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

Edward Tufte

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Edward Tufte
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: March 14
Computer Scientist
Graphic Designer
Political Scientist
Sculptor
Statistician
University Teacher
Writer
Kansas City
Missouri
Edward R. Tufte
Edward Rolfe Tufte
Edward Rolf Tufte
Beautiful
Best
Important
Graphics
Life
Trivial
Traffic
Useful
Universe
Death

More quotes by Edward Tufte

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There are many true statements about complex topics that are too long to fit on a PowerPoint slide.
Edward Tufte
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There are only two industries that refer to their customers as 'users'.
Edward Tufte
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Public discussions are part of what it takes to make changes in the trillions of graphics published each year.
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Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space.
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Simple design, intense content.
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Beautiful Evidence is about the theory and practice of analytical design.
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I hope that I am generous and tolerant, but certainly on the intellectual side I think that there are discoverable truths, and some things that are closer approximations to the truth than others.
Edward Tufte
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There is no such thing as information overload, just bad design. If something is cluttered and/or confusing, fix your design.
Edward Tufte
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I think it is important for software to avoiding imposing a cognitive style on workers and their work.
Edward Tufte
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If you like overheads, you'll love PowerPoint.
Edward Tufte
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We've drifted into this presentation mode without realizing the cost to the content and the audience in the process.
Edward Tufte
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The idea is that the content is the interface, the information is the interface, not computer-administrative debris.
Edward Tufte
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I was writing a chapter of Beautiful Evidence on the subject of the sculptural pedestal, which led to my thinking about what's up on the pedestal - the great leader.
Edward Tufte
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The commonality between science and art is in trying to see profoundly - to develop strategies of seeing and showing.
Edward Tufte
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Design cannot rescue failed content.
Edward Tufte
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Allowing artist-illustrators to control the design and content of statistical graphics is almost like allowing typographers to control the content, style, and editing of prose.
Edward Tufte
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If the statistics are boring, you've got the wrong numbers.
Edward Tufte
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The world is complex, dynamic, multidimensiona l the paper is static, flat. How are we to represent the rich visual world of experience and measurement on mere flatland?
Edward Tufte
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Confusion and clutter are failures of design, not attributes of information. And so the point is to find design strategies that reveal detail and complexity - rather than to fault the data for an excess of complication. Or, worse, to fault viewers for a lack of understanding.
Edward Tufte
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I do believe that there are some universal cognitive tasks that are deep and profound - indeed, so deep and profound that it is worthwhile to understand them in order to design our displays in accord with those tasks.
Edward Tufte