While reading Beautiful Evidence some questions about his ideas and methods came to mind.  I hope that they will be helpful in our discussion and understanding of the book. 

1)      Tufte self published the book Beautiful Evidence because of this he is able to have total control over the visual display and layout of the book.  For example preventing sentences from extending onto the next page, the location of citations, limiting the use of “and” when listing things, and having graphics cross the page gutter. What points does he make by the physical design of his book?  Do you think that the book would have been as effective if he had not self published and the layout was more traditional?

2)      This is a book that I find to actually be quite confusing yet the book itself is about providing evidence in a more accurate and effective way.  Could he be more effective in transmitting information?  More effective in inspiring the reader to see his view point and agree?  If he did reach out to readers that do not share his background to you think that it would negatively affect the book?

3)      After providing the reader with the fundamental principles of analytical design.  These Tufte explains to be;  Show comparisons, contrasts, differences, Show causality, mechanism, explanation, systematic structure, use Multivariate data; that is, show more than 1 or 2 variables,  completely integrate words, numbers, images, diagrams, Thoroughly describe the evidence. Provide a detailed title, indicate the authors and sponsors, document the data sources, show complete measurement scales, point out relevant issues, and Analytical presentations ultimately stand or fall depending on the quality, relevance, and integrity of their content.  He continues to state that these principles “apply broadly and are indifferent to language or culture or century or technology or information display. (Tufte 137) I find this to be quite a impressive claim and I wonder if you think that he is right.

4)      In his chapter Corrupt Techniques in Evidence Presentations, Tufte has a section called Effects without Causes and the Evasion of Responsibility.  In this section Tufte refers to the 9/11 Commission Report.  In the report, “by means of the passive voice, the 9/11 Commission evades attributing responsibility for security lapse.” (Tufte 142)  Correctly using or in most cases avoiding passive voice is something that we learn to do in writing.  What other points does the author make that we should acknowledge when writing. 

5)      In chapter six the author states that making and consuming a presentation is a “moral act as well as an intellectual activity.” (Tufte 141) He thinks that presenters should be held responsible for the content of their presentations and describes methods of presentation that are “enemies of the truth, that corrupt reasoning, that produce unbeautiful anti-evidence…these maneuvers often distort evidence, deceive the audience, and exploit the bond of trust necessary for reliable and intelligent communication.” (Tufte141)  He states that corrupt maneuvers, blatant or subtle, are epidemic in political speeches, marketing, internet rants, and PowerPoint pitches. (Tufte 141) While holding the presenter responsible for the stated or implied content of their presentations sounds good in theory what would this be beneficial in practice?

6)      Tufte makes his position on PowerPoint extremely clear.  He explains that PowerPoint works to comfort and organize presenters but this may be done at the expense of presenting accurate information. In Beautiful Evidence Tufte states that these expenses are “foreshortening of evidence and thought, low spatial resolution, an intensely hierarchical single-path structure as the model for organizing every type of content, breaking up narratives and data into slides and minimal fragments, rapid temporal sequencing of thin information rather than focused spatial analysis, conspicuous chartjunk and PPphluff, branding of slides with logotypes, a preoccupation with format not content, incompetent designs for data graphics and tables, and a smirky commercialism that turns information into a sales pitch and presenters into marketeers. (Tufte 158) Do you agree with him?

     

I stumbled onto this article earlier today and thought I'd share it with all of you out there who are fellow Twitterers.

I'm still relatively new to the networking tool, so I'm trying to adjust to checking and "tweeting" every day.  This article from CNN.com was written by Chris Pirillo (president of the blogging network site lockergnome.com.  He also has a Twitter account, if you're in the mood to follow him.)

So check out this link to read the full article entitled 10 Tips on Being a Good Twitterer.

                                                                   

Edward Tufte's Beautiful Evidence was an interesting, albeit often times tough, read.  It was a great text to follow last week's Maps of the Imagination, as it did continue the idea of using the "mapping" metaphor.

I liked some of his thoughts on images and visuals, especially his discussion on arrows within a diagram.  His presentation on the progression of art (pg. 66) made a lot of sense.  Often times, diagrams have the intention of simplifying information so it is easier to comprehend, as well as more concise.  The trouble is that we are then forced to think in a linear sense, or at least to think in terms of a strict progression.  The truth is that nothing is truly "linear" in nature.  Tufte says that in the diagram, "Depicted by single-headed arrows, causality flows just one way without the back-and-forth possibilities of mutual influence in art.  Such arrows represent a major and sometimes false assumption about the allowable scope of causal mechanisms."

