[Contribution from Wendy Wahl that is a quote from Edward Tufte, author of "Visual Display of Quantitiative Information" ]
A "grave sin" of information design, in which attention is directed more toward "miraculous contraptionay display" than to presenting information. The maker wants you to appreciate his/her effort more than they want to communicate with you. I think of a Web page loaded with controls, graphics, frames, text - a not uncommon presentation with personal pages, and Microsoft Excel circa 1989 (whose presentation seemed to say "We've got more features than Lotus and we want to make you to see them all, right now!)