The Data Density Debate

Edward Tufte argues that a good chart will have high "data density" - a large number of data points on the page. Neville Hunt shows a good example of this. The debate around Tufte's point - and more generally around his hostility to PowerPoint (for encouraging lower data density, among other things) is summarized nicely by Tad Simons, editor-in-chief of Presentations magazine, in his article "Does PowerPoint make you stupid?"
One of the things I'm trying to do in this blog is apply the principles of marketing to presentation design. The great advertising expert David Ogilvy, in his classic Ogilvy on Advertising, seems to favor data density. Scan through his book and you will note a tremendous amount of text and other detail in the many examples of his work.

On page 84, Ogilvy wrote: "Short copy or long? All my experience says that for a great many products, long copy sells more than short. ... I believe, without any research to support me [but we value Ogilvy's judgment so we don't mind this], that advertisements with long copy convey the impression that you have something important to say, whether people read the copy or not."

This is a good argument for data density in presentations also: whether people absorb all the detail or not, they are left with the impression that there is depth to your work.