Jason has uncovered an interesting thread on CHI-WEB. Don Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things and Jakobs' partner, basically starts a fight with Edward Tufte. Now, I understand an open debate. I get debating. But this goes a little far, seems a bit petty and vindictive when he talks about ignoring and preaching. Seemed a little much at first pass. But I will have to go investigate Bertin more.
Tufte understands packing the data in. He lacks an understanding of people. Sometimes chart junk (his term) helps in the understanding of a chart by providing mnemonic aid to the symbols. Sometimes it helps motivate the reader. For most casual users of charts and graphs, less is better. For the professional statistician, such as Tufte, denser is better.
Tufte is often wrong about what constitutes good communication. Indeed, I am surprised he likes the Napoleon map so much because it has, in his terms, superfluous chart chunk - those drawings of soldiers. This is indeed an excellent graphic, but much of his work does not have this character.
Tufte is not the only statistician who has addressed the problems of representing graphical material. In my opinion, Bertin is the best.
Tufte preaches. I entered into a discussion with him about this once and tried to present some experimental data that one of my students had collected. he refused even to look at it. That is, it isn't that he looked at the data and disagreed with the interpretation or even the collection-- that would be permissible. No, he refused even to look.
Tufte is fun to read. Much of what he says is important and valuable. The problem is, you have to decide what to follow and what to ignore. Don't follow all that he preaches -- you will do your users a disservice.
Now, understand I am a HUGE fan of "Tuftes(Edward Tuftes Site)":http://www.edwardtufte.com. I think he's brilliant, and the work that he has done more for evangelizing Informational Design with his books and lectures than any one else. So I'm a little biased.
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Posted at 05:42 AM