Author: Daniel

Another essay. This one is geared towards making sure that data presentations address the correct questions and show the data in a way that allows for a quick and accurate analysis of the given data set. The essay features a combination of original data presentations (such as documents from the Challenger accident) and remakes of the presentations that allow for a better understanding of the data.

Interesting tidbit: Data does not bear out the famous conclusion of the 1854 London Cholera Epidemic. Namely, new cases cholera were already on the decline when Snow removed the infamous water-pump handle.

This is hardly a book at all, but is more of an essay. It is a wonderful summary of why one feels discontent and ill informed after sitting through a lengthy PowerPoint presentation. Tufte starts with a detailed accounting of the communication processes that led to the Challenger accident. He then proceeds into many common presentation flaws commonly made and he even includes some suggestions for compensating for those flaws.

Interesting tidbit: NASA engineers were required by policy to provide technical analysis (not just the conclusion) in PowerPoint.

I truly love Tufte (someday I will own his books and will no longer need to share them with the library). Where Visual Explanations was about using images to explain data, Envisioning Information focuses on conveying information in a way that allows views to quickly process data sets.

Interesting tidbit: Many techniques of data presentation have degraded tremendously as data presentation tools have entered the main stream. For example, think of how many times 3D bar charts are used in a way that makes it difficult actually compare difference of numbers.

This book is full of ideas and concepts about displaying information in a visual manner. Tufte includes ideas on displaying data over time in a single composite, multiple steps and tracking data over time including general methods and techniques for presenting information in such a way as to remove the need for narrative.

Interesting tidbit: At the start of the book, Tufte rips into the space shuttle Challenger accident and the horrible data presentation. He wrote an entire follow up essay on the sinful nature of PowerPoint and how poorly it communicates information.

In making data presentations, it is all too easy to make them overly complicated while not communicating any data of real value. Much like How to Lie With Maps, this books serves to try to reduce presentation error. Tufte admonishes designers to steer away from cute but inaccurate graphics, removing “chart junk” (styles or designs that distract from the data by making it more difficult to read) and killing “ducks” (which he describes as “when the data measures and structures become Design Elements, when the overall design purveys Graphical Style rather than quantitative information”). The book has a series of solid graphic design principles that can help reduce “ducks” and present data in clear, more readable layouts.

Interesting tidbit: Tufte is a strong advocate of altering line shape (mostly widths) on maps to communicate additional information rather than create new data sets. A prime example is Minard’s map of Napoleon’s march where the line angle is the path of travel, width is the size of his army and color is the direction of travel (brown is advancing and black is retreating).