Edward Tufte facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Edward Tufte
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Tufte (age 73) during his one-day course in Dallas, May 21, 2015
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| Born | March 14, 1942 Kansas City, Missouri |
| Occupation | Professor, statistician, writer, sculptor |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Stanford University (BS, MS) Yale University (PhD) |
| Notable works |
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| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | The Civil Rights Movement and Its Opposition (1968) |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Dahl |
Edward Rolf Tufte (born March 14, 1942), sometimes called "ET", is an American statistician and former professor at Yale University. He is famous for his ideas on how to show information clearly and for being a leader in the field of data visualization. This means making charts and graphs that are easy to understand.
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Early Life and Education
Edward Rolf Tufte was born in 1942 in Kansas City, Missouri. He grew up in Beverly Hills, California. His mother was Virginia Tufte and his father was Edward E. Tufte.
He went to Stanford University and earned degrees in statistics. Later, he got his PhD in political science from Yale University. His main project at Yale was about the Civil Rights Movement.
Career Highlights
In 1967, Tufte started teaching at Princeton University. He taught about politics and how to analyze data. He also wrote books about political science.
In 1975, he was asked to teach statistics to journalists. This led him to create lessons on how to show information using graphics. These lessons became the basis for his first book on information design.
In 1977, Tufte moved to Yale University. He became a professor of political science, statistics, and computer science.
His first book on information design, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, was published in 1982. He decided to publish it himself because major publishers weren't interested. He even took out a loan on his house to pay for it! The book became very popular. This success helped Tufte become known as an expert in information.
In 1999, he retired from teaching at Yale. In 2010, President Barack Obama asked Tufte to join a special panel. This panel helped make sure government spending was clear and easy to see.
How to Show Information Clearly
Tufte is an expert in creating infographics, like charts and diagrams. He is part of the American Statistical Association. He has also received special awards for his work.
Designing Information
Tufte said Charles Joseph Minard's 1869 graphic of Napoleon's invasion of Russia was "the best statistical graphic ever drawn". It shows six different pieces of information at once.
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Tufte's ideas are very important in fields like information design. This is all about how we show information visually. He came up with the word chartjunk. This means useless or confusing parts of a chart or graph. He believes these parts hide the real information.
Other important ideas from Tufte include the lie factor and the data-ink ratio. The data-ink ratio means using less "ink" for decoration and more "ink" for the actual data. He says that decorations should not make the data harder to understand.
Tufte wants people to create illustrations that show a lot of data. When you look closely, you can see every detail. But when you look generally, you can see trends and patterns. He suggests these detailed and general views should be easy to see at the same time.
He uses many old examples to show his points. These include John Snow's map of a cholera outbreak. Another is Charles Joseph Minard's Carte Figurative about Napoleon's army. He also uses Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Tufte shows how listing the names on the memorial in time order, not alphabetical order, makes it more powerful.
Small Multiples
Tufte suggests using "small multiples" to compare many things quickly. This is when you have several small charts next to each other. Each chart shows a different set of data. This can be easier to understand than one big chart with many lines. It's especially helpful when the numbers on the side (y-axis) are very different.
Sparklines
Sparklines are a small way to show trends, like how the stock market changes. They are often put right into the text. For example: The Dow Jones index for February 7, 2006 
. Tufte says a sparkline is like a "word" that gives a lot of information. It does this without stopping the flow of a sentence.
Sculpture Work
Besides his academic work, Tufte also creates sculptures. These are often large outdoor pieces made of metal or stone. Many of them were first shown on his own property in Connecticut. In 2009–2010, some of his artworks were shown at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.
Hogpen Hill Farms
Hogpen Hill Farms is a 234-acre sculpture garden in Woodbury, Connecticut. It is open to the public on summer weekends.
ET Modern
In 2010, Edward Tufte opened an art gallery called ET Modern. It was located in New York City's Chelsea Art District. The gallery closed in 2013.
See also
In Spanish: Edward Tufte para niños
