“At first glance, the similarities between the Audi TT and Apple’s new iTunes media player may not appear to run any deeper both relying on metallic aesthetics to accentuate design features. However, what struck me about both offerings is that these two recent products strike a dynamic balance between the use of line and curves in funtional, evocative products.”

“This website describes Edward Tufte’s books, one-day course, and artwork. Edward Tufte has written seven books, including Visual Explanations, Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Data Analysis for Politics and Policy. He writes, designs, and self-publishes his books on information design, which have received more than 40 awards for content and design. He is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design. His current work includes digital video, sculpture, printmaking, and a new book called Cognitive Art.”

“Dr [Stuart] Card, a cognitive psychologist, reckons that a user ‘forages’ through a website in search of a piece of information in a manner similar to that employed by an animal foraging through a forest in search of food. Watch the user’s foraging behaviour (his ‘clickpath’) closely enough, and you can work out what ’scent’ he is chasing, and thus what kind of information he is after.”

“It should be admitted that Nielsen gets a great deal right… Unfortunately, though, he gets one little detail utterly wrong, and his wrongness on that detail is enough to force a rethinking of his entire argument. Part of Nielsen’s stance is the assertion that graphics usually compromise the rapid delivery of information, that linked text is sufficient to the needs of the vast majority of the Web audience, that loadtime should be the primary consideration in web design: in short, that there is One Best Answer to your design issue, whatever it should happen to be, and that answer is Jakob Nielsen’s.”

“This website describes Edward Tufte’s books, one-day course, and artwork. Edward Tufte has written seven books, including Visual Explanations, Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Data Analysis for Politics and Policy. He writes, designs, and self-publishes his books on information design, which have received more than 40 awards for content and design. He is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design. His current work includes digital video, sculpture, printmaking, and a new book called Cognitive Art.”

“At first glance, the similarities between the Audi TT and Apple’s new iTunes media player may not appear to run any deeper both relying on metallic aesthetics to accentuate design features. However, what struck me about both offerings is that these two recent products strike a dynamic balance between the use of line and curves in funtional, evocative products.”