Edward Tufte

Edward Tufte has written seven books, including Visual Explanations, Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Data Analysis for Politics and Policy. He writes, designs, and self-publishes his books on analytical design, which have received more than 40 awards for content and design. He is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design. His current work includes landscape sculpture, printmaking, video and a new book.

Tufte's writing is important in such fields as information design and visual literacy, which deal with the visual communication of information. He coined the term "chartjunk" to refer to useless, non-informative, or information-obscuring elements of quantitative information displays.
He uses the term data-ink ratio to argue against including non-informative decoration in visual displays of quantitative information. He claims that ink should only be used to convey and display significant data. In chapter 2 of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Tufte states:
“ Sometimes decorations can help editorialize about the substance of the graphic. But it's wrong to distort the data measures—the ink locating values of numbers—in order to make an editorial comment or fit a decorative scheme. ”
Tufte also encourages the use of data-rich illustrations where all the available data presented. When examined closely, every data point has value, when seen overall, trends and patterns can be observed. Tufte suggests these macro/micro readings be presented in the space of an eyespan, in the high resolution format of the printed page, and at the unhurried pace of the viewer's leisure. Tufte uses several historical examples to make his case including John Snow's cholera outbreak map, early space debris plots, and Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial.