“When information needs to be communicated, Edward Tufte demands both truth and beauty… But what inspires Tufte is more than aesthetics. Galileo’s observations, recorded in nearly 12,000 pages, marked an intellectual revolution. No longer was knowledge the dictate of church authorities, kings or the acolytes of Aristotle. Theories could be tested—doctrine could be upended—by what the eye can see. As Tufte sees it, what makes evidence beautiful isn’t artistry. ‘It’s all about discovering and telling the truth,’ he says.”

“This is a photograph of a Waffle House grill cook’s cheat sheet. The photographs indicate the way in which a cook marks his orders. These secret plate markers allow a Waffle House cook to simultaneously prepare multiple customer orders at once. Let me give you an example. If I were to order three scrambled eggs, dry wheat toast, and hash browns, the waitress would face the grill and yell out loud — ‘Mark: Triple scrambled dry wheat plate.’ The cook would then quickly take a large dinner plate, turn it sideways, and place a tub of jelly upside down at the six o’clock position.” (Thanks kottke.org!)

“If you’re like me, you live your life on post-its. Everything from grocery lists, to new ideas, to super important phone numbers that I should never, ever lose. It means that when I’m looking for that super important number, I have to look through every other post-it to find the one I want. Enter the OVERnote. The OVERnote is something I came up with to help me navigate this paper sea. Now my notes are self-catagorizing and I can find things at a glance.” (Thanks Magnetbox!)

“There is a new term ‘Information aesthetics’ that is starting to be seen with more frequency across the web. What is ‘information aesthetics’? Well for a head start, pop over to Information Aesthetics and take a quick look at some of the recent blog postings. It’s essentially the science (or the art) of visually representing data by understanding the emotional values and responses of the individual. ‘Data beautification’ if you will. Its obvious that beautiful things are more enjoyable to look at, and better to learn from.”

“Our friend Jim Bumgardner has been creating some lovely graphs using data mined from Flickr. This one is titled ‘Solstice to Solstice’: ‘To build this graph I collected about 40,000 thumbnails of photos that have been tagged ‘Sunset’. I positioned each thumbnail horizontally according to the day it was taken, and vertically according to the hour it was taken.’”

“The conference that I spent around 8 months planning, IDEA, transpired over the course of last Monday and Tuesday. In short, it went really well. Attendees seemed genuinely enthused — many went out of their way thank me. The speakers had a good time with one another and the audience. And, after I was able to come down off the epinephrine buzz of constantly being ‘on’, I realized that it all pretty much went off without a hitch. And now, some remembrances, lessons learned, and other thoughts about the event.”

The IDEA Conference now has a complete program, and this is the last week for discounted registration: “IDEA addresses the design of complex information spaces of all kinds. Recognizing that this challenge is not the purview of any one profession, speakers represent a range of disciplines: museum design, exhibit design, interaction design, information visualization, media art, futurism, geographic information system design, librarianship, network engineering, and more. The conference takes place at the OMA-designed Central Library in Seattle, WA, on October 23-24.”

“[Gregg] Rapp is so sure of his menu makeovers that he offers a money-back guarantee that his menu will raise profits–and in his 25 years in the business, he has yet to issue a refund. The first step is the design. Rapp recommends that menus be laid out in neat columns with unfussy fonts. The way prices are listed is very important. ‘This is the No. 1 thing that most restaurants get wrong,’ he explains. ‘If all the prices are aligned on the right, then I can look down the list and order the cheapest thing.’ It’s better to have the digits and dollar signs discreetly tagged on at the end of each food description. That way, the customer’s appetite for honey-glazed pork will be whetted before he sees its cost.”

“Edward Tufte’s new book, Beautiful Evidence, is now at the printer and should be available in May 2006. The book is 214 pages, full color, hard cover, and at the usual elegant standards of Graphics Press. Beautiful Evidence may be ordered now; the book will be sent immediately from the bindery when completed.”

“Widely read in many areas, including technical communication, Edward R. Tufte is arguably the preeminent authority on data and statistical visualization.”

“Crossing the blogs the last few months were a couple examples of stunt product design. While design agencies might think this is a good idea, a way to get some press, and design without that pesky restraint of clients, the solutions provided tend to be wholly unsatisfactory.”

“…if there is so much demand for Information Design, where are all the Information Designers? It turns out that they are out there, in the business world, hiding under different names. Today, the practice of Information Design requires multiple skills such as graphic design, human factors design, writing and programming….”

“VisualMente has several posts about some infographic-type images created by Lisbon advertising firm Foote Cone & Belding. It’s a campaign for the Portuguese political magazine Grande Reportagem. It turns flags of various countries into infographics by adding a legend.”

“I had an epiphany at about twenty years of age, a true momentary epiphany. It had nothing to do with making things understandable for the world. It had to do with my own ignorance. Everything comes from that terrifying moment, that milli-second, that terrifying moment of utter truth that I understood that I understood nothing.” (Thanks InfoDesign!)

“In an effort to see more (information) with the less (our normal vision system) that we humans are endowed with, Axel Kilian did some interesting basic research in 2000. He posited the ability of looking at a space of complex information by placing specific points of focus throughout the space. Usually when we look at a space of information, we look at one particular area. In Axel’s vision (no pun intended), you can point to three or more spots in the space where you can request specific attention to clarity. The result is being able to see at more places than one, simultaneously.”