Envisioning Information

I flipped open the book just now and arrived at a discussion of whether Maya Ying Lin's Vietnam Memorial should have had the names ordered by date of death or alphabetically. As there were over 600 Smiths who died in Vietnam and 16 James Joneses, an alphabetical listing would have given the memorial the flavor of a telephone directory.

Tufte persuasively argues and demonstrates how graphic design and information presentation affects thinking, decision-making, and emotion.


DISAPPOINTING   December 21, 1997
57 out of 102 found this review helpful

The book is expensive,thin, and misses the point. The illustrations for the book are never labelled, so you have no idea where the text refers to the illos! How can a book by a "designer" be that bad?! Some of the examples of good or innovative design is excellent but it says more about the "other" designers and not this book's author. Some of the obscure older examples of information design is rather good but if you want a good book on design, this is not it. Perhaps it will be a source of inspiration... The book is a confusing and artsy fartsy sort of a book typical of the mindset of artists and designers. They're so wrapped up in their personal aesthetics. It's not practical and it does not help to illuminate the history and development or practice of good design when conveying information. The idea that good design in the case of the space shuttle explosion could of been prevented thru good information design is rather silly. The reason why the space shuttle disaster was not prevented has as much to do with management issues (ie not listening to engineers that issue warnings in memos) and hubris of the NASA agency and confidence as well as political pressures from Congress that wished to ax the agency's funding led to the disaster and NOT the fact some graph wasn't well prepared. If you want good design, just go buy an issue of ID or other expensive design magazine or journal or better yet, go to a university library. I don't understand why other reviewers here gush over Tufte. The production values for this book are excellent. If you are interested in this book, please review it first. You may be disappointed and you may end up loving it.