[Sigia-l] Edward Tufte

[Smith, Denise (Hewitt)]

<snip>

At the same time, I find him invaluable. I tend to use his books when I need
more help communicating through the interface. When I'm working on process,
I turn to urban planning and consumer studies. When I need inspiration on
categorization, I read in the library sciences. I guess I'm a little
confused as to why we need to dismiss good work that is tangential to our
field.

<snip>

Since I started this thread, I figured I'd answer this point. I don't
dismiss his work - I constantly refernece his books. I got some great
information out of his seminar, but I was dismayed at his rant against user
testing. Quite a number of people from my client companies were there, and I
had to defend myself / interactive methodologies there.  

I do highly respect the man, but I also feel (as with all people in a
position of 'authoritarianship") to not disparage what they do not either
work with or the quality of other people's work... in this case, user
testing. He did have about a 10 minute diatribe about how it was a waste of
money and time. 

Happy Friday!

Denise