"Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information."

The subject of this post is a compelling film: Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See.

The 38 minute film is a beautifully presented outline of design thinking. It is worth viewing, for this reason alone.

In the last third of the film there is discussion of the relationship between design and information. Druckrey talks about her work with Edward Tufte, executive producer of the film and former student.

Tufte has written: "What about confusing clutter? Information overload? Doesn't data have to be "boiled down" and "simplified"? These common questions miss the point, for the quantity of detail is an issue completely separate from the difficulty of reading. Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information."

It is right and proper that design is left to the designers, but there would be enormous benefits if the principles touched on in the film, and extensively covered in Tufte's books, were more widely known.

When presenters believe that clutter and confusion are attributes of information, they dumb it down and over-simplify. The result does not enlighten and serves to confuse when the recipients of the presentation are faced with real-world complexity. Designers, on the other hand, enable the presentation of massive amounts of information, but with clarity and ease of access.