11 December 2006

Bruce Robertson - Collected Quotes

"A chart is a bridge between you and your readers. It reveals your skills at comprehending the source information, at mastering presentation methods and at producing the design. Its success depends a great deal on your readers' understanding of what you are saying, and how you are saying it. Consider how they will use your chart. Will they want to find out from it more information about the subject? Will they just want a quick impression of the data? Or will they use it as a source for their own analysis? Charts rely upon a visual language which both you and your readers must understand." (Bruce Robertson, "How to Draw Charts & Diagrams", 1988)

"Charts and diagrams are the visual presentation of information. Since text and tables of information require close study to obtain the more general impressions of the subject, charts can be used to present readily understandable, easily digestible and, above all, memorable solutions." (Bruce Robertson, "How to Draw Charts & Diagrams", 1988)

"Charts offer opportunities to distort information, to misinform. An old adage can be extended to read: 'There are lies, damned lies, statistics and charts'. Our visual impressions are often more memorable than our understanding of the facts they describe. [...] Never let your design enthusiasms overrule your judgement of the truth." (Bruce Robertson, "How to Draw Charts & Diagrams", 1988)

"Good graphics can be spoiled by bad annotation. Labels must always be subservient to the information to be conveyed, and legibility should never be sacrificed for style. All the information on the sheet should be easy to read, and more important, easy to interpret. The priorities of the information should be clearly expressed by the use of differing sizes, weights and character of letters." (Bruce Robertson, "How to Draw Charts & Diagrams", 1988)

"Maps containing marks that indicate a variety of features at specific locations are easy to produce and often revealing for the reader. You can use dots, numbers, and shapes, with or without keys. The basic map must always be simple and devoid of unnecessary detail. There should be no ambiguity about what happens where." (Bruce Robertson, "How to Draw Charts & Diagrams", 1988)

"Maps used as charts do not need fine cartographic detail. Their purpose is to express ideas, explain relationships, or store data for consultation. Keep your maps simple. Edit out irrelevant detail. Without distortion, try to present the facts as the main feature of your map, which should serve only as a springboard for the idea you're trying to put across." (Bruce Robertson, "How to Draw Charts & Diagrams", 1988)

"Scatter charts show the relationships between information, plotted as points on a grid. These groupings can portray general features of the source data, and are useful for showing where correlationships occur frequently. Some scatter charts connect points of equal value to produce areas within the grid which consist of similar features." (Bruce Robertson, "How to Draw Charts & Diagrams", 1988)

"Wherever information has to be presented, charts offer an alternative to text and tables of figures. They are concise, memorable often intelligible without language, and can make significant additions to the story." (Bruce Robertson, "How to Draw Charts & Diagrams", 1988)

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