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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
Graphics
Important
Life
Trivial
Traffic
Useful
Universe
Death
Beautiful
Best

More quotes by Edward Tufte

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It is straightforward for me to be ethical, responsible, and kind-hearted because I have the resources to support that.
Edward Tufte
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Great design is not democratic it comes from great designers. If the standard is lousy, then develop another standard.
Edward Tufte
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Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information.
Edward Tufte
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The world is generally multivariate
Edward Tufte
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The idea of trying to create things that last-forever knowledge-has guided my work for a long time now.
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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I think it is important for software to avoiding imposing a cognitive style on workers and their work.
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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There are only two industries that refer to their customers as 'users'.
Edward Tufte
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The goal is to provide analytical tools that will last students a lifetime
Edward Tufte
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Make all visual distinctions as subtle as possible, but still clear and effective.
Edward Tufte
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The world is much more interesting than any one discipline.
Edward Tufte
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If the statistics are boring, you've got the wrong numbers.
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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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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In general, I think audiences are a lot smarter than people think. So, it's not know your audience, it's respect your audience, and really know your content.
Edward Tufte
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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.
Edward Tufte
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What gets left out is the narrative between the bullets, which would tell us who's going to do what and how we're going to achieve the generic goals on the list.
Edward Tufte
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My father worked for governments all his life as an engineer and public works director.
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