Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative

Software Magazine, Oct, 1997 by Mathew Schwartz

Author--Edward R. Tufte Publisher--Graphics Press Box 430, Cheshire, CT 06410 Price--$45.00 (hardcover) ISBN--0961 392126

Designing a user interface? Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative is a must read. Author Edward R. Tufte, whose book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (1983) is regarded by many as the bible of information design, offers new examples of effective integration between narrativeand illustration. Visual Explanations shows how to better design the display of a wide range of information--whether in charts, screen displays, or thunderstorm data.

In this elegant graphical tour de force, every image correlates to the text within the page, reinforcing Tufte's admonition that: "Ideally, structures that organize information should be transparent, straightforward, obvious, natural, ordinary, conventional--with no need for hesitation or questioning on the part of the reader."

Tufte offers a compelling graphical case study of the Challenger space shuttle accident where he says engineers had all the O-ring data necessary to cancel the fateful launch. But the demonstrates how this information was not arranged is a way to elicit the correct response. While the spectre of hindsight is a glorious thing, Visual Explanations also showcases examples of flawed design and then reworks many of them to reveal how they could be improved.

While the book is priced at a steep $45, it is a good deal cheaper than, say, a course at Yale, where Tufte teaches statistical evidence and information design.