting a lot of data at once, but not very skilled at retaining data linearly.


• Space is of the essence. Generally speaking, a monitor’s retail space is precious – the operating system itself tends to take on average 9% of the viewing screen. By the time designers are done with the site, the space left for the actual content is only 50% of the monitor. Reduce the amount of administrivia on our end to maximize content efficiency.


• Measurements of performance: proportion of space on the screen devoted to content, computer administration, and nothing; character counts and measure of typographic density; the number of computer commands immediately available.

“…information becomes the interface.”

Tufte, Edward R. Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Cheshire, Conn.: Graphics Press, 1997.