Mr Tufte Classic on Data Visualization

1. Edward Tufte
Envisioning & Designing Data

2. A Fair Warning

3. Edward Tufte
• Born 1942
• Yale University
• Data visualization and information design

4. "The world is complex, dynamic, multidimensional; the
paper is static, flat. How are we to represent the rich visual
world of experience and measurement on mere flatland?"
Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information

5. Flatlands
• Design Metaphor
• To present data well, “escape” the flatlands to higher dimensions.
• Not simply a matter of 3D design
"Escaping this flatland is the essential task of envisioning
information - for all the interesting worlds (physical,
biological, imaginary, human) that we seek to understand
are inevitably and happily multivariate in nature. Not
flatlands."
Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information

7. Suddenly, perspective

10. Micro/Macro Readings
• Multiple time scales of information
• A larger story that invites exploration
• We have to go deeper

15. Layering & Separation
• Confusion and clutter are failures of design, not attribution of
information
• Reduce noise by visual distinction between data via shape, size, etc.
• Google maps has geography and road maps

16. What’s wrong with this design?

18. Reduce clutter by removing implicit data (e.g. Name)

19. “The interior decoration of graphics generates a lot of
ink that does not tell the viewer anything new. The
purpose of decoration varies — to make the graphic appear
more scientific and precise, to enliven the display, to give the
designer an opportunity to exercise artistic skills.
Regardless of its cause, it is all non-data-ink or redundant
data-ink, and it is often chartjunk.”
Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

20. Chartjunk
• Tested by the “Ink-Data Ratio”. How much data is represented versus
ink (or pixels) used?

22. Don’t Decorate

23. ...or at least don’t decorate first

24. At one point, this was preferred

25. Sparklines

26. Narrative of Space & Time
• Time-series data
• Add spatial dimensions
• Reduce the complexity of data down to the core “point”

27. The Greatest Statistical Chart Ever Made

28. Napoleon’s march and retreat (Minard 1869)

29. What info matters for a subway trip?

30. PowerPoint is Evil
Video link for later: PowerPoint is Evil