Thinking with Type_ A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students - PDF Room

206 | thinking with type

exercise: data tables

left

alone

taken

tonest

thrown

inwater

bothnest

and water

10

14

15

29

02

06

left

alone

taken

tonest

thrown

inwater

bothnest

andwater

sept

oct

total

left

alone

taken

tonest

thrown

inwater

bothnest

andwater

left

alone

taken

tonest

thrown

inwater

bothnest

andwater

20

22

01

05

15

17

nov

jan

total

dec

ch

loroformed ant

s

friends strangers

in

t

o

xi

ca

ted ant

s

Find a chart from an old science book or other

source and redesign it. Shown at right is a

nineteenth-century table documenting an

experiment about ants. The old design

emphasizes vertical divisions at the expense of

horizontal ones, and it jumbles together text and

numbers within the table cells.

The redesign below eliminates many of the

ruled lines, replacing them, where needed, with a

pale tone that unifies the long horizontal rows of

data. The redesigned chart also replaces most of

the numerals with dots, a technique that lets the

eye visually compare the results without having to

read each numeral separately.