What did you think of Edward Tufte's info design course?

April 5, 2004 1:22 PM

has anyone taken Edward Tufte's 1 day info design course? and if so?? what did you think? worthwhile?
posted by specialk420 to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

I've seen him twice and had a great time both times. (The lecture was basically the same.) He's very smart, engaging, and interesting. Plus, you get all three of his books and the cool map of Napoleon's march on Russia. It's expensive ($320; course info), but I had my work pay for it.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:45 PM on April 5, 2004

Very tangential, but it sounds like this book will introduces you to a similar mode of thinking, if not the same concepts.
posted by Gyan at 1:55 PM on April 5, 2004

I attended his seminar about 10 years ago as the guy who was responsible for making charts and graphs and reports, so I considered it very worthwhile, at the time.

If information design is an interest, definitely go.
posted by grefo at 2:02 PM on April 5, 2004

I went last year. It was a valuable experience for me, but I think my co-workers benefited even more.

There is a rock-star element to the seminar that is quite bizarre, but I think he has good information to share.

If someone else is paying for it...I'd definitely go again.
posted by answergrape at 2:04 PM on April 5, 2004

Response by poster: thanks for feedback people. i'm on the fence.
posted by specialk420 at 2:15 PM on April 5, 2004

Both my university and county library have his 'Envisioning Information'. If you are near a major public or university library, you could check out a couple of his books. That should make your decision easier.
posted by Gyan at 2:36 PM on April 5, 2004

You'll get more out of it if you haven't already read his three books -- the talk is essentially a guided tour of the core ideas and best case studies from the books. If you're familiar with the books, the talk will really just reinforce those ideas for you.
posted by jjg at 3:09 PM on April 5, 2004

I'll be the voice of dissent.

I paid a hefty sum to attend the course a few years ago. I didn't like it. It seemed like an exercise in Tufte egoism: look how great my books are, look at my cool old book, look how neat my little graphs are.

I understand that there are a lot of people who like Tufte. My opinion is the minority opinion. I like what Tufte has to say, and I enjoy his web site and texts, but I found the lecture almost worthless. I wished I had saved my money...

(I'm not a graphicsy person in any way; I'm just an average guy who likes to learn about cool new subjects. I liked what Tufte I'd read, so I thought I'd attend the course.)

On preview: jjg is absolutely right.
posted by jdroth at 3:15 PM on April 5, 2004

Ok well, I hate to become the tangent but as far as Tufte's works were concerned I was impressed and unimpressed. When I first read Envisioning Information I thought, "Oh my god, the world would be a better place if I could do things like this".

But as far as a real world application goes I don't see his books actually helping any. They give good overviews of what's good and what's bad, but not how to arrive to that point. Perhaps I'm missing major portions of his book, it has been a while since I read it, but unless you're creating charts for the NY Times or the Washington Post, it's not going to help. If you want the most helpful concrete help he puts out, simply get rid of unnecessary white space between borders.

Sorry to trivialize the man, but if his seminar is anything like the books it will be like "this cool old drawing is good, this cool old map is good, this spreadsheet is good, etc."

Maybe further studies on how the mind processes visual information would be better for someone who doesn't want just a cool coffee table book (or bragging rights seminar) would be more beneficial if you want to actually learn something. But that's what grad students are for. I have given ye a topic, go out grad students find thee funding.
posted by geoff. at 3:49 PM on April 5, 2004

I took the course a couple of years ago, and found it worthwhile (but, then, work was paying for it). I'm usually one of the guys in back that is rolling his eyes and bored out of his mind during lectures/presentations, so obviously I thought it was better than average. I find Tufte's book to be much like The Elements of Style for writing: a clarifying book that trains you to recognize good from not-so-good.
posted by brool at 5:09 PM on April 5, 2004

Response by poster: well - the second half of the thread confirms my suspicions ... his books are great, but i dont know if i need to spend a day reviewing the content of the books ... if there is not a lot more.

thanks for the feedback - 4 gold stars for all.
posted by specialk420 at 6:24 PM on April 5, 2004

Tufte has a lot of good information to share. His first major book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, is great and the other main ones are good too, but there is a trend of diminishing returns. I went to the seminar last year. Other than a few jokes and an up close look at rare books he uses as exhibits, there is not much in it that is not covered in his 3 main books. However, if you don't have the books, you may wish to go on the company dime since copies of all three are included in the one-day fee.
posted by shinnin at 7:00 PM on April 5, 2004

Or you could read the notes of someone who attended: 1, 2, 3 ...
posted by pmurray63 at 10:55 PM on April 5, 2004

See also: my notes from 9/27/01 in Chicago
posted by gsh at 2:10 PM on April 6, 2004