From: "Brian Schröder" <ruby.brian@...>
Date: 2005-09-19T19:29:15+09:00
Subject: Re: Get to the Point: Ruby and Rails Presentation Slides

On 16/09/05, Bil Kleb <Bil.Kleb@nasa.gov> wrote:
> John W. Long wrote:
> > Bil Kleb wrote:
> >
> >>  From Tufte's "The Smallest Effective Difference"
> >> chapter in /Visual Explanations/, I would tone
> >> down the syntax highlighting contrasts by an
> >> order of magnitude.
> >
> > I've never read this book.
> 
> If you're in the U.S., I highly recommend making every
> effort to get yourself to one of Tufte's short courses,
> 
>   http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/courses
> 
> (You'll get a copy of his books as part of the course
> fee.)
> 
>  > Can you explain the reasoning behind what you
>  > suggest in a little more detail?
> 
> Many some quotations from that chapter, will help?
> 
>   Make all visual distinctions as subtle as possible,
>   but still clear and effective.
> 
>   /small/ differences allow /more/ differences
> 
>   In designing information, then, the idea is to use
>   /just notable differences/, visual elements that
>   make a clear difference but no more -- contrasts
>   that are definite, effective, /and/ minimal.
> 
>   when /everything/ is emphasized, /nothing/ is
>   emphasized; the design will often be noisy,
>   cluttered, and informationally flat.
> 

For my taste too many words in this passage are highlighted. If it is
really a one to one quotation from the book including emphasis, I
think he may not have understood how to depict information clearly and
not burry it under emphasis noise ;-)

regards,

Brian


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