Customer Rating: 
Summary: A worthwhile read, if you have time to take it all in...
Comment: Beautiful Evidence
The book goes to great lengths to explain the power and impact of visual imagery on the human mind. This type of psychological information can be valuable for many people in many different fields of expertise. The amount that it covers can be a bit over-bearing if you want to look at specifics to your own specific requirement, best to let it "wash over you" and distill out the key elements of interest afterwards. An interesting book...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great for the Undergraduate Classroom
Comment: Edward Tufte is a Yale political scientist turned information architect who brings 1500 years of analytic design together (including the histories of science and art) to create a very unique presentation that ET delivers in person each year to packed houses in large cities. He is known for his intense criticism of PowerPoint and his work on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board that catapulted him to fame alongside Richard P. Feynmann, who said [about the Challenger Disaster], "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled (p.168)."
Beautiful Evidence has nine chapters (Mapped Pictures; Sparklines; Links and Causal Arrows; Words, Numbers Images; Fundamental Principles of Analytic Design; Corruption in Evidence Presentations; Cognitive Style of PowerPoint; Sculptural Pedestals; and Landscape Sculptures) and, although all of the chapters are not uniformly strong (notably Sparklines and both of the Sculptures), two of them (Fundamental Principles and Corruption) are better than anything you could find anywhere else. It's content that you would want undergraduates to take away with them.
Beautiful Evidence is Tufte's greatest hits volume and last year I used it to teach table and figure making and even paper writing to undergraduate Digital Technology and Culture majors at Washington State University, emphasizing practice rather than theory. As in each of Tufte's books, figures, tables, maps, cartoons, paintings, photos, and illustrations from 1500 years of human history stand alongside one another to illustrate such design principles as to escape flatland by adding scales, diagrams, overlays, numbers, words, and images to make "mapped pictures" to document and present evidence, to skillfully use arrows to suggest cause, and to show skepticism whenever stumbling onto official reports that use the passive voice or the bullet-list format (pp.142-3).
Although I had taught Tufte's Envisioning Information to undergraduates for years, there were lessons for me in bringing Beautiful Evidence to a group of undergraduates, as there seemed to be a minority that despised Tufte for his standards, his moral imperative that evidence presentation is a moral act as well as an intellectual activity, and his emphasis on historical precedent--in short, things that all educators and librarians hold dear. One student called it "a picture book for adults" that contained commonsense stuff that everyone knew. And, although there may be some truth here, the good thing about Tufte is that he is all about showing the design principles that the world doesn't have to reinvent but simply carry forward.
Additionally, Beautiful Evidence has (at least) two other bonuses for undergraduate students, its comparison of PowerPoint with other methods of presenting information and its utter skewering of a book that presents a study of artists' paintings and value (pp.148-9) that was published by a Cambridge, MA publisher. Both offer great Tufte lessons. Energized undergraduates will argue against Tufte's condemnation of PowerPoint by saying that it is a more dynamic tool than Tufte makes it out to be because the "pitch" has a place in modern life. Tufte's skillful analysis of the study of artist's paintings (that illustrates a new term, economisting, with accents on the con and mist) will seem even more amazing after checking the book out over Amazon to discover all the favorable reviews associated with it.
Whether Beautiful Evidence is an introduction to Edward Tufte's work or simply the latest in a successful string of four books, readers will find something of interest. New readers will discover an explosion of beautiful, colorful-but-integrated content and seasoned readers will find what has come to be Tufte's style: a minimalist, no-nonsense text where the references are elevated to a place of honor along the right-hand side of the page and the images take center stage.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Evidence
Comment: While a Tufte fan for 10 years, this seemed to be a rehash of the same...was expecting more visuals...I bought this sight unseen--will not do that again from him.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and eclectic
Comment: This book covers the gamut of the published works of Isaac Newton, the review of the Challenger Disaster ( A telling indictment of PowerPoint) and a review of where PowerPoint fails badly in so many ways ( yes he does not care for it) through to how public sculpture should be displayed. A wonderful and eclectic book. Recommended if you truly want to be a better communicator. Plus this book on your coffee table will make people think you are really smart.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amusing but not useful
Comment: Tufte's work is fun to look at, thought provoking, opinionated, and not usually very practical to apply. This book was a bit disappointing. The preachy section on power point was annoying and unhelpful, since many of us do have to present structured talks and cannot compose a Lincoln speech or create graphics like Pravda. A chapter about how to use powerpoint creatively and effectively would be more useful than an anti-Microsoft diatribe and read almost like a conspiracy theory.
