Tufte, E. R. (1997). Visual explanations: Images and quantities, evidence and narrative. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press.

As we get together to discuss this book, it is assumed that you will bring your copy with you -- the words printed here are empty without the visual examples presented by Tufte. As Tufte writes: "These books are meant to be self-exemplifying: the objects themselves embody the ideas written about" (p. 10). My comments, and points for discussions, are included below in red.

Introduction

"Assessments of change, dynamics, and cause and effect are at the heart of thinking and explanation. To understand is to know what cause provokes what effect, by what means, at what rate. How then is such knowledge to be represented?" p. 9

"Many of our examples suggest that clarity and excellence in thinking is very much like clarity and excellence in the display of data. When principles of design replicate principles of thought, the act of arranging information becomes an act of insight." p. 9

"The first part of this book examines the logic of depicting quantitative evidence." p. 9

"The second part considers design strategies, often for the arrangement of images as narrative." P. 9

"Visual Explanations is about pictures of verbs, the representation of mechanism and motion, of process and dynamics, of causes and effects, of explanation and narrative." p. 10

Do you understand why Tufte has chosen to publish his three books himself?

Chapter 1: Images and Quantities

"Our thinking is filled with assessments of quantity, an approximate or exact sense of number, amount, size, scale." p. 13

But we, as humans, are not very good at accurate assessments of these sorts of things, are we?

What do you think it means to be "quantitatively eloquent" (p. 13)?

Visual techniques for depicting quantities: direct labels, encodings, and self-representing scales. p. 13

Maps.... p. 14-15

On the leap from East-West, North-South to the variables X and Y. p. 15

The history of trying to determine the size of the earth is quite fascinating and impacted the very decision of Columbus to set sail to the "New World".

On compromising the integrity of one's work by "persistent visual cheating". p. 17

"In practice, the sizes of reproduced images depend almost entirely on convenience of fit into the grid layout of a page or computer screen." p. 18

Sound familiar?

Tufte's redesign of of the scientific visualization of the formation of a thunderstorm. p. 20-23

What is your reaction to his redesign? How has he practiced the design principles he has discussed? What lessons do you draw from this redesign that are pertinent to your work?

Did you notice the fact that the vertical scale of the Thunderstorm graphic is twice the actual scale?

On the "extravagant dequantification" of the video flyover of the planet Venus. p. 23-24

"Terrific television, but lousy science." p. 24

Reread the call for a Flat Venus Society by David Morrison. Can you understand the emotion in his comments?

Matthew Paris, on why his drawing of England in 1250 is not drawn to scale: "The whole island should have been longer if only the page had permitted." (p. 24)

What, then, are the dangers of designing to the 3X4 world of televisions and computer screens?

"Enthusiasts, partisans, and liars have long tinkered with graphical evidence by dequantifying images, selecting and hyping advantageous visual effects, distorting data. Recently, inexpensive computing and ingenious techniques for image processing have provided endless new opportunities for mischief." p. 25

Hmm, sounds like our Studio lab!

However..... ".....appropriate re-expressions or transforms of scales are among the most powerful strategies for exploring data." p. 25

Re-examine the chart of the number of sunspots each year from 1749-1924. I found myself having to look very closely at the second image and reread Tufte's words on p. 25 several times to finally "get it." Did you get it?