Upon reading the standard Tufte source for information graphics I had purchased in prior years I noticed many key points indicated by the plethora of post it notes as seen in the photo.
Very briefly, some of these key points about “Graphical Excellence” are:
– show the data
– induce the viewer to think about the substance rather than about methodology, graphic design, the technology of graphic production, or something else
– avoid distorting what the data have to say
– present many numbers in a small place
– make large data sets coherent
– encourage the eye to compare different pieces of data
– reveal the data at several levels of detail, from a broad overview tot he fine structure
– serve a reasonably clear purpose: description, EXPLORATION (to be used later in my project as a method of attracting the viewer), tabulation, or decoration
– be closely integrated with the statistical and verbal descriptions of a data set.
This include such things, but is not limited to:
– eliminating chart junk
– finding the balanced data to ink ratio as described by tufte