2. Notes...
• Coursework online!
• Tutorial feedback
• Read Tufte’s book chapters!
I have a copy
that I can bring to tuts -& there are copies
in library.
3. Reading
• Tufte pages 53 - 66
• http://bit.ly/l4dlight (Left 4 Dead use of light)
• http://bit.ly/worldofgootour (video)
4. Flatland
• Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
• 1884 Novel by Edwin A. Abbott
• Contemplates how world would look to
lesser and greater dimensions
9. Data Visualisation
• Life is navigated in 3D
• Mathematics can portray xD
• All(most all) of our displays are 2D
• How do we map data to 2D?
• One technique is layering and separation
10. “Escaping this flatland is the essential task of
envisioning information”
Tufte, Envisioning Information, Page 13
11. Information
• simple or complicated
• detailed or sparse
• analogue or digital
• NEVER confusing or cluttered
12. Design
• understandable or confusing
• clear or cluttered
• the point of design is to reveal detail and
complexity
• the data is never at fault
• the user is never at fault
23. ! "An undifferentiated, unlayered surface results jumbled up, blurry,
incorherent, chaotic with unintentional optical art. What we have here is
a failure to communicate” - Tufte p58
28. Harmonising Elements
• Careful layout diminishes 1 + 1 = 3 clutter
• Avoid ‘active negative space’
• Words have fewer descenders than
ascenders (so safer to put above a line)
• Curved text is hard to read
35. Games Examples
• Games use layering & separation to
communicate with player.
• HUD is layered on top of game world
• Games like Half Life 2 & Shadow of the
Colossus foreshadow future events through
use of background layers (even though we
don’t use the phrase “layers” in this way
often)