In his second chapter, Edward Tufte dives into the combination of micro and macro readings in visual design and physical structures.

He speaks of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., and explains the complexities behind the contrast of the actual structure’s macro design, and the micro readings of each soldier’s names. Similar to Tufte, I agree that stemming away from an alphabetical, telephone book asjacent micro design was the right decision. Grouping fallen soldiers by name strips them away of some sort of individuality, as each individual name gets lost in a see of similar one. Moreover, the value in the chronological ordering is much more significant in the context of a war.

The aspect of the Manhattan Midtown diagram was less comprehensible to me in the context of the macro/micro design. Tufte mentions that the details supplements the drawing of routes accross different shops, specific locations, etc. However, I think more detail is needed (such as perhaps adding inviduals performing daily activities) to give this additional dimension to the diagram.