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Works to open

A rule is easier to believe after seeing it at work. These are printed sheets, public screens and working tools worth opening and studying whole, each tagged with the rules it shows.

Three shelves
  1. 7On paper
  2. 8On screen
  3. 8In working tools
Made by
Portrait of Otl AicherPortrait of Massimo VignelliPortrait of Otto NeurathPortrait of Gerd ArntzPortrait of Edward TuftePortrait of Bret Victor

Aicher, Vignelli, Neurath and Arntz, Tufte, Bostock and Carter, Victor, among others

Show works for
23 works

On paper

Printed sheets that solved a dashboard’s problem before screens
  • 1972Rule 7

    Schedule for all sports disciplines

    Michael Burke, in Otl Aicher’s department, Munich 1972

    Dates, events and pictograms cross-indexed on one sheet, printed on both sides in seven colours.

    Open ↗
  • 1977Rule 1

    Unigrid

    Massimo Vignelli for the United States National Park Service, 1977

    One sheet system behind the brochures of more than four hundred parks. The content varies and the structure holds.

    Open ↗
  • 1953Rules 5, 7

    World Geo-Graphic Atlas

    Herbert Bayer, 1953

    Maps, sections, charts and symbols composed spread by spread. A landmark of layered, nested information graphics.

    Open ↗
  • 1925Rules 6, 12

    Isotype

    Otto Neurath, Marie Reidemeister and Gerd Arntz, from 1925

    A larger quantity is shown by more signs of the same size, never by a larger sign.

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  • 2006Rule 2

    Sparklines

    Edward Tufte, 2006

    Word-sized graphics set beside the figures they explain, with a grey band where a normal range exists.

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  • 2005Rule 9

    Feltron Annual Reports

    Nicholas Felton, 2005 to 2014

    Ten years of dense, precise personal data graphics. A study in typographic rigour at small sizes.

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  • 2011Rule 5

    Visualizations for La Lettura

    Giorgia Lupi and Accurat

    Compositions in layers, with a main structure and the secondary detail lightened behind it.

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On screen

Public screens that put a control, a spread or a stack of measures in the right place
  • 2014Rule 11

    Is It Better to Rent or Buy?

    Mike Bostock, Shan Carter and Archie Tse, The New York Times, 2014

    Each slider sits on a small chart of the outcome across the whole range of that input.

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  • 2011Rule 11

    Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction

    Bret Victor, 2011

    An interactive essay that moves between one concrete case and the whole range of a parameter.

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  • Vega-LiteRules 7, 11

    Crossfilter

    Vega-Lite example

    Three histograms of flight data. Brushing an interval on one filters the other two.

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  • ECMWFRules 7, 10

    Ensemble meteograms

    ECMWF

    Several weather parameters stacked on one time axis, each drawn as box-and-whisker steps.

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  • DailyRules 10, 12

    Public avalanche forecast

    Avalanche Canada

    Danger ratings for three elevation bands over three days. A compact forecast matrix written for a wide public.

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  • 2021Rule 2

    Weather, iOS 15

    Apple, 2021

    A page of rounded modules, each a small purpose-built instrument: a UV bar, a pressure dial, a wind compass.

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  • 1998Rules 5, 6

    Map of the Market

    Martin Wattenberg, SmartMoney, 1998

    An early treemap on the web: nested sectors, area for size, colour for change.

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  • 2022Rules 2, 5

    Design an effective chart

    Apple, WWDC 2022

    Two clear talks on marks, axes, annotation and how charts work together as a system.

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In working tools

Listed for how they arrange a screen; vendors’ own descriptions, not endorsements
  • JMPRule 11

    Prediction Profiler

    JMP documentation

    One small plot for each input, each a cross-section of the model’s response while the other inputs stay where they are.

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  • MathWorksRule 11

    Sensitivity Analyzer

    MathWorks documentation

    Parameter sets, requirements and evaluated results side by side, with the details of a selected design beside the plot.

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  • SAPRules 7, 8

    Analytical list page

    SAP Fiori design guidelines

    A chart and its table in one view under a visual filter, for moving between the pattern and the exact rows.

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  • IBMRule 5

    Colour and layering

    IBM Carbon Design System

    Surface roles as named tokens. In the light themes, layers alternate between white and a pale grey.

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  • PalantirRule 11

    Temporary scenarios

    Palantir Foundry documentation

    Edits live inside a scenario and leave the underlying data untouched, with a summary of what changed.

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  • ToolioRule 4

    Merchandise planning

    Toolio, vendor page

    A planning tool built around weekly open-to-buy, with scenarios and saved snapshots of a plan.

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  • CausalRules 10, 11

    Scenario tools

    Causal (now Lucanet) and Kinaxis, vendor descriptions

    Causal let an input be a range and simulated the outcomes, and Kinaxis compares sandboxed scenarios side by side.

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  • 2025Rules 1, 5

    Design tokens format

    Design Tokens Community Group, 2025

    The first stable, vendor-neutral token format, with theming and modern colour spaces.

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