RE: Examples of Meaningful Graphics

Kynn and others,

I want to recommend two books to you regarding the use of graphics and images.
They are both authored by Edward R. Tufte who teaches (or did teach)
statistics, graphic design, and political economy at Yale University and
conducts seminars on the topic of the visual display of information.

Envisioning Information ($48), 1983

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information ($40)

They are available from Graphics Press, Box 430, Cheshire, CN 06410 USA

They are expensive but the printing is of very high quality and each books
serves as an exemplar for the topic.  I believe that Amazon sells them at a
significant discount.

These two books contain the best information that I know of for using images
to convey information.  I have no personal connection with Tufte or his work
but did attend his seminar on information design a few years back in Boston.
It was terrific.

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Kynn Bartlett
Sent: Friday, June 18, 1999 4:16 PM
To: Anne Pemberton
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Examples of Meaningful Graphics


At 12:49 PM 6/18/1999 , Anne Pemberton wrote:
>For Ann Navarro and others who have been asking for examples, I think this
>site is a good "first" example of how "meaningful graphics" can make the
>information on a web site accessible to those who depend on graphics for
>comprehension. It is a good example of what I mean by the term "meaningful
>graphics".

I think that you can find plenty of examples of sites that use
graphics effectively; that's never been in question.  The
problems arise in defining what exactly are "meaningful
graphics" and how that applies to ALL pages.  Pointing at a site
that manages to use graphics well just tells you that some sites
can use graphics well; perhaps it's due to the nature of this
site (a very tiny catalog of services available from one
company) but it may not be generally applicable to all sites.

A better example would be to take a site that most of us would
agree is very "textual" -- such as the W3C site or Jakob Nielsen's
useit.com -- and explain what graphics are necessary there to
increase understanding for limited textual comprehension users.


--
Kynn Bartlett                                    mailto:kynn@hwg.org
President, HTML Writers Guild                    http://www.hwg.org/
AWARE Center Director                          http://aware.hwg.org/

Received on Saturday, 19 June 1999 08:28:23 UTC