Class: Wednesday February 1, 2006: Edward Tufte
www.edwardtufte.com
Edward Tufte is a statistician (some say Artist, Information Architect, or Designer) and a Professor at Yale with a focus in Statistical Evidence. My first thought was why are we, designers, learning about a statistician's theories and methodologies? Tufte's "Big Ideas" spawn from the lack of visual, numeric, and lingual elements within data charts and graphs. Tufte analyzes and demonstrates why these charts fail to represent information in an understandable, clear, and relevant way, and why some may become deceiving to their user. Tufte's mission is to remarkably make people aware of this problem by touring and conducting speeches all over the US. His solutions are based off of his 5 Grand Principals:
1. Enforce Visual Comparisons- we can draw conclusions through visual comparisons easier and faster, than if they came from mathematical or conceptual comparisons.
2. Show Causality- One thing makes another thing occur, This reminded me of the "IF...Than...Thus..." theorem from geometry class, IF [this] occurs, THAN [this] must be true or false, THUS [this] must be true or false. Example: If the temperature outside is below 32ยบ, Than it must be cold, Thus we must wear warm clothing.
3. Show Multivariate Data- Try to show data in more than two dimensions, thus enhancing the meaning or point of the graph, and the viewing experience. Doing so by not Insulting the user's intelligence.
4. Integrate all Visual Elements (words, numbers, images)- include images, text, and numbers where visually appropriate, without using a "key" or "legend" which forces the user to learn your system.
5. Content Driven Design- Quality. Relevance. Integrity.
How Does Tufte apply to this project?
Edward's 5 ideas can all be applied the the re-design of the 1040 tax form. According to Tufte's principals, the 1040 tax form fails to communicate to its manual users. By now it may seem redundant, but the 1040's information isn't represented in a clear and understandable manner or format, it requires a "legend" or in this case an entire book of explanations and directions (which then direct a user to a tele-hotline for FURTHER UNDERSTANDING!) in order to understand the point of the content. No wonder people DRED doing their taxes. Because of its complexity, the integral reasoning behind why people do taxes in the first place is forgotten.
Edward Tufte is a statistician (some say Artist, Information Architect, or Designer) and a Professor at Yale with a focus in Statistical Evidence. My first thought was why are we, designers, learning about a statistician's theories and methodologies? Tufte's "Big Ideas" spawn from the lack of visual, numeric, and lingual elements within data charts and graphs. Tufte analyzes and demonstrates why these charts fail to represent information in an understandable, clear, and relevant way, and why some may become deceiving to their user. Tufte's mission is to remarkably make people aware of this problem by touring and conducting speeches all over the US. His solutions are based off of his 5 Grand Principals:
1. Enforce Visual Comparisons- we can draw conclusions through visual comparisons easier and faster, than if they came from mathematical or conceptual comparisons.
2. Show Causality- One thing makes another thing occur, This reminded me of the "IF...Than...Thus..." theorem from geometry class, IF [this] occurs, THAN [this] must be true or false, THUS [this] must be true or false. Example: If the temperature outside is below 32ยบ, Than it must be cold, Thus we must wear warm clothing.
3. Show Multivariate Data- Try to show data in more than two dimensions, thus enhancing the meaning or point of the graph, and the viewing experience. Doing so by not Insulting the user's intelligence.
4. Integrate all Visual Elements (words, numbers, images)- include images, text, and numbers where visually appropriate, without using a "key" or "legend" which forces the user to learn your system.
5. Content Driven Design- Quality. Relevance. Integrity.
How Does Tufte apply to this project?
Edward's 5 ideas can all be applied the the re-design of the 1040 tax form. According to Tufte's principals, the 1040 tax form fails to communicate to its manual users. By now it may seem redundant, but the 1040's information isn't represented in a clear and understandable manner or format, it requires a "legend" or in this case an entire book of explanations and directions (which then direct a user to a tele-hotline for FURTHER UNDERSTANDING!) in order to understand the point of the content. No wonder people DRED doing their taxes. Because of its complexity, the integral reasoning behind why people do taxes in the first place is forgotten.
posted by Lisa Thomas at 5:29 PM
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