The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
by Edward R. Tufte
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 676)
Read in July, 2007
A beautiful book, an equally beautiful read. Tufte seems to have been the first acknowledged expert in ethical statistical graphic design, though some of the pioneers he cites worked as early as the 18th century.
The idea is that the graphic representation of data - in newspapers, journals, and everywhere else - has the potential to be uniquely informative and even beautiful, but that low standards and inattention can lead to deceptive or useless renderings.
Picture a "USA Today&qu...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
People With Eyes
It's difficult to convey how important Tufte's work is, given the extent is it relatively unknown. Consider the following: every time you open a newspaper, or watch television, or go on the Internet, you're likely to see some graphical representation of data. It might be a map colored according to party politics, or a line chart showing the latest dip in the Dow Jones, or a pie chart about procrastination. These 'visualization' have become so ubiquitous that we largely take them for granted.
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Read in January, 2008
This is a book about graphs.
How, you ask, could anyone write a book about graphs, let alone read one? Surely you've never found the sex appeal of a bar chart, the seductiveness of a scatterplot. Well my friend, you simply have never realized the power of a well-designed graph.
Tufte took on the challenge of making visual information interesting decades ago, and it's still considered one of the top 100 books of the 20th century. He shows examples of what the best displays and worst displa...more
How, you ask, could anyone write a book about graphs, let alone read one? Surely you've never found the sex appeal of a bar chart, the seductiveness of a scatterplot. Well my friend, you simply have never realized the power of a well-designed graph.
Tufte took on the challenge of making visual information interesting decades ago, and it's still considered one of the top 100 books of the 20th century. He shows examples of what the best displays and worst displa...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
engineers, scientists, technical writers
In The Elements of Style, Strunk and White famously laid out a manifesto for lucid, minimal prose. This book is the equivalent for anyone who needs to put a lot of numbers on one piece of paper.
Like The Elements of Style, this book is not a manual. Though rich with ideas, examples and suggestions, its main contribution is to wake the reader up, to get you thinking about the purpose of numerical graphics, and to describe the basic principles of this kind of communication. Wha...more
Like The Elements of Style, this book is not a manual. Though rich with ideas, examples and suggestions, its main contribution is to wake the reader up, to get you thinking about the purpose of numerical graphics, and to describe the basic principles of this kind of communication. Wha...more
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Read in June, 2008
A remarkable book on a topic that, it seems, nearly everyone gets wrong these days. While I agree that scientists and others who routinely deal with the presentation of data will benefit most, truly everyone should read this book. It is about how to present (all kinds of) information intelligently.
It is almost shockingly information-rich, despite being very engaging and easy to read. It only took me longer than a day or so because of the copious notes I took. These properties of the book...more
It is almost shockingly information-rich, despite being very engaging and easy to read. It only took me longer than a day or so because of the copious notes I took. These properties of the book...more
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Read in January, 1988
It's hard to explain exactly what this book is about. They are not about graphic design, as in color or form. They are about the organization of the information in the graphic. In the intro, the author says:
Data graphics visually display measured quantities by means of the combination of points, lines, a coordinate system, numbers, symbols, words, shading, and color.
Anyone who needs to display quantitative information can learn the most amazing things in this book. This book is a classi...more
Data graphics visually display measured quantities by means of the combination of points, lines, a coordinate system, numbers, symbols, words, shading, and color.
Anyone who needs to display quantitative information can learn the most amazing things in this book. This book is a classi...more
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Read in April, 2008
Pardon me, but I think my librarian nerd roots are showing with this book. Edward Tufte's manifesto on what makes for a good informational graphic is required reading for information professionals, teachers, writers, and readers. (So, just about everybody.) In today's world of info-junk, it's more important than ever to know how to decipher useless, poorly designed, misleading graphs. (Pie charts: yes, they are as stupid and evil as you've always suspected!)
As for the term "library ...more
As for the term "library ...more
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this is a totally rad book if you have to present a lot of data. His view is to display as much information as it is possible to reasonably do, and to annotate things thoroughly.
He is very anti-powerpoint, which is understandable given its typical usage. However, I believe that pp can be used in a way that is consistent with most of his principles and practical within the context of a modern business environment.
I went to Tufte's class as well, but there is minimal incremental value ov...more
He is very anti-powerpoint, which is understandable given its typical usage. However, I believe that pp can be used in a way that is consistent with most of his principles and practical within the context of a modern business environment.