I think this is a very important portion of the book.  We have so many possibilities with the use of visuals that we must not impose a strict form of thinking onto the viewers, but rather encourage the possibility of ideas branching off of one another.

One section that I had a bit of a problem with was the section that dealt with PowerPoint.  Although I do understand what Tufte is asserting, I don't necessarily agree.  His argument against the bulleted list seemed a bit weak in the sense that his logic is being applied to only a very specific concept.  What I mean is that Tufte presents an argument that addresses PowerPoint slides as a free-standing entity, when in actuality, they are often a mere single spoke in a wheel.  PowerPoint slideshows are primarily used as a visual component in a larger presentation, often giving an audience an image or written document to be paired with auditory analyses or information of a topic.

Tufte says that it is "thoughtless and arrogant to replace the sentence as the basic unit for explaining something."  I wholeheartedly disagree.  As I mentioned, a bulleted list is a succinct way to present main points and topics as more of a preparation for a more in-depth analysis that will follow (whether that be in the form of an oral presentation, or more slides with detailed explanations of preceding topics.)

I have to say that Tufte's vehement disapproval of PowerPoint irked me and slightly changed my opinion of him and this book.  And after a bit of research, I found that his campaign against PowerPoint spans over the course of a few years (he published a pamphlet in 2003 entitled The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching out corrupts within.  The chapter Cognitive Style of PowerPoint in Beautiful Evidence is a re-print of much of the same information and ideas as this pamphlet.  He then wrote an article in September 2003 in Wired Magazine entitled PowerPoint is Evil.)

We get it, Ed.  You don't like PowerPoint.  Are we done here?

Overall, I found the text a little difficult to get through at times, and even if I don't agree 100% with every assertion made by Tufte, he did, at least, get my mind to analyze images and their potential power.

 

In the book Beautiful Evidence the author Edward Tufte goes to great length to show the importance of providing accurately and effectively presented evidence.  This evidence than becomes beautiful if/when it inspires the viewer to see or understand something in a new way.  The author begins by providing us with an incredible number of examples for why we should map images and how best to do it.  By mapping the image the creator is providing context for it that the viewer may have otherwise not have understood.  For example if one is shown a picture of Saturn than they may marvel at its rings or color but if an image of the earth was placed beside Saturn it clearly shows the size of the object.  Now most people know that Saturn is significantly larger than the earth but if we look at another of Tufte’s examples say, the drawings of the fish on page 16 without the addition of a universal ruler most viewers would assume that the fish are about the same size.  However once the ruler is added we can see that in fact one is about twice as large as the other.

 In his next chapter the author advocates for the use of sparklines.  Which are “small, high-resolution graphics usually embedded in a full context of words, numbers, images.  Sparklines are data words; data –intense, design-simple, word-size graphics.”(Tufte 47) The author continues to say that sparklines are “wordlike graphics, with an intensity of visual distinctions comparable to words and letters.” (Tufte 48) Tufte explains that sparklines are very useful for showing data that fluctuates over time.  He uses the examples of glucose levels, changes in the market, and many others for show this point.  Sparklines are helpful because they can be “standardized and scaled in all sorts of ways depending on the content [for example if we are looking at the European foreign exchange we could include] the range of the price, inflation-adjusted price, percent change, percent change off of a market baseline.” (Tufte 50) Since sparklines are able to map data over a prolonged period of time so they can help give context to information.  Sparklines can also be used to supplement and enhance conventional statistical graphics such as the scatterplot.  To create these sparklines Tufte explains that you will need a “a page layout program, a graphic design program that gives complete control over type, tables, and line work, and a statistical analysis program to generate hundreds of chartjunk- free sparklines for export into design and layout operations.” (Tufte 61)

In the third chapter Tufte makes suggestions for how to use links and arrows more effectively.  He explains that “nouns name a specific something; arrows and links are too often non-specific, generic, identical, undifferentiated and ambiguous.” (Tufte 70)  This is a problem because when connecting two nouns, the differences are often more substantial than the similarities therefore to “express such variation, arrows, links, and other connectors should become more articulate, more differentiated, less generic.  One example that Tufte praises is a molecular- epidemiological diagram that shows the spread of the virus SARS.  Tufte states that the “diagram demonstrates excellent analytical practices for displays that use links and arrows to tie nouns together…these practices are; focus of causality, multiple sources and levels of data, annotated linking lines, annotates nouns, efficiency of design, and credibility.” (Tufte 78-79)

Tufte continues on to talk about the placing of verbal and nonverbal evidence and there relation to each other.  Tufte opposes the notion of putting the images in a separate section of the book such as the appendix or putting the images but on the text online.  He instead advocates for the image, numbers, and words to be on the same visual field.  He states that, “sometimes metaphors or analogies, at least other than basing field guides on computer interfaces, assist reasoning about analytical design.  But usually the metaphors for analytical design should be the content and the reasoning associated with the content.” (Tufte 114) For example when looking at a field guide of birds we can see that they provide “images, shape comparison for seven birds, location maps, song scores, description, and identifying keys.” (Tufte 115) This greatly helps the reader find and identify these birds.

