Information design: Tufte & Raskin

Art & Science

"Every major field of human activity is a mix of art and science. Theoretical physicists and professional mathematicians speak of the aesthetics of their work and are driven by concerns about elegance and beauty. Is a painter any less an artist for knowing perspective, understanding Josef Alber's elegant experiments and demonstrations about color, or being aware of chemical incompatibilities between various kinds of paint?

Designing the presentation of information, by the same token, partakes of the nature of both art and science. Edward Tufte's books reflect such a blend of knowledge. In one of them he outlines his five principles for designing graphics (1983: 105):" p.346.

[see below ...]

"The first four principles are (mostly) science-based. But the last, "revise and edit," tells us not only to check repeatedly that the first four conditions are met, but also apply our aesthetic judgement to the final work." p.347.

 INDIVIDUAL

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  INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC   

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

5.revise and edit	above all else show the data maximize the data-ink ratio erase non-data ink erase redundant data ink *
5.revise and edit	5.revise and edit

N.B. Take note of the potential significance of 'revise and edit' in the Political domain, and its consequences socially and personally (and spiritually within the 5th domain). 

*In terms of #5 revise and edit, and as I work to complete a draft paper on:

Reflecting Society, Technology, COVID19 and Information Disorder within Hodges' Model

- the ability to create and generate deep fakes using technology and generative AI, presents a major SOCIO-POLITICAL challenge. When public trust in media is fractured then everything can be denied - 'The Liar's Dividend' (Gregory, 2022).

Gregory, S. (2022). Deepfakes, misinformation and disinformation and authenticity infrastructure responses: Impacts on frontline witnessing, distant witnessing, and civic journalism. Journalism, 23(3), 708–729. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849211060644

Raskin, J. (2000). Presenting Information. In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Information Design (pp. 341-348). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 

See also: (The link below may time out, but 'Try again' works here.)

https://web.archive.org/web/20010710223205/http://www.jefraskin.com/forjef2/jefweb-compiled/published/NursingTheoryForSite.html