re. Mind Expanding Books vs Lousy / Linear Computer Graphics
[Host's Note: Tom wrote this in response to STIA- The Natural Step LO3502
but I've put it here with the reading list. I highly recommend either of
Tufte's books.]
The two books by Edward R. Tyfte give some great examples of
INFORMATION Design. The third is to come in 1996.
Tufte has some contradictory "principles" but also many useful
insights. The big isea is that the world is multidimensional while
our representations are flat. We have to be careful but creative to
see and show many dimensions with our flat displays.
E. R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 1983
_________, Envisioning Information, 1990
Graphics Press, PO Box 430 Cheshire, CN 06410
The books by Cleveland are also important for information in the LO.
Elements is the more "elementary" or general use of the two.
Visualizing is a bit more technical.
William S. Cleveland, Visualizing Data, 1993
_________________, The Elements of Graphing Data, 1994
The Hobart Press, Summit, NJ
-- Tom Johnson tom_johnson@ncsu.edu tel: (919) 515 4620 fax: (919) 515 1794 Box 8109 18A Patterson Hall North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8109