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gescober
03-11-2008, 01:27 PM
I took this one-day course with a bunch of people from my company. In addition to the all-day lecture, you get a set of 4 of Tufte's books, which he refers to throughout the lecture.

Was it worthwhile? I thought so, though don't expect to emerge from the presentation with significantly better skills at designing information display. It's more of an appreciation class for good design. He covers the basic principles of good information design with lots of examples, and does have some interesting things to say. He does tend to talk about himself a bit.

Format was basic lecture with reference to his books. Very little in the way of Powerpoint slides (which he hates). Goes through a lot of case studies and examples. No real question/answer sessions, though he does make time to sign books.

The lecture was packed. They had some of his other books and posters for sale in the lobby, as well as, free coffee/tea/water. No free lunch.

MAlexander
03-12-2008, 07:06 AM
Disclaimer: I'm a Tufte fan, so take this with a grain of salt.

I think this is a great course for anyone involved in UI design/development, information organization, giving presentations, or just dealing with data to attend. Like gescober says, it's not a deep-dive, and you may not come away with new requirements tools, but you'll have a better appreciation of the challenges of information visualization, and you'll find yourself asking Tufte's questions like "compared to what?" pretty often in your work.

Sounds like the same set-up as the ones I've attended. I've found that Tufte is good about answering specific questions posted to his web site (www.edwardtufte.com (http://www.edwardtufte.com)), in case you ever have a visual display of quantitative information emergency!

MTalbot
03-12-2008, 03:02 PM
I'm really disappointed that I missed his class the last time he came through here. I've seen a couple of his books, and they are fascinating to look through (but looked a bit dry to simply "read").