Presentations can be dreadful. Badly thought-out slides, boring structure, poorly delivered. I once told a colleague after a practice talk to please shoot me before she’d ever make me sit through such a talk again (to be fair, she had called the talk boring herself before she even began). [Read more...] about Review: Jon Schwabish, Better Presentations
Criticism
Review: Manuel Lima, The Book of Trees
Trees. They’re everywhere. And not just in the physical world, but in data visualization and knowledge representation as well. This is not a new phenomenon, it goes back thousands of years. Manuel Lima’s new book, The Book of Trees, gives an overview. [Read more…] about Review: Manuel Lima, The Book of Trees
Review: Isabel Meirelles, Design for Information
When I’m asked for a good book about visualization, I usually try to change the subject. There is no book I really love, they all have their issues. But thanks to Isabel Meirelles, I can now give a straight answer: Design for Information.
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Another Look at Many Eyes, 18 Months Later
In February of last year, I wrote a posting based on some data I had scraped from Many Eyes, and criticizing where I thought it was going (or not going). Here is an update, eighteen months later, of some of the things that have happened in the meantime, and some new data. [Read more…] about Another Look at Many Eyes, 18 Months Later
It’s Just Too Easy
Once you’ve seen one visualization book, you’ve seen them all. They tend to all look similar, use the same examples, and don’t provide much depth. Is it too easy to write a book when you can use such compelling images?
Review: Chabris, Simons, The Invisible Gorilla
Inattentional and change blindness are two fascinating phenomena that more people should be aware of. The Invisible Gorilla describes them as well as some other interesting and surprising psychological research. [Read more…] about Review: Chabris, Simons, The Invisible Gorilla
Review: Scott Christianson, 100 Diagrams That Changed the World
I recently came across this book that claims to collect the 100 most important diagrams in the history of mankind. It’s a good collection, with many wonderful examples, though it has its flaws. [Read more…] about Review: Scott Christianson, 100 Diagrams That Changed the World
Visual Math Gone Wrong
Data visualization is often used to just display data, with little thought put into supporting visual thinking. Giving people tools to do some visual math is a good idea; the visual properties need to be picked carefully however, to make this work. [Read more…] about Visual Math Gone Wrong
The Changing Goals of Data Visualization
The visual representation of data has gone through a number of phases, with its goals switching back and forth between analysis and presentation over time. Many introductions to visualization tend to portray historical examples as all being done for the same purpose. That, I argue in this short, incomplete, and cherry-picked history, is not true. [Read more…] about The Changing Goals of Data Visualization
Review: Alberto Cairo, The Functional Art
When Alberto Cairo first told me about the book he was writing, called The Functional Art, he warned me that only a small part of it was going to be about visualization. I have no idea what he was talking about, the book I read was a visualization book from start to finish. It is one of the most interesting and insightful books on the topic I have read in a while. [Read more…] about Review: Alberto Cairo, The Functional Art