The fifth chapter is dedicated to the fundamental principles of analytical design.  These Tufte explains to be;  Show comparisons, contrasts, differences.  This principle goes to answer the question; Compared with what? He explains that it does not matter what we are looking at or analyzing the “essential point is [still] to make intelligent and appropriate comparisons.” (Tufte 127)  The second point is to show causality, mechanism, explanation, systematic structure.  Tufte explains that scientific research, medical anylisis, even political thinking is causal thinking.  He says that “simply collecting data may provoke thoughts about cause and effect; measurements are inherently comparative, and comparisons promptly lead to reasoning about various sources of differences and variability.” (Tufte 128)  The third is multivariate data; that is, show more than 1 or 2 variables.  The fourth is to completely integrate words, numbers, images, diagrams.  He states that “evidence does not care what [mode] it is…In reasoning about substantive problems, what matters entirely is the evidence, not particular modes of evidence… Rarely is a distinction among the different modes of evidence useful for making sound inferences. It is all information after all.” (Tufte 131)The fifth principle is to Thoroughly describe the evidence. Provide a detailed title, indicate the authors and sponsors, document the data sources, show complete measurement scales, point out relevant issues.  He says that “documentation is an essential mechanism of quality control for displays of evidence. Thus authors must be named, sponsors revealed, their interests and agendas unveiled, sources described, scales labeled, details enumerated.” (Tufte 132) If the author does not document than their works is immediately suspect.  The last principle is Analytical presentations ultimately stand or fall depending on the quality, relevance, and integrity of their content. He continues to state that these principles “apply broadly and are indifferent to language or culture or century or technology or information display. (Tufte 137)

In chapter six the author states right of the bat that making and consuming a presentation is a “moral act as well as an intellectual activity.” (Tufte 141) He thinks that presenters should be held responsible for the content of their presentations and describes methods of presentation that are “enemies of the truth, that corrupt reasoning, that produce unbeautiful anti-evidence…these maneuvers often distort evidence, deceive the audience, and exploit the bond of trust necessary for reliable and intelligent communication.” (Tufte141) The final chapter is an in-depth look at the problems of Microsoft PowerPoint.  Overall, I found the book enlightening though perhaps a little inaccessible.  I recommend it for anyone who wants to look more critically at any form of evidence.    

    We have been reading for class Edward Tufte, Beautiful Evidence.  I have read textbooks all my life and the typical format for the text is present a theory, then illustrate by discussing several examples that use the theory.

    I feel that what made Tufte difficult for me is that I know nothing about the examples and metaphors he uses.  I have read that Tufte has a background in statistics, which one can see when reading the text.  He explains in terms of statistical vocabulary that my education background and experience preclude me from understanding.  He continues with these examples in other areas that my background prohibits me from any mutual understanding.

    In order to grasp what he is attempting to pass on to readers, I forced myself to think of metaphors in my life for the concepts he may have been attempting to teach.  The best one I came up with is martial arts.

    In a physical fight between two people who have no knowledge or background, it is typical of the combatants to use strength to their advantage.  Since there is always someone out there who is stronger than you, what can a person do who wishes to defend themselves against stronger opponents?

    A martial art teaches its students to use their opponent’s strength against them, rather than attempting to out muscle an attacker.  If an attacker throws a roundhouse punch to the right side of my face, the attacker will most likely use all their strength to add to the force of the punch.  I can block the punch and attempt to stop my opponent’s movement, but in order to do that I have to use my strength and hope my strength overpowers his.  Instead, I could allow my opponent’s momentum to continue and use that movement to position his arm into several types of submissions.

    This is where I think the metaphor for the concepts of visual evidence Tufte is attempting to teach come into play.  I can use arrows, colors, fonts, and spark lines to create a diagram that illustrates the evidence I wish to send to others.  But if the diagram is blanketed by distracting visual cues that draw the attention of the seer to the distraction rather than what I wish them to see, my purpose is not served.  Like martial arts, I am using strength with strength, instead of protecting myself from physical damage.  The better fighter always uses their head, rather than their fist, to win a fight.  We as visual creators always need to be conscious of what messages we are attempting to send, rather than "fluffing" up the diagram with distracting visual cues.

