Enormous quantities of data go unused or underused today, simply because people can't visualize the quantities and relationships in it. Using a ... read full description
reviews
Aug 06, 2009
Lucas
rated it: 
The best parts of this book are early and late chapters on the fundamentals of Processing. It's easy to pick it up and learn from the online documentation and forums only the specific functions and concepts that allow me to do what I know I don't know how to do, but of the foundations I had no idea: like the preprocessor that turns the code into Java, and the differences between the different graphics modes.
Middle chapters on plotting 2D graphs was pretty good, I hadn't thought of u More...
Middle chapters on plotting 2D graphs was pretty good, I hadn't thought of u More...
May 31, 2008
Dale
rated it: 
To quote from the first chapter:
The process of understanding data begins with a set of numbers and a question. The following steps form a path to the answer:
Acquire: Obtain the data, whether from a file on a disk or a source over a network.
Parse: Provide some structure for the data's meaning, and order it into categories.
Filter: Remove all but the data of interest.
Mine: Apply methods from statistics or data mining as a way to discern pa More...
The process of understanding data begins with a set of numbers and a question. The following steps form a path to the answer:
Acquire: Obtain the data, whether from a file on a disk or a source over a network.
Parse: Provide some structure for the data's meaning, and order it into categories.
Filter: Remove all but the data of interest.
Mine: Apply methods from statistics or data mining as a way to discern pa More...
Mar 23, 2008
Tom
rated it: 
Visualizing Data explores data visualizations through the Processing Environment, a Java-based IDE used as a sort of visual sketchpad to plot out visualizations without heaps of Java code. The author, Ben Fry, is well schooled - PhD from the Aesthetics + Computation Group at the MIT Media Laboratory, the 2006-2007 Nierenberg Chair of Design for the Carnegie Mellon School of Design, amongst other achievements. Fry stresses the 7 stages of visualizing data:
Acquire -> Parse -> Fil More...
Acquire -> Parse -> Fil More...
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Sep 12, 2010
Chris
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This was a helpful (re)introduction to the Processing language for me. I found Fry's characterisation of the process of developing a visualisation ("acquire, parse, filter, mine, represent, refine, and interact") useful in that it provides a structured framework for thinking about something that can be a messy endeavour. I also liked the strong emphasis on questions and narrative - the notion that data visualisation should actually have something to say is all too often lost in technic
Jan 01, 2011
So far I really like this. There's a lot of code, but also some good insight into how to think about data and the questions that it can answer. It's really pleasurable to be inspired to write code in service of answering questions instead of laboring over clean, slick code.
Feb 24, 2010
Ben
rated it:
This book is basically a manual for the "Processing" engine for displaying custom graphs and charts. This is helpful for me because it's time I get confortable with breaking away from Excel and friends.
Feb 23, 2009
Billy
rated it: 
Not so much a book about Visualizing Data as it is an instruction manual for using his language, Processing. There were a few good tid-bits of knowledge but, overall I was underwhelmed. I thought there would be a lot more about the theory of how to effectively visualize data and less code.
Dec 28, 2010
Vuk
rated it:
Should have been called "Vizualizing Data with Processing" but good stuff otherwise...
May 15, 2010
Hans
rated it:
This book wasn't what I was looking for, but was still very enlightening nonetheless. Fry splits up the process for understanding data into seven steps: acquire, parse, filter, mine, represent, refine and interact. There were some very good chapters on the first two steps, but I found the book lacking on represent and refine. For a non-programmer like me it was also good to see some of the thought processes that you have to go through to overcoming the obstacles to an insightful visual represent
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Sep 11, 2011
Dgg32
rated it:
Fry tried really hard to teach and it is delightful course. I really learn something from this book. Processing is still not a mainstream language (or dialect as Fry put it), but its potential as a animation web app is still huge. So if you want to start with Processing, this book is better than the thin "Getting start with Processing". The latter one is just plain too simple and too surface.
Nov 21, 2009
Alex
rated it:
Fry, a co-creator of processing, presents a series of visualization case studies with clean code snippets and concise explanations. It seems a little bizarre to claim that acquisition is a stage of the visualization process (might visualization start after you have a dataset and are trying to find a new way to understand and share its nuances?). Still, this is a manual I will keep nearby.
Jul 29, 2008
Joshua
rated it:
Pretty solid introduction to processing and generically, how to think about visualizing data. I was able to kick out some useful (and/or just pretty) graphics after reading this book, where previously I'd just done basic dabbling. I found the 'Treemap' section especially helpful, as the online resources around making them are weak/hard to find.
May 13, 2008
Kerry
rated it:
As some reviewers have stated before; this book contains more examples of how to visualize data using the processing language rather than an overview of visualization techniques. The examples are very concise and easy to follow while still maintaining reader interest and I was able to use some techniques from the book to apply to my own projects.
Feb 10, 2012
Peter
rated it:
Loving it. A must have for any designer wanting to get engaged in Processing
A better, more accurate title would be "Visualizing Data with Processing."
A better, more accurate title would be "Visualizing Data with Processing."
Sep 30, 2008
Thomas
rated it:
Ben Fry has some excellent ideas how to make interactive displays, a thing I really miss in science :)
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