נעם טרקטינסקי

Motivation - To evaluate people's acceptance of the minimalist approach to information visualization. Research approach - Eighty seven students, divided into three experimental conditions, rated their preference for two different graphs displaying identical information - a standard bar-graph and a minimalist version. Both versions were taken from Tufte (1983). Findings/Design - The results indicate a clear preference of non-minimalist bar-graphs, suggesting low acceptance of minimalist design principles such as high data-ink ratio. Research limitations/Implications - Subjects had no prior experience with the minimalist graph and therefore familiarity might have an effect on the results. Originality/Value - The research contributes empirical results on people's preferences to the mostly theoretical/ideological debate over approaches to the presentation of quantitative information. Take away message - People did not like Tufte's minimalist design of bar-graphs; they seem to prefer "chartjunk" instead.