USEFUL NEWS: Image as Information

Any writer or editor knows that a picture is worth a thousand words. The same holds true for any visual image, whether it is a photo, graph, chart, or table. However, is it a useful image? I faced this question numerous times as a college textbook editor, when an author created a graph or chart that was useless or confusing.

Then I discovered Edward Tufte, the author of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and my perception of the comprehensible graphic changed forever.  Tufte is Professor Emeritus at Yale who taught statistical evidence, information design, and interface design. Now author of four fascinating and useful books on the application and convergence of information and images, he teaches one-day seminars that will open eyes and horizons for technical documentation managers and writers.

I attended one of his seminars a few years ago. Tufte moves quickly through a broad range of topics, from information design to how to present complex information clearly to creating useful and understandable PowerPoint presentations [he's written a separate chapbook on this difficult subject]. One of his most compelling examples is a graph of Napoleon's army's march to Moscow and back, created by Charles Joseph Minard, circa 1812. You can see it on the Tufte Web site.

At $380 it's not cheap, but it is of immense value - and you get all four of his handsome books [almost $200 alone], which will surely become part of your permanent reference library - as they are in mine.

Cheers,

Jack B. Rochester