Since I am actually studying Tufte in one of my classes, I'll add my two cents.
As far as I understand, Tufte is most concerned with avoiding wasted ink. In
other words, every drop of ink must contribute to the data display. In his
book called "The Visualy Display of Quantitative Information," Tufte denounces
pie charts and decorative graphs (e.g. 3D, unnecessary color, etc.) because
they contribute nothing to additional data, and they are often interfere with
accurate perception. His idea of beauty (in data display) comes from data
density. He particularly praises a map (which contains graph within them)
which displays thousands of pieces of information in a limited space.
Given his approach to data display, it shouldn't be surprising that Tufte
doesn't like Power Point (especially ones with elaborate decorative background
colors, images, etc. because they don't contribute to additional information.)
But again, when I asked my students what a good lecture is, many of them argued
that it should be a power point with a lot of colors, and the lecturer should
make lots of jokes that have nothing to do with the topic just to entertain
them.
_____________________________________
Tosh Tachino, M.A., B.A. Honors
Ph.D. Student, Iowa State University
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~tosh/
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