“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.”

“Since human beings first walked planet Earth, memory has been one of the main concerns and interests. If early homo sapiens forgot, it was not only a matter of not remembering, it was often a matter of no longer living: if you could not remember which snakes were poisonous; which fruit was nutritious; where you had hidden your implements and weapons; where swamps, quick-sands and chasms were located; and where your secret supplies of food were, you did not get many more opportunities to try to remember anything!”

“This week marks the 100th anniversary of the New York subway system, and what better time to recognize the beautiful achievement represented by Massimo Vignelli’s subway map of 1972.”

“Here is a long chapter from Beautiful Evidence. Comments appreciated. The chapter will be up on the board for a few weeks. Thanks, E.T.”

“How did a map (that wasn’t a map) reshape London? Nicholas Crane on an iconic diagram.”

“Here is a complete draft of a chapter on linking lines and causal arrows from my Beautiful Evidence. This chapter suggests methods for showing linking lines and causal arrows, and also demonstrates ideas for assessing the credibility of various links. That is, the links themselves are taken as explanatory evidence. Note the typographic design of the organization chart which replaces the conventional design of bureaucrats-in-boxes…”

“So, 37signals took a field trip to see Edward Tufteís Presenting Data and Information workshop. I think I speak for the other guys when I say weíre really glad we attended. Here are someone elseís detailed notes. At his worst, Tufte is a passionate presenter with a clear cause (although slightly out of touch when it comes to talking web design). At his very best, Tufte has some real knowledge and insight to share about data density, the resolution of paper, clarity, simplicity…”

“Two years ago, Calvin Trillin wrote an article for the New Yorker about Shopsin’s, an eccentric eatery in the West Village with about 9 billion menu items… Shopsin’s has moved to another Village location since the article came out, but they’ve still got that big old menu. If you dare, feast your eyes on a tour de force of outsider information design, all 11 pages of the Shopsin’s General Store menu…”

“A recent article on document design in the WSJ shakily raised the question: Is a poorly designed memo at fault for not warning the president the nature of the terrorist threat? In many ways it’s a retread of the butterfly ballot controversy, and the Challenger controversy, but I think it’s a controversy worth raising again and again until careless attention to design stops killing people.”

“The article starts off by citing Greg Storey’s work to redesign the infamous Bin Laden President’s Daily Brief. It then moves on to describe what Information Architecture/Design is and how it can make a difference in understanding information and in the bottom-line for a business. IA/ID also is mentioned in the decision-making process for the Columbia disaster, and Tufte gets to rail a bit against Powerpoint. Tufte also dismisses Mr. Storey’s redesign of the PDB (way to exhibit solidarity, Ed). The article then moves onto another favorite pundit, Nielsen, and he gets to quote his $71B in lost productvity sound-bite.”

“The 1040 tax form is so deeply woven into the American psyche, especially this time of year, that it seems as inevitable and immutable as Mount Rushmore. Since 1977, the last time it was completely redesigned, the 1040 has been tweaked only to accommodate new federal laws. Through five presidencies, those changes have piled up, creating a maze of frustration for millions as they struggle to meet today’s filing deadline. To ease that frustration, the 1040 could use a complete makeover, and that is exactly what the Journal Sentinel asked of Karen A. Schriver. She is an internationally known expert in the presentation of information.”

“There’s a lot of talk about the recently declassified White House brief that mentions a possible attack by Al Queda forces within the United States but nothing about the state of intelligence reports given to the President of the United States. I speak specifically to the design of the document. It’s clearly inefficient in its purpose to communicate the assessment of threats against the United States… Not satisfied with this problem I set out to create a better intelligence brief.”

Draft pages from Edward Tufte’s new book Beautiful Evidence. “Here are some pieces of the sparkline chapter… I hope this material will be read carefully. Perhaps several Kindly Contributors will make some beautiful and interesting sparklines (or wordgraphics) with lots of data from a variety of fields… These little data lines… are small, high-resolution graphics embedded in a context of words, numbers and images. Sparklines are data-intense, design-simple, word-sized graphics.”

“The Underground Map and Minard’s famous Carte Figurative of the French Army’s disaster in Russia in the war of 1812 are alike in important respects: both are brilliant, and neither travels well. The Underground Map and Napoleon’s March are perfectly attuned to their particular data, so focused on their data sets. They do not serve, then, as good practical generic architectures for design; indeed, revisions and knock-offs have uniformly been corruptions or parodies of the originals.”