Beautiful Evidence (Book Review)
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
If you’re a designer, an architect, an artist or a business manager you should have this book on your must read list. The effective communication of information is essential to all of our work.
Edward Tufte, having authored four books to date, spent nine years compiling Beautiful Evidence as a documented account of the best practice methodology for displaying information. Or, rather, for displaying evidence with authority. Because when we make a chart or write a report or put forward a work of art it is really about displaying the evidence. He uses good and bad examples of this display of evidence to coax the reader through new ways of thinking about content. New ways of enhancing the content so that it is more intuitively understood and less confusing to the audience. We are dealing with information and communication when we put forward evidence – whether its art or architecture or a report for an official enquiry. Beautiful Evidence is about learning better ways of communication using the visual context and multivariate levels of the information itself.
