Get an IV, stat!
What is thought? What is visualization? What is reason?
Erm, I don't know? Welcome to IV, or Information Visualization. Fortunately, we don't spend the whole class answering these questions, because that could take us for-bloody-ever. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) But what we did do today is look at some different examples of well-done visual information - the presentation of complex information in easy-to-swallow form. Extra-strength, Liqui-gel, Fast-Acting Information. We even looked at some Edward Tufte-approved examples, including the semi-famous drawing by Menard of Napoleon's Army's march to Russia (and back). Not only that, I offered to describe the drawing to the class, since I was the resident Tufte expert. Sweet.
One thing I can tell from this class is that our instructor's view of IV differs from Tufte in one important way. While Tufte is about presenting information in both a beautiful and inherently informative way, our instructor is primarily interested in the latter - or how we get to the latter, anyway. I suspect that the fundamentals come first, and the aesthetics come later. Or maybe when you do it right, it just comes.
Good for you, you Tufte expert. Although, I think I'll need you to explain it to me cause looking at it makes my brain hurt
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It makes my brain hurt because I can't enlarge the image. It's like trying to read a spreadsheet on A's 1600X1200 15" monitor.
You had to explain that ... I guess that's what they call a "Tufte Break". LOL, I kill myself.
You know, James, I really have no idea what you're talking about. Moving right along, here's a large version of the just the drawing part of that image: http://www.guilford.edu/geology/geo340/Minard.jpg
Monkey Elbows!
Thanks for the bigger version. Neat stuff.
It's even better when you can actually read the pre-amble to the chart, and Tufte's explanations as to why it is, in his opinion, one of the finest examples of beautiful/smart info vis.