Envisioning Information

i worked in bookstores for years, i am an avowed bibliophile and here is the one that got away - until now!. yes this is part of a set of three...but you can figure that out yourself. this is an essential edition fo anyone who loves cartography (a la How to Lie with Maps /Monmonier kind of cartography), statistics, art, complexity, symbolism, cognitive science etc - you name it this book has it. It does require that you revel in the concept and manifestation of representation. I believe that it is possibly one of the most beautiful science books around - and it often transcends any definition of a "text" book.

the entire book offers endless brain-fodder for the meaning and impact of the word "vision". The complexity of the subject(s) is given justice in this book - with both beauty and fun!! I was delighted to have been a late comer to this title but now i have to go fully read Tufte's Political Control of the Economy (1980)....if only i had known ten years ago that Tufte was so fantastic, engaging, diverse, and accessible!!

ENVISIONING INFORMATION represents one volume within a set of three. The primary objective of Edward R. Tufte is to demonstrate the importance of graphic illustrations in understanding the world around us.

In this volume, the central focus is to demonstrate how one can use static and a two-dimensional surface (i.e. a piece of paper) to show a world that is complex, dynamic and multidimensional. The illustrations that he selects and his explanation of the impact of the illustrations is nothing less than magnificent. Tufte is brilliant! Unlike the other two volumes, the centerpiece of this work is mapping. He addresses various artistic principles that offer a great clarity in guiding a scholar to reproduce distance and shapes. I draw your attention to page 37. Here, we see a small piece of an "Isometric Map of Midtown Manhattan." The author gives us an opportunity to purchase the entire map. I purchased the map for a close friend who calls Midtown Manhattan "home." It isn't merely a map; it is a beautiful piece of art. According to the author, these mapping principles can be generalized to serve other functions. For example, such techniques can be used to provide dance notations (see page 114-119). That is, Tufte shows us how we can employ illustrations to teach people how to dance.

All of Tufte's three volumes are pieces of artwork. All are awe-inspiring. ENVISIONING INFORMATION is slightly different than the other two volumes. I like to use Tufte's work as an example of how graphics can be employed to illustrate qantitative information to students.

Every academic library should own a copy of these three volumes.

Edward Tufte sees things most of us do not initially, then manages to render his vision in exquisitely illustrated, well-written texts. He identifies the attributes of effective communication of information and then illustrates what works and why in very understandable terms.

For instance, in his chapter "Layering and Separation," Tufte dissects the problems with array of marshaling signals then reworks the presentation and provides a step-by-step explanation of his process. His coining of the wonderful notion of an "information prison" shows that his cleverness extends from the visual to the written.

As Tufte writes in his introduction, "The principles of information design are universal-like mathematics-and are not tied to unique features of a particular language or culture." He proves this point amply by drawing on myriad sources and examples.

His comments and insights of the power of color are especially enlightening, and if you have ever been subjected to a particularly hideous PowerPoint slide show where the presenter got more than a bit carried away with the technology, you will be agreeing more than disagreeing with the ideas here.

Finally, I acknowledge there is bound to be some sticker shock associated with Edward Tufte's books. But if you consider the amount and quality of color (which requires special press runs), the quality of the paper, the amount of press time (Tufte oversees and approves the printing), and the vast scope of timeless information contained in each book, then these books are a deal.

This is the second book in Ed Tufte's trilogy on graphical displays. It is a sequel to "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information". In this book Tufte shows how color, multiple pictures from different perspectives, graphs, charts and even newspaper text can be used to convey on a flat piece of paper information for high-dimesional data. Most important is the ability of two-dimensional pictures to display the information of the three dimensional world that the human mind can comprehend through sight. This is the reason for the title to the first chapter "Escaping Flatland".

However, as interesting as the pictures are themselves it is necessary to read the text and look back and forth between pictures to fully appreciate the points of the text. As with his earlier work, Tufte demonstrates the principles of good graphics through effective demonstartaion of ideas conveyed by good and bad examples. The difference is a broader coverage of techniques and greater emphasis on the good examples.

This book is a nice lead in for the third book, "Visual Explanations", which deals with examples where Tufte believes the graphical displays actually lead to good inferences about a problem under study.

I'm a big fan of Tufte's work and so was, at first, sort of disappointed the first time through this book. But each time I reread it I find found more and more I can use. The text runs from subversive to straightforward, but it's the wonderful illustrations you'll love!
I find places to apply Tufte's few basic guidelines every single time I transmit information. The worst I can say is this book is super instead of stupendous. I'm happy I own it, and I'm never, ever gonna give it away.