{"id":2025,"date":"2012-08-20T21:47:09","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T09:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/?p=2025"},"modified":"2012-08-20T21:48:41","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T09:48:41","slug":"principles-for-info-graphics-from-the-visual-display-of-quantitative-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/archives\/2025","title":{"rendered":"Principles for infographics from The Visual Display of Quantitative Information"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Those principles espoused by Edward Tufte in <em>The Visual Display of Quantitative Information<\/em>\u00a0(first edition, 1983) that I found helpful:<\/p>\n<p>Excellence in statistical graphics consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision and efficiency. Graphical displays should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>show the data<\/li>\n<li>induce the viewer to think about the substance rather than about methodology, graphic design, the technology of graphic production, or something else<\/li>\n<li>avoid distorting what the data have to say<\/li>\n<li>present many numbers in a small space<\/li>\n<li>make large data sets coherent<\/li>\n<li>encourage the eye to compare different pieces of data<\/li>\n<li>reveal the data at several levels of detail, from a broad overview to the fine structure<\/li>\n<li>serve a reasonably clear purpose: description, exploration, tabulation or decoration\u00a0(p.13)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space. (p.51)<\/p>\n<p>The representation of numbers, as physically measured on the surface of the graphic itself, should be directly proportional to the numerical quantities represented.<\/p>\n<p>Clear, detailed and thorough labeling should be used to defeat graphical distortion and ambiguity. Write out explanations of the data on the graphic itself. Label important events in the data. (p.56)<\/p>\n<p>The number of information-carrying (variable) dimensions depicted should not exceed the number of dimensions in the data. [i.e. avoid pie charts] (p.71).<\/p>\n<p>Graphics must not quote data out of context. (p.75)<\/p>\n<p>Above all else show the data. (p.92)<\/p>\n<p>Maximise the data-ink ratio, within reason.<\/p>\n<p>Erase non-data-ink, within reason. (p.96)<\/p>\n<p>Erase redundant data-ink, within reason. (p.100)<\/p>\n<p>Forgo chartjunk [e.g. heavy grids and fake perspective] (p.121)<\/p>\n<p>Mobilise every graphical element, perhaps several times over, to show the data. [e.g. use the axes of a scatter plot to show the range of the data] (p.140)<\/p>\n<p>Graphics can be shrunk way down. (p.169)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Those principles espoused by Edward Tufte in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information\u00a0(first edition, 1983) that I found helpful: Excellence in statistical graphics consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision and efficiency. Graphical displays should: show the data induce the viewer to think about the substance rather than about methodology, graphic design, the technology [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2025"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2029,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025\/revisions\/2029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}