Summary: A worthwhile read, if you have time to take it all in...
Comment: Beautiful Evidence
The book goes to great lengths to explain the power and impact of visual imagery on the human mind. This type of psychological information can be valuable for many people in many different fields of expertise. The amount that it covers can be a bit over-bearing if you want to look at specifics to your own specific requirement, best to let it "wash over you" and distill out the key elements of interest afterwards. An interesting book...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great for the Undergraduate Classroom
Comment: Edward Tufte is a Yale political scientist turned information architect who brings 1500 years of analytic design together (including the histories of science and art) to create a very unique presentation that ET delivers in person each year to packed houses in large cities. He is known for his intense criticism of PowerPoint and his work on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board that catapulted him to fame alongside Richard P. Feynmann, who said [about the Challenger Disaster], "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled (p.168)."
Beautiful Evidence has nine chapters (Mapped Pictures; Sparklines; Links and Causal Arrows; Words, Numbers Images; Fundamental Principles of Analytic Design; Corruption in Evidence Presentations; Cognitive Style of PowerPoint; Sculptural Pedestals; and Landscape Sculptures) and, although all of the chapters are not uniformly strong (notably Sparklines and both of the Sculptures), two of them (Fundamental Principles and Corruption) are better than anything you could find anywhere else. It's content that you would want undergraduates to take away with them.
Beautiful Evidence is Tufte's greatest hits volume and last year I used it to teach table and figure making and even paper writing to undergraduate Digital Technology and Culture majors at Washington State University, emphasizing practice rather than theory. As in each of Tufte's books, figures, tables, maps, cartoons, paintings, photos, and illustrations from 1500 years of human history stand alongside one another to illustrate such design principles as to escape flatland by adding scales, diagrams, overlays, numbers, words, and images to make "mapped pictures" to document and present evidence, to skillfully use arrows to suggest cause, and to show skepticism whenever stumbling onto official reports that use the passive voice or the bullet-list format (pp.142-3).
Although I had taught Tufte's Envisioning Information to undergraduates for years, there were lessons for me in bringing Beautiful Evidence to a group of undergraduates, as there seemed to be a minority that despised Tufte for his standards, his moral imperative that evidence presentation is a moral act as well as an intellectual activity, and his emphasis on historical precedent--in short, things that all educators and librarians hold dear. One student called it "a picture book for adults" that contained commonsense stuff that everyone knew. And, although there may be some truth here, the good thing about Tufte is that he is all about showing the design principles that the world doesn't have to reinvent but simply carry forward.
Additionally, Beautiful Evidence has (at least) two other bonuses for undergraduate students, its comparison of PowerPoint with other methods of presenting information and its utter skewering of a book that presents a study of artists' paintings and value (pp.148-9) that was published by a Cambridge, MA publisher. Both offer great Tufte lessons. Energized undergraduates will argue against Tufte's condemnation of PowerPoint by saying that it is a more dynamic tool than Tufte makes it out to be because the "pitch" has a place in modern life. Tufte's skillful analysis of the study of artist's paintings (that illustrates a new term, economisting, with accents on the con and mist) will seem even more amazing after checking the book out over Amazon to discover all the favorable reviews associated with it.
Whether Beautiful Evidence is an introduction to Edward Tufte's work or simply the latest in a successful string of four books, readers will find something of interest. New readers will discover an explosion of beautiful, colorful-but-integrated content and seasoned readers will find what has come to be Tufte's style: a minimalist, no-nonsense text where the references are elevated to a place of honor along the right-hand side of the page and the images take center stage.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Evidence
Comment: While a Tufte fan for 10 years, this seemed to be a rehash of the same...was expecting more visuals...I bought this sight unseen--will not do that again from him.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and eclectic
Comment: This book covers the gamut of the published works of Isaac Newton, the review of the Challenger Disaster ( A telling indictment of PowerPoint) and a review of where PowerPoint fails badly in so many ways ( yes he does not care for it) through to how public sculpture should be displayed. A wonderful and eclectic book. Recommended if you truly want to be a better communicator. Plus this book on your coffee table will make people think you are really smart.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amusing but not useful
Comment: Tufte's work is fun to look at, thought provoking, opinionated, and not usually very practical to apply. This book was a bit disappointing. The preachy section on power point was annoying and unhelpful, since many of us do have to present structured talks and cannot compose a Lincoln speech or create graphics like Pravda. A chapter about how to use powerpoint creatively and effectively would be more useful than an anti-Microsoft diatribe and read almost like a conspiracy theory.