Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative

Die Werke von Tufte haben Bibel-Status zu diesem Thema. Sie sind erschwinglich (v.a. wenn gebraucht gekauft) und einfach wunderschön gemacht.

As an extension of his observations described in his earlier book, "Envisioning Information", Tufte's third installment of the trilogy turns the discussion to the display of dynamic information. Again, Tufte draws from numerous examples throughout history to illustrate his points. The chapter on 'Visual and Statistical Thinking' contains some of the most poignant arguments in the book, including an engaging visual narrative of the 1854 Cholera Epidemic and a study on the Challenger space-shuttle tragedy.This book may not for everyone, however. It does not contain ready-to-use concepts nor does it present a comprehensive solution for displaying dynamic information. What it does contain, are keen observations and commentary on past attempts at dynamic information display. The relation of each chapter to the next is not readily apparent and is quite precarious in fact. What results, is a book that reads better if each chapter is taken independently. In short, this book will be more rewarding to those willing to spend time to ponder over Tufte's observations. Conversely, the book will appear to have a lack of focus to those in a rush to find solutions.

I have to confess to being a huge fan of Tufte though i came late to the party.This book explores the methods and values of excellence in presenting information on change: how you represent movement, actions and ideas in a way that enlightens, informs and educates.The book has excellent production values (what else did you expect) and is a a delight to explore. Tufte explains concepts and ideas in an engaging manner, pulling examples from hundreds of years of human history, from Hobbs "Leviathan", to abstract art of the 20th century. Amongst the pages are gems of insight from random places: be it descriptions fo magic tricks to descriptions of fish for those underwater! Brilliant.It's interesting to read and reflect on how this is still relevant in a digital age where images can be distorted, manipulated or created on a whim. Even more than ever, the integrity of data and information has to meet these standards to be credible and effective. Powerpoint slaves, take note!

My fiance wanted this as a present, she's an engineer.While engineers may be great at making great results, presenting the information is still a challenge (especially to customers and management).She really likes this book. It provides a great guide on how to present information so that other engineers and the 'layman' can understand it. Data presentation can be quite a problem for engineers, and this book does a fantastic job at providing methods and means for producing useful and meaningful visual representations of findings.I'm not an engineer 'per se,' but I'm a degreed Mathematician. I flipped through the book, and it seems as though the book does a very good job at helping us that may be poor at presenting our technical ideas in a way such that it is easily comprehensible to others - in particular others that are not mathematicians or engineers.This aside, the limited reading I did was pretty easy, and his ideas and points were easy to comprehend and well articulated.

Depending on your training and experience, Professor Tufte's books will be more or less useful. In all, I find he has a penchant for overstatement. But in his statements of what should be the obvious he can be inspiring, if not always revelatory. I bought the trilogy, as this would seem de rigeuer. But honestly, "Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative" captured that essentials of his contribution I felt. In lieu of "Envisioning Information," I'd say buy the Yaschen edition of Oliver Byrne's "The Elements of Euclid" or simply read what's been said of it over the years. And the purchase of Tufte's poster of Napoleon's march should all but obviate need for "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" If you don't get it with the poster, the book is unlikely to do much to help,,.