I just attended the one day course, Presenting Data and Information, taught by Edward Tufte. Edward Tufte is widely considered the godfather of information design and has written several books on the subject, including Visual Explanations, Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Data Analysis for Politics and Policy. He writes, designs, and self-publishes his books on analytical design, which have received more than 40 awards for content and design. He is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design.The course itself was very informative and well organized. Mr Tufte is well spoken and engaing due to his passion for teaching on the subject of visualizing data. Not only did everyone receive all four of his published books…as part of the cost of the course, but he actually uses these books as the course material. It was like being back in design school, actually.I highly recommend this course to anyone who has to generate reports or present data on a normal basis for business, scientific, research, or financial presentations. Mr Tufte covers fundamental strategies of information design along with many examples…although many were from the past. It would have been nice to see some recent examples.My only criticism of this course are:

• I feel that he should recognize more recent progress in the area of information design and data visualization (Information aesthetics, Visual Complexity, Content Visualizations, Swivel, Modern Approaches, The Periodic Chart of Visualization, The Best Tools for Visualization, Processing, Many Eyes, and SEED Magazine).
• His involvement in interface design seems limited and shows in his kiosk design for the National Museum in Washingtion DC. Another example of this is his alternative design for the iPhone’s weather app. He is trying to apply his principles of information design to interface design and I don’t think this works well. In his alternative design for the iPhone weather app, he wants to cram all the information on one screen. The beauty of the iPhone is in its’ system features that allow you to minimize clutter while offering alternative methods for displaying related information. ‘Left to right’ and ‘right to left’ is reserved for switching between cities, but what if instead of cramming everything on one screen (a method he is fond of), why couldn’t a user just swipe their finger down to see additional related information on that particular city’s weather?
• He should stop harping on the misuse of Powerpoint and focus on alternative approaches and tools* for presenting data. He offers one approach…that is to present handouts instead of lengthy PowerPoints. But, there are many advantages to visual presentations, one of which is saving paper to display the same info on screen. A small group of people is fine to give handouts to…but many people, you might want to reconsider using handouts and use the trusty ole computer/projector combo.
• While I was pleasantly surprised to see him teach the principle of 1+1=3, he could still learn a few things from a good visual designer in regards to his use of colors and visual chunking of elements. He seems to prefer little if any graphic elements… rather, black text on white background. I believe in Design Efficiency too, but it’s all relative to your needs and the context of the situation. There’s not one answer. As for color, he shows examples of sparklines, using the color red for no apparent reason. Shouldn’t the color red be used to show negative amounts of change?

* From Smashing Magazine: Diagrams: Tools & Tutorials, Charts And Graphs: Modern Solutions, Attractive Online Diagrams, Charts And Maps