Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 15:49:50 -0500 (EST) From: John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu> To: Sean Kelly <kelly@fsl.noaa.gov> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD keyboard Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.95.960717153202.252B-100000@Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu> In-Reply-To: <199607151913.TAA22363@gatekeeper.fsl.noaa.gov>
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On Mon, 15 Jul 1996, Sean Kelly wrote: > John> Around here there are a couple places that have uniform rows > John> of 6-8 rectangular white signs with black two digit highway > John> numbers and arrows. > > Where the heck is this? I see `indiana' in your email/web address ... South central Indiana to be specific. > I recommend _Envisioning Information_ by Tufte (Graphics Press 1990, > ISBN 0-9613921-1-8). Yup, thats the one I've read. There was another that I flipped through in a bookstore. Definately insiprational. I highly recommend his stuff to anyone interested in the fine points of information presentation. However, some people in my department (with whom I tend to agree) don't think too highly of him with respect to computer interfaces though. He is good at pointing out the problems, but a majority of his work is with static (ie print) information presentation. The dynamic world of the CRT is new can of worms and requires some different approaches, and he doesn't have much to offer here. > Shown above are convential graphical interfaces, with scroll > bars, multiple windows, and computer administrative debris. > ... Noise is costly, since computer displays are Case in point. With an interactive display, the user needs some way to manipulate the information which Tufte doesn't have many solutions to. But... > low-resolution devices, working at extremely thin data > densities, 1/10 to 1/1000 of a map or book page. This This is often very true. The information density of good printed map is tremendous. Its really difficult to get the same sort of density on screen with current display technology and making it interactive just compounds the problem. > I recently got to attend a special one-day course by Tufte where he Don't gloat now. Somewhat less inspirational, but more in touch with the interactive world is "Designing Visual Interfaces" Kevin Mullet and Darrell Sano (Prentice Hall 0-13-303389-9). -john == jfieber@indiana.edu =========================================== == http://fallout.campusview.indiana.edu/~jfieber ================
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