Edward Tufte Quotes

An open mind but not an empty head.

That is to say, nature's laws are causal; they reveal themselves by comparison and difference, and they operate at every multivariate space, time point.

I have stared long enough at the glowing flat rectangles of computer screens. Let us give more time for doing things in the real world...plant a plant, walk the dogs, read a real book, go to the opera.

Clutter is not a property of information. Clutter is a failure of design.

What gets left out is the narrative between the bullets, which would tell us who's going to do what and how we're going to achieve the generic goals on the list.

In general, I think audiences are a lot smarter than people think. So, it's not "know your audience", it's "respect your audience, and really know your content".

I was writing a chapter of Beautiful Evidence on the subject of the sculptural pedestal, which led to my thinking about what's up on the pedestal - the great leader.

Beautiful Evidence is about the theory and practice of analytical design.

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.

It is straightforward for me to be ethical, responsible, and kind-hearted because I have the resources to support that.

Public discussions are part of what it takes to make changes in the trillions of graphics published each year.

Great design is not democratic; it comes from great designers. If the standard is lousy, then develop another standard.

The goal is to provide analytical tools that will last students a lifetime

The essential test of design is how well it assists the understanding of the content, not how stylish it is.

Here's the general theory: To clarify, add detail. Imagine that. To clarify, add detail. And clutter and overload are not an attribute of information, they are failures of design. If the information is in chaos, don't start throwing out information, instead fix the design.

Above all else show the data.

Good design is clear thinking made visible, bad design is stupidity made visible

A practical part of my teaching is to provide demonstrative, hands-on experiences.

If you’re told what to look for, you can’t see anything else.

Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information.

We've drifted into this presentation mode without realizing the cost to the content and the audience in the process.

If there is a well thought-out design standard, it should be followed. In practice, great design comes from great designers. That is empirically the case. If a great designer did a first-rate standard, that model should be followed. Great design is not democratic; it comes from great designers. If the standard is lousy, then develop another standard.

Allowing artist-illustrators to control the design and content of statistical graphics is almost like allowing typographers to control the content, style, and editing of prose.

A curious consequence is that I have become a minor celebrity.

Design cannot rescue failed content.

I hope that I am generous and tolerant, but certainly on the intellectual side I think that there are discoverable truths, and some things that are closer approximations to the truth than others.

PowerPoint is like being trapped in the style of early Egyptian flatland cartoons rather than using the more effective tools of Renaissance visual representation.

There are many true statements about complex topics that are too long to fit on a PowerPoint slide.

The speculative part of my work is that these particular cognitive tasks - ways of thinking analytically - are tied to nature's laws.

The idea is that the content is the interface, the information is the interface, not computer-administrative debris.

If the statistics are boring, you've got the wrong numbers.

My idea here is that, inasmuch as certain cognitive tasks and principles are tied to nature's laws, these tasks and principles are indifferent to language, culture, gender, or the particular mode of information that is provided.

I am certainly not an intellectual relativist, nor a moral relativist.

The point of the essay is to change things.

There are only two industries that refer to their customers as 'users'.

Make all visual distinctions as subtle as possible, but still clear and effective.

Science and art have in common intense seeing, the wide-eyed observing that generates empirical information.

A metaphor for good information design is a map. Hold any diagram against a map and see how it compares.

I do believe that there are some universal cognitive tasks that are deep and profound - indeed, so deep and profound that it is worthwhile to understand them in order to design our displays in accord with those tasks.

The idea of trying to create things that last-forever knowledge-has guided my work for a long time now.

The most common user action on a Web site is to flee.

PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play - very loud, very slow, and very simple.

Simple design, intense content.

Good design is a lot like clear thinking made visual.

Confusion and clutter are failures of design, not attributes of information. And so the point is to find design strategies that reveal detail and complexity - rather than to fault the data for an excess of complication. Or, worse, to fault viewers for a lack of understanding.

The leading edge in evidence presentation is in science; the leading edge in beauty is in high art.

Design isn't crafting a beautiful, textured button with breathtaking animation. It's figuring out if there's a way to get rid of the button altogether.

The minimum we should hope for with any display technology is that it should do no harm.