Tufte Resolution

Here’s an interesting idea I got from the “Tufte seminar”:http://www.thudfactor.com/wordpress/2006/11/16/data-please/. Tufte refers to different presentation methods as being “low resolution” or “high resolution” — resolution referring to the amount of data you can present. That’s not necessarily tied to actual physical resolution (like 300dpi or 800×600), although obviously in many contexts the two are closely linked. An 800×600 screen, for example, only has 480,000 pixels to use to display information. But an 8×10 page has 28,800,000 pixels — a big difference if you are setting type or making tiny “sparkline graphs”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkline.

If your data resolution is limited in the physical dimension, you have little choice but to extend the resolution into the fourth dimension, lengthening a presentation. This is one reason PowerPoint presentations are so deathly dull — PowerPoint slides resolution is much lower than a computer monitor because content has to be delivered at a high enough point-size to be seen across the room; and then the slides are more often than not read out (possibly the lowest resolution method possible).

Tufte says it’s much better to provide handouts _on paper_ because it makes it easier for the audience to read, sort through, and find relevant information; whereas Powerpoint slides tend to make people’s minds wander because data is being delivered in such an inefficient manner. For my part, I think someone’s going to have to twist my arm before I ever use Powerpoint again, and I seriously suggest you reconsider it. You can order Tufte’s “PowerPoint essay here”:http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint (it’s printed, natch), or you can pick up a copy of “Beautiful Evidence”:http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_be which (I think) includes most of that content.

I mention this in part to put another nail in PowerPoint’s coffin. But also because I want to discuss Tufte’s website and his attitudes towards web design. Unfortunately, the suggestions he made in the seminar for maximizing the physical resolution of web sites and computer screens has the side-effect of significantly _decreasing_ the resolution of web sites on the temporal scale. That is, some of his suggestions would make web sites far more difficult to use. An opinion which is validated by his own site design and some of the serious usability flaws therein.

About which more later also, though. Until then, down with PowerPoint!