Audience boredom is usually a content failure, not a decoration failure: if the numbers are boring you have the wrong numbers.

Drawn from what Edward Tufte said

What this subject means

design How things should be made and judged: what makes a design good, who should do the designing, and what an interface is for.

Mental modelDesign is how it works

In the views ondesignunder our view: It is honest and it is felt: speed, behaviour and truth matter more than looks On the topicWhat makes a design good?under our view: Good design is honest, and it outlasts fashion On the topicWhich mental models should a designer think with?under our view: Design is how it works, not how it looks

What Edward Tufte actually said

Edward Tufte 1 Sept 2003 Statistician and professor emeritus at Yale

If your numbers are boring, then you've got the wrong numbers. If your words or images are not on point, making them dance in color won't make them relevant. Audience boredom is usually a content failure, not a decoration failure.

↗PowerPoint Is Evilwired.com
1 Sept 2003

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Everyone's software is good enough these days, so to stand out a product has to feel great, and animation is one way to get there.

Kowalski says software is all good enough now, so standing out means feeling great, and animation is one route to that. Tufte says boredom is a content failure and not a decoration failure — if the numbers are boring, you have the wrong numbers. One is arguing that the substance is settled and the surface decides; the other that blaming the surface is how people avoid noticing they have nothing to say.

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