Whenever I spot one of Tufte's elegant publications on someone's shelf, I exclaim: "Hey! You know Tufte!?"
This usually serves as the springboard for a conversation about truth, beauty and the evils of PowerPoint.
Edward Tufte is the closest thing that the charts-n-graphs crowd has to a rock star. And, just as Irish rocker Bono has raised public awareness for the desperate need to relieve Third World debt, Tufte has elevated public appreciation for the desperate need to save us from bad graphics.
His one-day seminars are usually sold out in major cities across the US; and, it is here that Tufte guides hundreds of graph geeks in the effective usage of line width, typography, quantitfication and subtle colors to make elegant information graphics.
The goal of any chart, graph or information graphic, however, is not merely to communicate clear, dramatic statistics. Instead, its real job is to tell a story that aids decision-making. In his books and lectures, Tufte shows dozens of examples of graphics that fail miserably to do their job.
Whether it is an artless attempt by engineers to warn NASA of the impending Challenger space shuttle explosion, or the French statistician Minard's anti-war graphic illustrating Napoleon's doomed winter march into Russia (below), each example demonstrates the power of graphic design to reveal — or, more often, to obscure — the reality of complex situations.
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In the darkened auditorium, a fellow captive leaned over to me during a long and dreary PowerPoint presentation and whispered with true incredulity: "This is ridiculous! When did it become acceptable to get paid to read bullet points?"
Tufte, too, has fixed his subtle and sardonic eye on the use of PowerPoint, specifically the degradation of information design through the careless use of clipart, bullet points and garish color schemes. (Thank you, Mr. Gates, for introducing lime green as an acceptable background color!)
It is a toss-up as to which parody is better: his on-stage interpretation of Abe Lincoln's PowerPoint presentation of the Gettysburg Address, or his poster that depicts a statue of Stalin presenting a PPT deck to a full parade ground of loyal Bolsheviks in 1956 Budapest. ("Next slide, please.")
Tufte's essay, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, available from his website, continues in this vein to demand answers to similar questions:
Alas, slideware often reduces the analytical quality of presentations. In particular, the popular PowerPoint templates (ready-made designs) usually weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis. What is the problem with PowerPoint? And how can we improve our presentations?
As a refreshing break from projected text, Tufte shows authentic examples of master information designers and their work: an assistant wearing white linen gloves carries original first editions of Sir Isaac Newton and Galileo through the crowd like the sacred texts they are.
All his own publications are beautifully designed and expertly printed, with Tufte retaining control over every detail. Each of the four titles have hundreds of illustrations with exquisite 6- to 12-color printing. The paper has a heft and tooth that lets the reader know that the books — just like the ideas — were made to last.
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