The Designing Eye

Things worth seeing and the principles behind why they work. A field guide to graphical excellence: data-ink, small multiples, sparklines, layering, and the quiet craft of showing information honestly.

1. 01Graphical Excellence"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." • — Edward Tufte, *The Visual Display of Quantitative Information*6 sections
2. 02The Data-Ink Ratio"Above all else show the data. Maximize the data-ink ratio, within reason. • Erase non-data-ink. Erase redundant data-ink." — Edward Tufte7 sections
3. 03Chartjunk"The interior decoration of graphics generates a lot of ink that does not • tell the viewer anything new. The purpose of decoration varies — to make the • graphic appear more scientific and precise, to enliven the display, to give • the designer an opportunity to exercise artistic skills." — Edward Tufte6 sections
4. 04Small Multiples"At the heart of quantitative reasoning is a single question: Compared to • what? Small multiple designs, multivariate and data bountiful, answer • directly by visually enforcing comparisons of changes." — Edward Tufte6 sections
5. 05Sparklines"A sparkline is a small, intense, word-sized graphic with typographic • resolution. Sparklines mean that graphics are no longer cartoonish special • occasions with captions and boxes, but rather sparkline graphics can be • everywhere a word or number can be." — Edward Tufte6 sections
6. 06Layering and Separation"Among the most powerful devices for reducing noise and enriching the content • of displays is the technique of layering and separation, visually stratifying • various aspects of the data." — Edward Tufte6 sections
7. 07Narratives of Space and Time"It may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn." — Edward Tufte, on • Charles Joseph Minard's 1869 map of Napoleon's Russian campaign6 sections