Edward Tufte lecture on communicating 'beautiful evidence'
I recently saw Edward Tufte give his latest touring lecture at the Royal Geographic Society where he outlined his theories on how to create great data visualisations, referring to them as 'beautiful evidence'. It was a refreshing experience, concentrating on an aspect of design that's perhaps not so glamourous but which is essential to design and communication, and it was an event attended by a sellout crowd.
Edward Tufte is described as "the Leonardo da Vinci of data" by the New York Times and is credited with coining the term Information Architecture. So, as my mate Martyn Perks puts it, he's 'the daddy' of information design.
His main point is that to communicate content clearly into the mind of another person is the only objective of information design. His professional focus is on data visualisation rather than other more expressive activities such as art and sculpture, although he mentions those are also pasttimes he enjoys.
The lecture covers classic examples of where "words and images combine to become simply evidence rather than different modes of evidence" (as he says in his book, titled Beautiful Evidence). The content is so easy to assimilate, the medium acts almost as though it is invisible. That is to say, nothing gets in the way of the communication of the content. Tufte advocates a "whatever it takes" approach to information design where visually the end result isn't known until you've been through the process of making the layout of the data tell the story quickly and clearly.
Memorable examples of this were Da Vinci's anatomical drawings and Gallileo's use of simple drawn shapes depicting contrasting views of Saturn. Galileo's tiny illustrations are set within the flow of the text rather than away to the side of it as an illustrative figure, as is so often seen in book design. Galileo's way of making his argument is beautifully simple; when translated the text reads "The shape of saturn is thus (illustration of planet shape) a
The main illustration discussed in the lecture is Charles Joseph Minard's famous poster of Napoleon's March of 1812, shown at the top of this blog post, which demonstrates all of the points that Tufte believes constitute great information design (as defined below). It clearly and quickly tells the story, to the layman of either reading diagrams or following narratives of war, that Napoleon's huge army was decimated in a disastrous, freezing winter march to Moscow and subsequent retreat back home. This poster is an amazing and powerful piece of design.
Edward Tufte's tips for great data visualisation
> Make a comparison/contrast
> Show causality
> Show multiple variant data (more than two!). Napoleon's March has six!
> Be invisible - it's all about communicating the content
> Integration of word and image together. It's clearer that way, why point elsewhere?
> Don't pre-specify the method of display. Do whatever it takes to explain the information
> Make your story credible. Show the scale of information data and the sources, be accurate
Tufte argues that a diagram or information graphic should communicate its point within one eye span. Data compared in one common eye span makes the most impact, and not spread over time. Following the seven points above makes for a great guideline when approaching a new information design project but crucially the quality, relevance and integrity of your content will make or break your presentation, making you look credible or undermining you.