[chxchen] Commentary 14: Tufte, Envisioning Information Ch. 1
This reading was pretty interesting and included a lot of cool historic examples of visual information. The introduction on the dimensionality of visual information made a lot of sense to me, and the Japanese travel guide aligned with what Tufte mentioned. I thought that the use of dimensionality in the travel guide was really interesting. The transition from 3D to more 2D flatland already gave an interesting mix of dynamic perspective along with typical map information, and the addition of the completely flat train map on the side added another dimension to how the map could be interpreted.
I also liked the examples of mapping over time – for example, the sunspots map, dots on a disc over time, and the train timetable. The mapping of information over time is a very interesting concept to me, and I liked how these examples could be aggregated to extract more information. The complexity and dimensionality of the train timetable was also pretty intriguing, though I didn’t look too deeply into the specific details. I think it works really well for organizing complicated logistical information where all operators need to be intimately familiar with these intricacies, but works less well to an outside viewer that needs quick access to pertinent information.