I went to Tufte's class as well, but there is minimal incremental value ov...more
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If ever a title did a disservice to a book, this is it. Even I was nearly put off, and I am a data nerd par excellence. This books is fascinating, thought-provoking and very beautiful. Tufte goes on to repeat himself in many subsequent volumes, but this, his first book, says it all.
Key concepts: ink-to-information ratio, and chart junk. I have plagerised Tufte's ideas and expressions in teaching civil servants and data analysts in countries from Indonesia to Ethiopia.
Key concepts: ink-to-information ratio, and chart junk. I have plagerised Tufte's ideas and expressions in teaching civil servants and data analysts in countries from Indonesia to Ethiopia.
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recommends it for:
designers, information architects, database geeks, web geeks
This and Tufte's Visual Explanations and Envisioning Information are CLASSICS. The books themselves are a work of art: high quality paper, binding, and artwork. Those with a fine eye for detail will highly appreciate it.
He often runs the lecture circuit -- I caught one in Atlanta in 2003 or thereabouts. His take on PowerPoint being overused and mis-used is spot on and hilarious (http://www.edwardtufte.com/tuf....
He often runs the lecture circuit -- I caught one in Atlanta in 2003 or thereabouts. His take on PowerPoint being overused and mis-used is spot on and hilarious (http://www.edwardtufte.com/tuf....
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This really shouldn't have, by rights, been a groundbreaking book. But strangely enough - nobody had really thought to examine the way that information is graphically presented to us before. Not in this way. A superb exploration of simple visual haptics. I do wish, however, that Tufte'd been able to explore rhetorical/political aspects of information design. Perhaps he or someone else will at a later date.
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
those that deal with graphs and quantitive information
Exceptional analysis of the information visulisation over the years. Tufte prints many examples of both good and bad information visualisation and covers his theories on what defines a well excuted visual. I have been displaying quantitive information for sometime in my job and only now after reading this book do I feel confident I'm displaying it in the clearest way.
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Read in January, 1997
a classic. a book i peruse more often than i care to admit (though not nearly as much as i should) for ideas, inspiration and examples of best practices when attempting to convey information to others in a non-verbal way. in fact, i find that thinking about non-verbal informational conveyance actually improves my abilities at expressing information verbally..
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
Authors, Editors, Businesspersons
I enjoyed this, Tufte's original, far more than the followup. Tufte's points are all concisely argued, with little puffery, excellent summaries, strong examples, and typically fantastic graphics. He has a few core points and he does not stretch them into an unnecessarily long book. This book reaches the status of required reading for anyone presenting data.
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
readers and graphic designers
Even if you are not a graphic designer, this book will make you a better reader of charts and graphs. Good to smarten up during wartime, elections, and wartimelections. Also, to just generally undo the damage done when you are taught to make graphs in social studies.
He should write an elementary school primer on graphs.
Learned 2 new words.
He should write an elementary school primer on graphs.
Learned 2 new words.
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
Designers
If you are a geek like me and spend your time thinking about how information gets transmitted visually, how we understand what we look at, and how data of all kinds is transformed from data to actual information -- this is the book for you.
Plus there are lots of pretty pictures. This is not, however, good for summer reading.
Plus there are lots of pretty pictures. This is not, however, good for summer reading.
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Read in June, 2004
recommends it for:
Anyone who's ever sat through an interminible powerpoint
I attended a Tufte lecture and it was inspiring. I tend to think of information in word form, but Tufte's mission is to rehabilitate that assumption.
This book focuses on the challenges of quantitative information problems. Elegant solutions to conveying very complex information.
This book focuses on the challenges of quantitative information problems. Elegant solutions to conveying very complex information.
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Read in January, 2005
Given its less-than-alluring title, I usually get a lot of smirks when I mention that this is in my top-five favorite books of all time. It's such a compelling description of the value and beauty of simplicity when deciding how to convey information in print.
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A beautifully produced volume on a subject I didn't know existed until I was touted onto this book.
Tufte apparently has cult following among web designers, which he deserves. A really, really smart guy on a hitherto obscure (at least to me) subject.
Tufte apparently has cult following among web designers, which he deserves. A really, really smart guy on a hitherto obscure (at least to me) subject.
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Read in April, 2008
A really cool book on using pictures, graphs and other visual displays to add to and enhance your text instead of just being redundant eye-candy. Great stuff, but a bit too heavy for casual reading. Probably i'll read it again more throughly sometime.
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