Edward Tufte Quotes - Page 2

I have stared long enough at the glowing flat rectangles of computer screens. Let us give more time for doing things in the real world...plant a plant, walk the dogs, read a real book, go to the opera.

A metaphor for good information design is a map. Hold any diagram against a map and see how it compares.

Make all visual distinctions as subtle as possible, but still clear and effective.

The world is much more interesting than any one discipline.

The world is generally multivariate

The idea is that the content is the interface, the information is the interface, not computer-administrative debris.

Great design is not democratic; it comes from great designers. If the standard is lousy, then develop another standard.

PowerPoint is like being trapped in the style of early Egyptian flatland cartoons rather than using the more effective tools of Renaissance visual representation.

PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play - very loud, very slow, and very simple.

The best graphics are about the useful and important, about life and death, about the universe. Beautiful graphics do not traffic with the trivial.

Here's the general theory: To clarify, add detail. Imagine that. To clarify, add detail. And clutter and overload are not an attribute of information, they are failures of design. If the information is in chaos, don't start throwing out information, instead fix the design.

The most common user action on a Web site is to flee.

That is to say, nature's laws are causal; they reveal themselves by comparison and difference, and they operate at every multivariate space, time point.

The minimum we should hope for with any display technology is that it should do no harm.

What this means is that we shouldn't abbreviate the truth but rather get a new method of presentation.

The point of the essay is to change things.

A practical part of my teaching is to provide demonstrative, hands-on experiences.

If there is a well thought-out design standard, it should be followed. In practice, great design comes from great designers. That is empirically the case. If a great designer did a first-rate standard, that model should be followed. Great design is not democratic; it comes from great designers. If the standard is lousy, then develop another standard.

I think it is important for software to avoiding imposing a cognitive style on workers and their work.

It is straightforward for me to be ethical, responsible, and kind-hearted because I have the resources to support that.

The goal is to provide analytical tools that will last students a lifetime

The speculative part of my work is that these particular cognitive tasks - ways of thinking analytically - are tied to nature's laws.

Audience boredom is usually a content failure, not a decoration failure.

We've drifted into this presentation mode without realizing the cost to the content and the audience in the process.

My idea here is that, inasmuch as certain cognitive tasks and principles are tied to nature's laws, these tasks and principles are indifferent to language, culture, gender, or the particular mode of information that is provided.