ggplot2 may be influenced by Tufte, but the main influence is Leland Wilkinson's grammar of graphics. In fact, that is what the 'gg' in the name stands for.
The grammar of graphics approach attempts to identify the components of a graphic so we can specify them in a high level, abstract manner. This is also why the syntax is so unusual compared to most plotting libraries. (Grammar of graphics also deeply influenced protovis and D3.js.)
I've found learning the basics of ggplot2 to be a great investment in my productivity at data analysis. Basically you get to say "make a plot; x-axis is page views and y-axis is time and make it a bar plot with bars grouped and colored by user age" and you get something that looks great.
The grammar of graphics approach attempts to identify the components of a graphic so we can specify them in a high level, abstract manner. This is also why the syntax is so unusual compared to most plotting libraries. (Grammar of graphics also deeply influenced protovis and D3.js.)
I've found learning the basics of ggplot2 to be a great investment in my productivity at data analysis. Basically you get to say "make a plot; x-axis is page views and y-axis is time and make it a bar plot with bars grouped and colored by user age" and you get something that looks great.
(edited to fix minor autocomplete typo.)