The Visual Display of Quantitative Informationthe first book by renowned statistician Edward Tufte, is a wonderful exploration of what does and does not work in data graphics. Tufte self-published the book in but it remains relevant and insightful today.
And what looks like a statement of principle is not labelled as such. Insights into graphical design are to be gained, I believe, from theories of what makes for excellence in art, architecture and prose. What follows is a mixture of the explicit principles and implicit insights I noted on a re-read of the book.
He provides many examples that follow these principles. There are many shocking examples of clear distortions of data to show what happens when these principles are not followed. Either way, the ratio is about efficiency and reducing clutter, aiding the reader of the data in getting to its meanings more easily.
The purpose of the decoration varies […] Regardless of its cause, it is all non-data-ink or redundant data-ink, and it is often chartjunk. Chartjunk is an obvious example of non-data-ink that creators and designers should look for when trying to improve data-ink ratio.
Small multiples reflect much theory of data graphics: For non-data-ink, less is more. For data-ink, less is a bore. There are several good examples of this principle being applied in the chapter. Except this is a poem not a visualisation.
This is of course very witty, but like most shaped poems it incurs one important disadvantage: it makes an unbalanced sensuous appeal—its structure directs itself more to the eye than to the ear. Its appeal to the eye is clearly the reason Tufte chose to include it in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information — even though there is no underlying quantitative information.
The art of Carmen figuratum is the province perhaps more of the typographer, who works primarily in one sense dimension, than of the poet, who must exactly interfuse two. It is in the delicacy of this joint appeal to eye and ear at once, it is in the perfect harmony of the address to visual and auditory logic at the Diverse frågor time, that any poem achieves its triumphs, and with its triumphs, its permanence.
I agree with the general principle that Tufte articulates in this chapter. Making them so becomes a distraction akin to chartjunk. But Tufte draws out more about complexity of actual data by making some points about what attractive displays of statistical information should Diverse frågor.
With that in mind, Tufte still thinks we ought to be mindful of aspect ratio when it comes to creating graphics wherever they sit. This is evident even in the design of his book, which keeps text to a column about three-fifths of the page but where graphics can take up full-width as needed.
What excites me most about this book is that, by examining day-to-day technical, specific work — presented across many graphs about many different topics — we discover deeper, human insights about facts, truths and storytelling. The principles should not be applied rigidly or in a peevish spirit; they are not logically or mathematically certain; and it is better to violate any principle than to place graceless or inelegant marks on paper.