Envisioning Too Much Information

My friend Mesch is a software engineer who works on graphics- and UI- related stuff. Also, he's a very smart guy. When I visited him at work two weeks ago, the only book he had on his desk was Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte. "That one has got to be good," I thought, and got myself a copy.

In the book, Tufte talks about the different aspects of communicating information on paper. Often, he starts by showing a badly made illustration and then presents an improved version of it. The results are often diagrams that are more understandable, contain much information, and are easy on the eyes.


Swissair 1949/50 Winter Timetable

One of my favorite high-density diagrams is the Swissair Winter Timetable of 1949/50. It is very different today's rather boring timetable presentation in booklets with tiny print. There is one circle for each city, geographically arranged. Every flight connection between two cities is represented by a line between the two and the departure arrival time written inside the circle, next to the line. The flight number is listed in the center of each line.


Circles for cities, connections with lines instead: no tiny-print listings.

I think this is a very interesting way of representing the data, and many variations would be possible: For example, an online travel site could show such a diagram with prices and airline logos instead of connection times and flight numbers.

Tufte, it seems, would agree: His book features a similar map from the Czech airline as a positive example. There's a lot information encoded in the map, a concept the book endorses by saying: "To increase clarity, add more detail."

Why doesn't anyone use this excellent concept from the middle of the 19th century? I'm not sure, but let me venture a guess: People like to see illustrations that are similar in type to those they have already seen. This is not because they're dumb, but because it takes far less time to absorb information when it's presented in a familiar way. That's why flight plans and timetables are still presented in lists.