Edward Tufte- Information Design
I attended a seminar on information design presented by Edward Tufte. We present information in a variety of forms--from writing sales letters, borchures and web copy to spreadsheets and marketing plans--so it made sense to attend. It may be the clearest, tightest, most professional presentation I've seen, and he's certainly one of the brightest people I've been in the same room with. I highly recommend attending: more seminar info. He's the real deal.
Key general principles he presented:
Good design is clear thinking made visual. Before you design something, a letter, web page, brochure, etc., make sure your story (your message) is very clear.
Use words, numbers and images together. All are information. Integrate them. Here is a link to a chapter posted on his site of his soon-to-be-released book, Beautiful Evidence (cool title!) that's an elegant example of combining the three fundamental types of information.
Show lots of information; this adds credibility. If you have a conclusion you're making or something you're selling, mention the other possible conclusions or choices. This gives people context and strengthens your position.
Give people the benefit of spacial reasoning; avoid temporal stacking. For those of us who didn't go to Yale: put as much related information toether on the same "surface" (space) as you can (this allows for reasoning in the same space); don't "stack" critcal related information on separate pages, asking people to leave "where they are now" to go "get" information they need to draw conclusions. This goes to the heart of information design. How do you present all the information (words, numbers and images) people need in a single space (web page, letter, paper, brochure) in such a way to clearly support your message?
Interesting discussion threads on his site
Comments