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11 Graphics

Good design is clear thinking made visible.
—Edward Tufte

Good diagrams and interesting illustrations are visually arresting and create documents that are distinct and memorable. Illustrations can convey complex quantitative or spatial information quickly, transcending language barriers, and combine with text to complement many styles of information gathering and learning.

Personal computing and the rise of the Internet as a publishing medium have liberated information publishing from physical constraints: new tools have increased our ability to create information graphics, and the web provides a full-color multimedia medium unbounded by the costs of publishing and distributing paper.

Our limits are now fewer and our tools are more powerful, but we still have to answer the same questions communicators have always asked: What are the most effective uses of graphics, and what’s the best way to integrate words and images into an understandable story for the user?

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