Beginning with Envisioning Information, Tufte details various points he previously made in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, going over the elements of graphic design like chartjunk and overall visual clarity. Tufte, in the first portion of this book however, focuses on how to bring the viewer into the graph and make them interpret the data. He argues that high density graphics give the viewer the ability to craft their own understanding of the data through the recognition of the patterns presented. Graphs that have been “boiled down” or “simplified” often introduce ambiguity and questions about what data has been omitted. Trying to streamline the message of the data often comes at the expense of the viewer’s interest and understanding. He argues that simplicity should be an aesthetic design choice, not a strategy. Clarity should come from the layering and separation of the data in the graphic. He then goes through important strategies to convey the data correctly that overlap with his previous book.
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