Beautiful Evidence by Edward R. Tufte Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Beautiful Evidence
Book Review: Still Has A Few Tricks Up His Sleeve...
Summary: 4 Stars
No one knows information design like Edward Tufte, Yale professor and author of several extraordinary books. The New York Times called him: "The Leonardo da Vinci of data," and that moniker may not be far from the truth.
In the wake of his three eminently successful and influential books on information design, the bar for "Beautiful Evidence" was high, indeed. As more than a few thoughtful reviewers have noted, "Beautiful Evidence" recapitulates some of those previous books' themes -- and so it may not seem quite so "eye-opening" as its predecessors. Fair enough -- but that's not to say this book doesn't reward the reader for time spent studying its pages. Tufte still has a few tricks up his sleeve...
Since this book has been out for a while, now, there are plenty of informative reviews to be found. So instead of adding to that analysis I'll pass along a few highlight notes from a Tufte seminar ("Presenting Data And Information") that was given not long after the book's debut --and incorporated lessons from all four texts.
"What I really do is teach people to think," he told me during a seminar break. He later continued, "The deep principles of information design have a universality... because they are rooted in principles of analytical thinking." And during the course of this seminar, he showed compelling examples of how good design can facilitate clear thinking and effective decision-making.'' Like most truly effective professors, Tufte engages his audience with vivid examples, humor and variety. (Effective teaching, he points out, is a good metaphor for great presentations.)
Tufte also has a flair for showmanship, as when his assistant dramatically dons her white curator's gloves to pass among the audience with an archival copy of Galileo's original text where "...on page 162..." is the only place the astronomer actually said that the earth revolves around the sun.'' But entertainment value aside, the seminar's content spoke for itself - no surprise for someone who has made his reputation stressing content uber alles.
To the assembled audience, Tufte offered these incisive principles about substance over style:
* "First do no harm (to the content)."
* "This is a content-driven business. The quality, the relevance and the integrity of the content is all."
* "Design cannot rescue failed content."
* "The best way to improve the quality of a presentation is to improve the content."
* "We must be incessantly on guard against those - the webmasters, the PowerPoint rangers, etc. - who would distort the integrity of content."
In an age of chart junk, information overload, and slapdash presentations...Professor Tufte offers a compelling prescription for better decisions, better design and better thinking. If you'd like to take a glimpse at what information design really can be, pick up "Beautiful Evidence" (or any one of his previous titles) -- or visit [...].
Book Review: Stop the jihad! The world will not end with PowerPoint!
Summary: 2 Stars
I have long been a student of Tufte's, and the man has probably contributed more to the study of visual evidence than anyone.
Unfortunately, his continuing rant against a piece of software that was designed to help speakers less talented than he has become so overbearing as to overshadow his previous good works.
Dr. Tufte truly believes that one day, the wrong person will give the wrong PowerPoint presentation to the wrong audience, and the world will come to an end! He advocates having the World Police sieze all 300 million copies of PowerPoint around the globe and ban its use forever by internation treaty. If only the business world lived in the same fantasy universe as those blessed with a life in academia.
This book is mostly a collection of some very good material from his previous, stellar volumes, assembled as an excuse to get wider circulation for his diatribe on how PowerPoint is a totalitarian tool to make us all stupid. Tufte undoubtedly believes that inanimate objects such as guns and software can actually be evil themselves, without regard to the qualities of the users of such objects.
A great rebuttal to Tufte's ideas on where the evil lies can be found in the new book, 'And Your Point Is?' [available on Amazon], where one can find a great alternative rendering of the slide that Tufte claims killed the seven Columbia astronauts. At the end of the book, the author clearly demonstrates that using the same data, PowerPoint has the power to make overwhelmingly compelling arguments as long as the slide designer follows a few simple rules of visual design. As most of us in business will be stuck with PowerPoint for years to come, it's really better to learn how to use it effectively than to listen to another voice of unreason.
If you're considering this book, first check out his earlier three and take advantage of Tufte at his best.
Book Review: The least of the Four Books
Summary: 3 Stars
This book does not hold up in comparison to the first 3 from Tuft. This appears to be made up of a number of unconnected papers. The most important in my opinion is the introduction of sparklines. It's worthwhile to revisit Minard, The inclusion of the work on Powerpoint is OK, but the inclusion of Tufte artworks/sculptures seemed a little self serving and left me confused as to the point. The production qualities of the book are superb, but the content inconsistentBook Review: Tufte B-sides?
Summary: 3 Stars
This fourth book in Tufte's series on visual information resembles a disappointing B-sides/greatest hits collection instead of an essential new work. It includes a full reprint of Tufte's recent PowerPoint pamphlet and frequent discussion of topics from earlier books (for example Minard's chart of Napoleon's march into Russia). The final chapter on Tufte's sculptures seems especially misplaced. New material includes exploration of Sparklines, word-sized graphs interspersed among normal text. In the Graphics Press tradition of superior aesthetics, this book contains richly printed images and text on thick paper.
I'd strongly recommend the previous three books in the series, esp. the first one 'The Visual Display of Quantitative Information'. Those who already own those three works can probably skip this new volume.
Book Review: Tufte strikes again
Summary: 5 Stars
Up to Tufte's outstanding level. A motherlode of information, tips, guidelines, magnificently and very appropriately illustrated.
Hardly ever does one come across such perfectly designed books.