Beautiful Evidence: Presentation Design Matters

Aug 22

Edward Tufte, the graphic presentation guru, who was called “The Leonardo DaVinci of Data” by the New York Times, has recently published Beautiful Evidence. He describes the book about presenting information by saying, “Beautiful Evidence is about how seeing turns into showing, how empirical observations turn into explanations and evidence presentations.” If you don’t own Tufte’s other three books, you can buy the entire bundle for $150 (saving yourself $35 and learning a heckuva lot about presenting information in the process).

The author was interviewed on NPR about the book in a piece titled Edward Tufte, Offering Beautiful Evidence. The five-minute interview is well worth listening to, especially when he talks about “spark lines,” which are data-rich presentations that give a much more complete way to present information.

In HR, presenting data is often a key part of the job. HR professionals present data to senior management about turnover, pay, performance ratings, and many other aspects of the work experience. It’s wise to consider Tufte’s work in that context. As we all know, when it comes to people, nothing happens in a vacuum.

About the Author

Frank Roche

Frank started IFRACTAL over 7 years ago with Sarah Chambers. Together, they've created HR communications and HR software for some of the world's leading companies. Frank is also studying Flamenco guitar and origami.