Visualization and Visual Communication
I review mostly visualization-related books, but also some others that I find relevant. That includes books about psychology, writing, communication, etc.
I was asked to write a review of two recent visualization books for Science: Nathan Yau’s Visualize This and Manuel Lima’s Visual Complexity. The piece appeared in the last issue of 2011, right before Christmas. Below is a link to the review and some additional comments on it and the two books. [Read more…] about My Review of Visualize This and Visual Complexity for Science Magazine
John Snow’s map of the cholera dead after London’s 1854 epidemic is often heralded as one of the earliest examples of graphical data analysis. Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map gives a lot of background about the London of the 1850s, Snow’s work, and how central the map really was. [Read more…] about Review: Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map
You all know what statistics is, right? I mean, everybody knows. But if you had to explain why it’s useful, and what it’s useful for, would you have an answer? Do you know how statistics makes a difference in all our lives, all the time? Even if you (think you) do, check out Kaiser Fung’s book, Numbers Rule Your World. [Read more…] about Review: Kaiser Fung, Numbers Rule Your World
The first episode of season 4 of Mad Men opens with Don Draper being interviewed by a journalist. He doesn’t tell him anything that’s of interest and then dodges the question Who is Don Draper? by claiming that he was taught as a child not to talk about himself. Scientists do an equally terrible job at communication, and for many of the same reasons. Cornelia Dean’s book Am I Making Myself Clear? offers fascinating insights into both journalism and science, and provides concrete ideas for how to do better. [Read more…] about Review: Cornelia Dean, Am I Making Myself Clear?
Colin Ware’s latest book Visual Thinking for Design has a promising subtitle: active vision, attention, visual queries, gist, visual skills, color, narrative, design. That’s covering quite a bit of ground, and also a lot of things not usually considered in visualization. While this is a book about design, I was interested in what it could teach people in InfoVis, and I review it from that point of view.
[Read more…] about Book Review: Visual Thinking for Design, by Colin Ware