Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1206 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 197 pages

Amazon.com
A timeless classic in how complex information should be presented graphically. The Strunk & White of visual design. Should occupy a place of honor--within arm's reach--of everyone attempting to understand or depict numerical data graphically. The design of the book is an exemplar of the principles it espouses: elegant typography and layout, and seamless integration of lucid text and perfectly chosen graphical examples. Very Highly Recommended.

Datamation
One of the best books you will ever see.

John Tukey, Bell Laboratories and Princeton University
A tour de force.

Customer Reviews

Excellent
Nutshell review - This is an excellent book on chart design and the effective presentation of information. Beautifully illustrated with in-depth insight and research.

Just the facts, ma'am (and how to present them)
Mr. Tufte's book is like nothing I ever read before. At first I was put off by his uber self-confidence, but as I read the book further, I realized that the self-confidence was not out of place.
In an entertaining way, with splendid examples and splendid anti-examples, this book gets to the core of presenting honest and dense data and eliminating all pretense. Wait 'til you grasp the concept of "Small Multiples" and just as importantly, when not to use a graph.
Before I was finished the book, I revamped a couple of my charts and upgraded one to showing multiple variables across multiple years using "Small Multiples".

The Landmark Book on Conveying Information Graphically
I own all of Edward Tufte's books, and regularly order his booklets for my MBA students. The reason is simple: to make good decisions, and to help others make good decisions, one must convey data as information and not simply as numbers, words, or even pictures. Business periodicals regularly violate the admonitions we learned in our introductory statistics courses, including failing to use zero as the bottom of any scale (these periodicals don't use zero in order to exaggerate changes). The reason that intelligent people convey data inappropriately is either to deliberately distort it, or because they've failed to read Tufte's books.

Once you've purchased this first book by Tufte, you will never look at charts or other graphical displays without a jaundiced eye. You will also will begin to be more honest in how you convey information to others. You will make better decisions, and you will raise the standard for other communicators and decision makers. Life and death decisions do get made on the basis of data, and not just in the sciences and medicine. Buy this book and you will have a very tough time putting it down.

Aneil Mishra
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