‘What is to be sought in designs for the display of information is the clear portrayal of complexity. Not the complication of the simple’ – Edward Tufte
It turns out that the dissatisfaction we experience looking at one PowerPoint chart after another is because they’re invariably bad. Occasionally we see something good – a clean, simple graphic that lets the data speak for itself. Edward Tufte wrote The Visual Display of Quantitative Information to explain why and show us how.
The book itself is a work of art; hard cover, beautifully typeset, and full of examples that illustrate and inspire. This summary is no substitute for the real thing. Get the book. Also, this post won’t make a lot of sense without having read the book first.