Editing Chartjunk (section)

== Etymology ==
The term chartjunk was first coined by Edward Tufte in 1983.<ref name="Tufte 1983" /> The book was developed based on ideas and materials developed for a Princeton statistics course that Tufte co-taught with [[John Tukey]]. As a self-published book, ''The Visual Display of Quantitative Information,'' Tufte claims that good design is founded in [[Minimalism|minimalist]] design principles. Specifically, he states that "graphics reveal data"<ref name="Tufte 1983" /> if they are designed with "graphical integrity."<ref name="Tufte 1983" /> Tufte, through minimalist design principles, was committed to an objective and neutral values of science. Other researchers have argued that minimalism is not objective and is full of its own rhetoric and potential to bias.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Bateman|first1=Scott|last2=Mandryk|first2=Regan L.|last3=Gutwin|first3=Carl|last4=Genest|first4=Aaron|last5=McDine|first5=David|last6=Brooks|first6=Christopher|title=Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |chapter=Useful junk? |date=2010|chapter-url=http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1753326.1753716|language=en|location=Atlanta, Georgia, USA|publisher=ACM Press|pages=2573–2582|doi=10.1145/1753326.1753716|isbn=978-1-60558-929-9|s2cid=195346232}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last1=Kennedy|first1=Helen|last2=Hill|first2=Rosemary Lucy|last3=Aiello|first3=Giorgia|last4=Allen|first4=William|date=2016-03-16|title=The work that visualisation conventions do|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2016.1153126|journal=Information, Communication & Society|volume=19|issue=6|pages=715–735|doi=10.1080/1369118x.2016.1153126|s2cid=61550176|issn=1369-118X}}</ref>

Tufte, in coining the term chartjunk, also made direct comments about a well-known designer at that time, [[Nigel Holmes]].<ref name="Tufte 1983" />

<blockquote>Nearly all those who produce graphics for mass publication are trained exclusively in the fine arts and have had little experience with the analysis of data. Such experiences are essential for achieving precision and grace in the presence of statistics{{nbsp}}... Those who get ahead are those who beautified data, never mind statistical integrity.</blockquote>

Further, in his second published book, ''Envisioning Information'',<ref>{{Cite book|author=Tufte, Edward R.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1135806416|title=Envisioning information|year=1990|publisher=Graphics Press |isbn=978-1-930824-14-0|oclc=1135806416}}</ref> Tufte critiques Holmes' D''iamonds'' chart:<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bailey |first1=Jefferson |last2=Pregill |first2=Lily |date=September 2014 |title=Speak to the Eyes: The History and Practice of Information Visualization |journal=Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America |language=en |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=168–191 |doi=10.1086/678525 |s2cid=62223240 |issn=0730-7187}}</ref>

<blockquote>Consider this unsavory exhibit at right – chockablock with cliché and stereotype, coarse humor, and a content-empty third dimension{{nbsp}}... Credibility vanishes in clouds of chartjunk; who would trust a chart that looks like a video game?</blockquote>

In a 1992 [[The New York Times|New York Times]] article, the reporter captures Holmes' response to Tufte's criticism:<ref>{{Cite news|last=Patton|first=Phil|date=1992-01-19|title=UP FROM FLATLAND|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/19/magazine/up-from-flatland.html|access-date=2021-08-01|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

<blockquote>Time's Nigel Holmes, creator of the diamonds graph, was understandably irked when Tufte criticized it. Holmes admits his work has sometimes been exaggerated, but feels that Tufte, in his insistence on absolute mathematical fidelity, remains trapped in "the world of academia" and insensitive to "the world of commerce", with its need to grab an audience</blockquote>

This debate between Tufte and Holmes is emblematic of the tension between statistical and designerly approaches to visualization design.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Few|first=Stephen|title=The Chartjunk Debate: A Close Examination of Recent Findings|url=http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/the_chartjunk_debate.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=July 31, 2021|website=Perceptual Edge|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521154710/http://perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/the_chartjunk_debate.pdf |archive-date=2011-05-21 }}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last1=Parsons|first1=Paul|last2=Shukla|first2=Prakash|title=2020 IEEE Visualization Conference (VIS) |chapter=Data Visualization Practitioners' Perspectives on Chartjunk |date=October 2020|chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9331299|location=Salt Lake City, UT, USA|publisher=IEEE|pages=211–215|doi=10.1109/VIS47514.2020.00049|isbn=978-1-7281-8014-4|arxiv=2009.02634|s2cid=221516843}}</ref>