Layering and Separation

I found the chapter on pages 52-65 to be insignful and filled with variable information.  What this chapter deals with is the technique of layering and separation of information and data in design.  The point of this chapter, according to Tufte, is to find strategies that show details adn complexity.  The failure to do so reflect badly on the design.  However, Tufte points out that effective ways of layering and separation is no easy task.  Many issues can come up.  There is an example.

Tufte explains tha several elements that go together an flatland tend to interact, which creates non-information patterns and textures through their combined presense.  Tufte cites Josef Albers on pages 53 who says that this is an effect know as 1+1=3 or more, when 2 elements show themselves along with assorted incidental by-products of their partnership.  While it has a nice effect, it reveals itself to be a danger to data display because it can become obstrusive.

What I got from reading this chapter is that information is made up of "differences that make a difference" (65).  It means using effective stragtegies to showcase meaning in your designcan help make the distinction look presentable.  By not following that, it will look cluttered and featured incoherent displays with misinformation.

Micro/Macro Reading

I feel that the chapter about "Micro/Macro Reading" on pages 35-51 are interesting.  Micro designs are made up of million upon million of details featuring  data that help clarify their information it's portraiting.  Mirco reading is important to us because we tend to thrive in worlds of information because of our capacities to select, edit, choose, catalog, highlight, etc. aout everything we know about information.  When it is displayed on a visual format that is even better because we get to compare, comtrast, and choose.  From what I have beeen able to observe in this chapter is nearly all the designs have shown quaritities of data at high densities like 1000 bits per square cm and 20 million bits per pages.  Every bit is vital in order for the design to produce the proper information to display.

Escaping Flatland

The pages on 12-35 is chapter about "Escaping Flatland."  This chapter informs us that trying to escape these "flatland" is a very important part of how we must envision information on designs.  By giving more depth and illusion, we communicate that right kind of information on a flat dimension plane (like paper), which is all honest is almost never easy.  For example, Tufte explains that standards of excellence for information design are made by high quality maps with various details, layers of close reading mixed with overview and data from engineering surveys.  The designers for this must care about what the viewer will find it interesting and engaging yet remain simple enough that the viewer can understanding what it is trying to say.