Lessons From Edward Tufte's "Presenting Data and Imagination"

By Lance-Robert, President

On January 24, I was fortunate to attend Edward Tufte's "Presenting Data and Imagination" one-day course at the Marriott Mission Valley. It included Tufte's three books

Visual Explanations
Envisioning Information
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Before the day was over, we discussed various strategies of information design, including

presentations
use of graphics and tables
use of video, overheads, and multimedia
effective design of Web sites
necessity for credibility in all our presentations
design of computer interfaces

Tufte had several suggestions for presenting our information.

He suggested that, instead of using separate legends, we readily identify lines and bars in the presentation itself.
He said that presentations stand or fall on the quality, relevance, and integrity of the content and that good design is clear thinking made visible.
He recommended that we show as much information as can clearly be displayed in one place rather than make our readers have to flip back and forth through several pages of data.
He suggested we use a content-oriented design process when we create our presentations. We should worry less about our presentations being original and more about the information therein being right.
For Web sites, Tufte suggested that a clear navigation bar across the top is sufficient and that additional "nav bars" along the side or the bottom are unnecessary and take up needed space.
He also suggested that, when we review our information or the information presented by others, we need to ask ourselves "what's the story?" and "can I believe it?"

He had these tips for presentations

Show up early. This helps you to avoid problems and to implement damage control (such as a faulty LCD projector or some crucial piece of equipment that's missing).
When the presentation begins, tell the people the problem, the relevance, and the solution.
Never apologize.When you discuss details, start with the particular, go to the general if a big picture approach is needed, and return to the particular again.
Provide paper copies of your presentations with suitable room for the audience to take their own notes or pose their own questions.
If you use a computer for your presentation, use Word instead of PowerPoint so that you can put more (relevant) information on each page.
Get rid of artwork in your presentations. Don't make it pretty; make it right.
Respect your audience. Be civil but appropriately frank.
Use humor with caution. Any humor that you invoke must be directly relevant.
Show passion for your subject! Let everyone know this is something you believe in.
Finish early!

It is no secret that Tufte has a severe dislike for Microsoft PowerPoint. While he admits that it is good for one-way communication, such as management making its expectations known to its workers, its low bandwidth makes it a less than ideal forum for the exchange of information with multiple participants in a meeting. He said that the human mind is capable of absorbing much more information than is seen in a typical PowerPoint slide, which is mostly cluttered by the artwork of the program itself and other "chart junk," as he called it, that distracts us from the real information being displayed.

Tufte compared the bandwidth of several well-known information sources, such as the Wall Street Journal and other periodicals, and recommended that, instead of using PowerPoint, we use 11-by-17-inch archive-quality paper, which, coincidentally, he had available for sale. He said that using just two or three of those sheets with information clearly displayed would be more effective than a 50-slide PowerPoint presentation.

He documented cases in which using PowerPoint actually limited the severity and amount of information disclosed before and after the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle disasters. We were even shown a video clip in which a large chunk of insulation from the primary fuel tank strikes the underside of the front left wing of the Columbia and the resultant shower of displaced material that flies from under the wing. The amount of material and the speed at which it was traveling far exceeded the rated capacity of the tiles on the shuttle's wing.

One of the highlights of the presentation was the demonstration of Peter Norvig's classic rendition of what Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" might have been like had Lincoln used PowerPoint instead of his classic speech to make the presentation.

See all six slides here, and get ready to laugh:
http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm

Read more about the Tufte presentation and books here:
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/courses