Visual Explanations

Good design saves lives. I tell people about Tufte's redesign of the Challenger disaster data to describe the highest purpose of graphic design. Tell it to those who say, “Make it look pretty.” The Challenger was a tragedy that could've been averted. O-rings break down at low temps, and it was cold when it launched, and so it launched and blew up.

The scientists who tried to prevent the launch of the Challenger presented NASA with a tome of data and tables and words that should've been clearly presented with a simple graph.