reading responses

chapter 9:
In this chapter, the author said ‘good design’ has two key elements : simplicity of design and complexity of data. This is the question I have been asking to myself all the time. “What is good design?”  And I have my own definitions on good design, but it seems to change all the time. So, I am still looking for the answer. Tufte mentions aesthetics and technique in making good design. I think aesthetic is subjective. Some people say les is more, but there are other groups of people who say more is more. Visually attractive display or excellent technique could result good design, however I think good design should give something beyond just visibility. At the end, the author talks about scale, proportion, etc., which are useful tools to make better visual display. I could be wrong(most of times, I am wrong), but I don’t think there are principles or rules in design. There are successful designs that don’t follow those rules.

chapter 7:
One of the examples from this chapter, the shaped poem ‘easter wings’, was interesting, because I didn’t really think about meaning of words as data. I guess anything could be data. It is true that graphic elements multifunction when they are put into a map or graph. I think they create new layers when combined with each other.
When the author referred ‘contemporary’ design in this chapter, I stopped for a moment and looked through the pages to find out when this was written. The author mentioned that he started this book on 1975 and finished the first manuscript on 1982. I couldn’t imagine how contemporary design would look like at that time. What I find interesting is that most of theories Tufte talked about here still apply to today’s contemporary designs.