Edward R.

Tufte

The Visual Display of

Quantitative Information
Graphical Displays Should :

show the data

tell the truth

help the viewer think about the information

rather than the design

encourage the eye to compare the data

make large data sets coherent

Clarity in Technical Reporting
(NASA 1964)
Data Maps :

Charles Joseph Minard- Emmigration

Data Maps :

Charles Joseph Minard- Napoleon’s Campaigns

Time Series :

Salyut 6 Cyclogram
Space and Time :

Life Cycle of the Japanese Beetle

Graphical Integrity : The data must tell the truth
Graphical Integrity : The data must tell the truth
Graphical Integrity : Context is Essential
Graphical Integrity : Context is Essential
Other Design Considerations :

color

line and form

typography

format and scale

 Color :

Joseph Albers- The Interaction of Color

 Color :

Joseph Albers- The Interaction of Color

Line and Form :

Melissa Kaup Augustine- Type 1

Line and Form :
Line and Form :
Typography :

Melissa Kaup Augustine- Type 1

Format and Scale :

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David Fung- Student Examples

Format and Scale :

Christina Gonzalez- Student Examples

Format and Scale :
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

SLEEPING 0000

ZZ 0100
Z
0200

0300

CRAVINGS 0400
Meat
0500

0600
Dairy
0700

0800

Other (ie.honey)
0900

1000
None
1100

1200

1300

HIGH 10 1400

9 1500

8 1600

7 1700

6 1800

5 1900

4 2000

3 2100

2 2200

LOW 1 2300
Energy Level

Emotional Level

21 Days of Being Vegan | Daily Recorded Chart

Stephanie Tang- Student Examples

Fortune Magazine
Wired Magazine : Infoporn
 About 10,000 years ago, probably in what is now Turkey,
some proto-agronomy genius got sick of hunting and
gathering and decided to grow food instead. Too bad that
guy didn’t get a business method patent. But it didn’t take
long for farmers who raised better animals or developed
hardier seeds to learn they could charge more, an idea
formalized in the last two centuries with proprietary rights
assigned to breeds and strains. Today, agriculture is steeped
in intellectual property: Plants come with license agreements,
farmers can’t sow seeds from last year’s crops without fear

WHO OWNS AGRICULTURAL BIOTECH THE RISE OF AG PATENTS

While public entities control many enabling technologies for The boom in biotechnology in the 1980s came with a related
agricultural biotech, a handful of private companies owns blossoming of patents, especially in the US.
three-quarters of US patents, including the most relevant genes.
800
700
US AG PATENTS
MONSANTO 14%
600
PUBLIC SECTOR 24% 500
DUPONT 13% 400
UNKNOWN 2% 300
SYNGENTA 7% 200
100
OTHER PRIVATE 33% BAYER 4%
0
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
DOW 3%

US BIOTECH PATENTS

GM IN THE FIELD
The total supply of cropland worldwide is holding steady at nearly
PUBLIC 14% PUBLIC 75% 700 million acres. More and more of those crops are genetically
modified – which means they’re grown on intellectual property.
PRIVATE 86% PRIVATE 25%
700
JAPAN EU
MILLIONS OF ACRES

GM MOVES TO THE DEVELOPING WORLD

Genetically modified crops offer many benefits – but carry the
added burdens of patent-protected agriculture. So farmers who
plant GM in developing nations also reap a bumper crop of
licensing agreements.

INDUSTRIAL NATIONS DEVELOPING NATIONS

0
1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

NON-GM GM

2003 2003 BY CROP

2002
CANOLA
2001

2000 COTTON

1999 SOYBEAN

CORN
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
WHERE GM CROPS ARE GROWN MILLIONS OF ACRES

152 • 06 | 2004 • WIRED

Design Project
Harper’s Index

1. select one or two of the facts on this month’s Index

2. create a graphic interpretation of the information

3. adhere to Tufte’s principles of graphical display

{show the data, tell the truth, help the viewer think about the information
rather than the design, encourage the eye to compare the data, make
large data sets coherent}
Amount that a Colorado state prisoner is paid to work a day as a field hand at a local farm: 60¢
Amount the prisons are paid by farmers for each inmate's daily work: $77.20
Percentage of West Virginia public schools that will use the video game
Dance Dance Revolution in P.E. classes next year: 100
Percentage change in the number of Louisiana and Mississippi newborns
named Katrina in the year after the hurricane: +153
Design Project
Harper’s Index

1. select one or two of the facts on this month’s Index

2. create a graphic interpretation of the information

3. adhere to Tufte’s principles of graphical display

{show the data, tell the truth, help the viewer think about the information
rather than the design, encourage the eye to compare the data, make
large data sets coherent}