Tufte on Columbia evidence presentation

Tufte on Columbia evidence presentation: “a PowerPoint festival of bureaucratic hyper-rationalism”.

• design
• Edward Tufte
• Powerpoint
• Space Shuttle

Flash, usability, and information design

Tufte et al on Flash, usability, and information design.

• design
• Edward Tufte
• Flash

Edward Tufte’s thoughts on OS X

Information design hero Edward Tufte has some thoughts on Mac OS X:

The OS X interface design is distracting and self-conscious, with a marketing slickness rather the straight-forward transparent charming style of the past. It is out of tune with the superb industrial design of Apple hardware. Mac users will probably get used to it.

For my own current work (Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark with large files on large monitors), I see no particular reason to prefer the new design to 9.04. Indeed I regard 9.04 as nearly ideal (large flat-screen monitors are key; the Apple Cinema monitor is an enormous advance in design and as a working tool). Maybe when we do digital video that will make a difference in favor of OS X.

• Apple
• design
• Edward Tufte
• OS X

Pioneer Space Plaque Redesign by Edward Tufte

Edward Tufte, well known amongst information & Web designers for his trilogy of ID bibles, puts a bit of magic into the possibility of Earth’s first contact with aliens:

Since the principles of physics hold everywhere, magic is conceivably a cosmological entertainment, with the wonder induced by theatrical illusions appreciated by all, regardless of planetary system. Accordingly the plaque aboard the Pioneer spacecraft for extraterrestrial scrutiny billions of years from now might have escaped from its conspicuously anthropocentric gestures by showing instead the universally familiar Amazing Levitation Trick.

Who says information designers don’t have a sense of humor?

• design
• Edward Tufte
• space

Just enough is more

This is what Milton Glaser has learned about design:

Less is not necessarily more. Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realise that every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. “Just enough is more.”

I *love* that. Just enough is more. (via bbj)

• design
• Milton Glaser

New book: Beautiful Evidence

Edward Tufte (author of three excellent books on information design) is working on a new book on cognitive art entitled “Beautiful Evidence”. Here are some copious notes from one of Tufte’s one day courses (upcoming schedule). There’s a really good bit at the end on his “principles for making presentations”…I’ll need that advice right around 8:30 this morning.

• Beautiful Evidence
• books
• design
• Edward Tufte

These things have nothing in common

My mom has email now. The Internet has officially Arrived™.

I just finished reading Tom Clancy’s new book, Rainbow Six. It was OK.

The Avengers is possibly the worst movie I’ve seen since The Fifth Element.

Go rent Good Will Hunting. You know who you are.

I bought some drawstring pants. My unemployment experience is complete.

I will be gone for the weekend.

• africa
• Africa
• design

Calvin Klein dinnerware, Polo house paint, and Tommy cars

I’m looking though the Sunday paper today…searching for bargains. I open up the ad sheet for Dayton’s, an upscale department store, and what do I see but dinnerware by Calvin Klein. Let me repeat that: dinnerware by Calvin Klein. And Ralph Lauren makes Polo house paint. Tommy, Calvin, and Ralph all have their own “lines” of bed linen. I’m currently looking for a new car…does anyone know if I can get a Tommy car yet? If I can, I bet it’ll look just like a low-end Toyota and cost as much as a high-end Lexus.

And borrowing liberally from Henry Ford, Mr. Hilfiger had this to say about the Tommy car: “they can have a Tommy car in any color they want, as long as it’s red, white, or blue.”

• Africa
• africa
• design

The good and the bad

On the one hand, you’ve got the good. On the other hand, you have the bad. And then there’s a bunch of stuff in the middle. I was in the middle for a long time. Most of my life actually…just sort of floating nonchalantly along.

Then life got weird. Ever since, I’ve been oscillating between the good and the bad, swinging (sometimes violently) back and forth from one extreme to the other. This weekend, I felt as bad as I’ve ever felt in my life. Despair the size of a watermelon. But, I also felt as good as I ever felt this weekend. Happiness you only see in the face of a small child during a really ripping game of Peek-a-boo.

And this existance is really different for me…I used to be on cruise control, but now I’m driving in the city, stopping and starting again at all the intersections. I really don’t know where I’m going to end up. Is all this oscillating going to rip me apart or will I settle on one or the other or end up somewhere in the middle again?

Right now, the good is far outpacing the bad…and I think that trend will continue for a while.

• Africa
• africa
• design