Ouch. Tufte is such a respected figure in the information design world, this review of his book almost hurts. But I’ve been thinking the same thing for a while, prompted by a colleague at work. Here’s some juicy bits:
“Tufte is a showman—a magician. He puts on a performance and we applaud it. What we applaud is Tufte himself, rather than the information design he presents us with.”
“You can enjoy its splendour, but you cannot see how the information artefacts he shows actually work for people in their context of use. Nor does his exhibition teach you how to do what Tufte does, any more than looking at a beautifully stuffed animal in a display case will teach you how to be a taxidermist, zoologist, or ecologist.”
“He frames illustrations with ‘instructions’ on how the illustrations are to be viewed, leaving no uncertainty for the audience. Thus primed, the audience then ‘looks’ at the illustrations and behold: the evidence for the truth of Tufte’s argument is there before their eyes! Great magic, and one is left with the conviction that the illustrations ‘work’ just as Tufte told us they would.”
Found this via eatonweb.