     A few summers ago, I was hired to supervise the Summer Education Opportunity Fund for my Alma Matter.  Part of the job was supervising the tutors who helped incoming freshman with writing and math classes that prepared them for a rigorous college curriculum.  I remember one of the biggest "water cooler" complaints amongst the tutors of writing was the students frequent use of "textisms". 

     When assigned an essay, the students would frequently abbreviate certain words typically found abbreviated while texting their friends (i.e. "lol", "lmao", "FYI", "Cyal8tr").  Texting is sending a text message via the cell phone to another cell phone recipient.  The amount of time needed to type out every single word of a text message and the cumbersome process of creating such messages probably contributed to the usage of shortened or abbreviated words.  It has made students, in the opinion of some researchers, "unduly reliant on short sentences, simple tenses, and a limited vocabulary."

     It is really rather remarkable when I think about it.  Based on some of the amazing technologies that have been created in my lifetime, I am sure that cell phone makers could have created cell phones that made texting easier.  If that is true, then why have we adopted texting into our culture so quickly?  (A research project in information architecture I would like to investigate at a later date).

Anyway, I was really never worried about text vocabulary appearing too frequently in written form in academia.  The fears of the tutors I supervised seemed to be that their students only knew how to use language skills used in texting rather than more formal business or academic language.  What they fail to realize is students must learn the words they are abbreviating before they can actually abbreviate them.  When I receive a message, "I will c u l8ter", my brain will automatically translate the "code" to, "I will see you later."  I knew the language skill, I just applied skills for one medium to another medium.

I feel the issue of text vocabulary appearing in academic work is an issue of social appropriateness, not because of lack of skill or knowledge of language or writing.  What must be taught to students is that there is a formal social etiquette necessary in certain environments and a laid back impersonal etiquette which can be used in others.  This isn't just for using a certain type of language in cell phones and a certain type of language when writing your master's thesis.  Socially appropriate behavior in the past was taught to us by our parents.  The changing dynamic of the family has made these lessons fall to the background of our lives.  In the last twenty years or so, more parents are working rather than one parent staying home while another works.  As a result, we can no longer count on parents to teach children what is socially appropriate for the various settings in which the student may find themselves.  I have seen colleges step up and create programs for such issues; however, given that only a small percentage of our population enters college, I feel it is important for high schools to begin programs as well.

There are some researchers who agree with my assessment of language skills, and others who do not agree.

     I still don't know what Information Architecture is, and I've had trouble finding a working definition, at least one that works for me.  I'll probably bring that up in class.  I also haven't finished Beautiful Evidence yet, so more to come on that.  So, I was looking for something I could relate to class, and I found something in a book we read last week for Core 2.      

     Our class was charged last week with reading Interpretive Biography by Norman K. Denzin and some of  its lessons apply directly to our work in Information Architecture.  I think you can deduce what the book entails by its title, so I won't bore the readers with a thorough explanation of the text. 

     Early in the book, Denzin talks about the meaning of truth, at least as far as biographers are concerned.  He says that "Fiction is a narrative (story, account) which deals with real or imagined facts and facticities (Denzin 23)."  So, is Denzin saying that fiction can be factual?  Yes.  But Denzin continues, saying "all writing, as suggested above, is fictional (Denzin 24)." This realization was illuminating as I have had trouble grasping concepts of truth, fact, and fiction. If Denzin is correct, then we should look at all writing, truthful or factual as it may be, as inherently fictional.  Avoiding questions of absolute or relative truth, we need to remember that all writing is compiled for a reason by its author, and this author arranges his materials in such a way as to fulfil his purpose.  The very act of compiling a narrative is highly fictional as it attempts to prescribe order to a set of facts, data, events, information, etc. that may or may not lend itself to being framed.  Writing is an artificial framing of the perceived reality of an author.  With or without facts, writing is fictional  This realization should not cause us to trust writing less, but rather to look at it more criticially, and in all contexts. 

   We now have a premise to work with: all writing is fictional; we can apply this to visual data as well.  If we say that the act of writing is fictional, it stands to reason that any display of information that is manipulated in any way whatsoever by the author is also fictional.  If we put something on Powerpoint, for example, or a posterboard, write a research paper, or a blog post, one undeniable fact remains: we will always be leaving something out.  If we cannot present the whole truth, we are merely presenting part of the truth at best, and a less authentic version of the truth at worst.  Whenever we attempt to display data visually, we are creating a fiction.  Visual displays help us put disparite information into a workable, relatable context.  This is the same as writing a narrative. 

  I hope to explore this idea more in the future.