http://codeliability.blogspot.com/2008/05/edward-tufte-one-day-seminar.html
quotes and general notes:
- Great designs are transparent
- Never segregate data by the mode of production.
- Show all the data, it provides credibility.
- We should be concerned with the quality of thought.
- Don't use lowest common denominator design or you will have an intellectual disaster.
- Tables out perform graphs for data less than 1000 points.
- Screens should be 95% content and 5% administrative debris (scrollbars, toolbars, etc.). Measure it.
- Design the surface first. Outside-In design. iPhone designed the hardware platform before the software. iPhone has one of the highest DPI of any consumer device.
- Don't provide an application solution.
- Leave the UI alone once it's done.
- There is no relationship between the amount of information and the ability to process. The human eye can process 10mbit/sec.
- Don't be an original. Steal a good design.
- Consider a "super graph". It unifies and relates the audience to the data or theme.
- Increase information throughput
- Examine how newspapers report data and clone it. Examine "Nature" magazine.
- Multivariant problems are the only interesting problems.
- Progress in technology is measured in resolution
- Don't use legends on graphs. Put the text on the line.
- Maximize content reasoning and minimize decoding
- "We want to be approximately right rather than absolutely wrong"
- Use Gill Sans Font
- Annotate everything
about presentations
- Show up early for your own presentation to meet people, to show a gracious gesture, and to hand out materials early.
- Use presentations as a review of the material distributed prior to the meeting. Maybe simply ask "Are there any questions?" and end the meeting.
- Use Power Point as a projector operating system
- Give out handouts before meeting - people can read 2x-4x times faster than you can talk.
- What is the problem?
- Who cares? the relevance
- The solution
- Have a summary
- Say you will answer questions when they are done reading
- Use sentences. No laundry lists of nouns. Sentences for you to think causally.
- Don't use bullet reveals.
- Practice in front of a friend or a video camera
- Turn off the video and listen to the audio
- Ask a trusted friend for criticisim
- Never begin with an all purpose joke
- Never apologize at the start of the presentation
- Stay out of the first person during the introduction
- Stay on content
- Finish early
