Data Visualization

This reading was very difficult for me to follow and overall just confused me. In Escaping Flatland, Tufte writes about the ways to expand the number of dimensions that can be depicted on plane surfaces and the data density or the amount of information per unit area. I thought the examples of the Java Railroad and the Criminal Activity was interesting to show how certain visual arrangements of different information invites a wide range of ways to detect the patterns that are made to be persuasive and memorable. When looking at information we want something that we are able to think rationally about, communicate and in the end keep what was learned. Tufte writes how "Chartjunk promoters imagine that numbers and details are boring, dull, and tedious, requiring ornament to enliven." This method is meant to make the viewer look from a distance as if the data were a poster. I think this is actually a very interesting way since numbers are often times boring to look at and hard to remember.