sMoRTy71.com: A day with Tufte

A day with Tufte

Tufte's autograph in my copy of "Visual Explanations"

I attended Edward Tufte's all-day "Presenting Data and Information" seminar today and it was really great. First of all, if you've ever read any of his books, you know the guy is brilliant. What was so impressive to me was what a great speaker he was, too. He really has a command of the material and an ability to make it very interesting (which is tough when you are discussing analytical design for 6 1/2 hours).

One of the key themes of the seminar (and of his work) is that analytical design should model itself after analytical thinking.

He also handed out a preview of the sparklines chapter from his upcoming book "Beautiful Evidence." Sparklines are basically word-like graphical representations of data. I really like where he is going with this concept. It allows for very rich data displays in a very small area. To see sparklines in action, check out the sample chapter on his website.

After the seminar, I was able to get one of my books signed. In addition, after the signing, I was able to watch him give another attendee an impromptu critique on a design project. Pretty cool.