Envisioning Information.

• Author: Kelley, Joseph T.

Envisioning Information celebrates escapes from the flatland of paper and computer screen, rendering several hundred superb displays of complex data. Revealed here are design strategies for enhancing the dimensionality and density of portrayals of information--techniques exemplified in maps, charts, tables, diagrams, statistical graphics, computer visualizations and two-dimensional presentations of three or more dimensional data structures.

The world is complex, dynamic, multi-dimensional while paper or computer screen is flat. Envisioning Information works to bridge the gap, to explain by theory and copious examples how best to portray complex and voluminous data. The principles of information design are universal and thus all the examples, whether tables, maps, diagrams, etc., have something to offer the finance officer. The increasing power of microcomputer graphics strongly suggests that the ability to produce maps and graphics of great diversity will soon reside on desktops at an affordable price. This will be an enormous benefit to finance officials who are prepared to ask for the best designed representation of data. Envisioning Information shows the way.

As an impressive examples of the effective presentation of complex and voluminous data, and author displays a series of 12 graphs, called "small multiples," which portray urban air pollution for southern California. The data are a summary of 28,800 readings from a spatial grid of 2,400 squares, each five kilometers on a side, displayed by time of day and pollution types. The data are voluminous, but the peaks in the 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. column convey to the reader the seriousness of the problem without the need for extensive comment.

The author discusses various design strategies that produce excellence in information displays. For color, his advice is to use pure, bright or very strong colors sparingly on or between dull background tones to avoid loud, unbearable effects. "Human eyes are exquisitely sensitive to color variations" and we should remember that the "fundamental uses of color in information design [are] to label (color as noun), to measure (color as quantity), to represent or imitate a reality (color as representation) and to enliven or decorate (color as beauty)." This is wise advice to anyone who has just installed a new color monitor and is planning his or her first collection of color slides for a presentation.

Tufte urges his readers to avoid confusion and clutter by...