Tufte discusses the concept of micro / marco in this chapter: building something large using small units.

Some of Tufte’s examples really resonated with me, but others didn’t make a lot of sense. For example, the poster with the hand composed of smaller hands did not seem like an effective example in my opinion. The poster seemed very different from the other uses Tufte talked about, which dealt with more data visualization and practical uses of micro / macro.

Others of Tufte’s examples felt a little like they were trying too hard, such as the graph on electrical resistivity. The graph was still quite cluttered, and Tufte’s praises would apply to any graph – all graphs are made of smaller data points. I think it made more sense when he talked about this in application to a larger map, because the smaller data points are different from just shading in areas of the map. The idea of stem and leaf plots as effective use of micro / macro was also very convincing to me.

I like this line towards the end of the reading: Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information. I think it really encapsulates the usage of micro / macro as a skill in design – effectively making lots of information fit concisely.