Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis teaches simple, practical means to explore and analyze quantitative data--techniques that rely primarily on using your eyes. This book features graphical techniques that can be applied to a broad range of software tools, including Microsoft Excel, because so many people have nothing else, but also more powerful visual analysis tools that can dramatically extend your analytical reach. You'll learn to make sense of quantitative data by discerning the meaningful patterns, trends, relationships, and exceptions that measure your organization's performance, identify potential problems and opportunities, and reveal what will likely happen in the future. Now You See It is not just for those with "analyst" in their titles, but for everyone who's interested in discovering the stories in their data that reveal their organization's performance and how it can be improved.
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About the Author
Stephen Few is the author of Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, Second Edition (2012), Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-Glance Monitoring, Second Edition (2013), and Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis (2009). Stephen is recognized as a world leader in the field of data visualization and he has worked for 30 years as an information technology innovator, educator, and consultant. As the principal of the consultancy Perceptual Edge, he focuses on practical uses of data visualization to explore, analyze, and present quantitative information.
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More About the Author
Stephen Few is on a mission to help organizations squeeze real value from the mounds of data that surround and threaten to bury them. Through his consultancy Perceptual Edge, Stephen teaches simple, clear, and practical data visualization techniques for analyzing and presenting quantitative information. He teaches, speaks, and consults internationally with organizations of all types and writes the quarterly Visual Business Intelligence Newsletter. He is also the author of three popular books: Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, Second Edition, Information Dashboard Design: Displaying data for at-a-glance monitoring, Second Edition, and Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis. You can learn more about his work at www.perceptualedge.com.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
125 of 130 people found the following review helpful
By Rich Johnson
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Now You See It" is the latest book by author Stephen Few. The description says this book is a companion to "Show Me The Numbers," which is a favorite book of mine. "Show Me The Numbers" is about building charts and tables that will help you show others what you see in your data. "Now You See It" is about helping you to find new ways to display your data for your own analysis. Before you can show others your data you need to understand it yourself, and that's where this book fits in.
Creating charts is front and center as the focus of this book. "Show Me The Numbers" focused on charts and tables that could be built with simple tools such as Excel. Now You See It shows you the types of analysis you can do when you employee more advanced software such as Tableau and R. Some of the illustrations are really cool to look at and inspirational, even if I will never have the tools or time to prepare my own version of them.
"Now You See It" is broken up into 3 sections:
In Part 1 - Building Core Skills for Visual Analysis. Stephen Few covers the history of information visualization, the basics of analysis, and how we perceive data. There is some overlap with "Show Me The Numbers," but it's only one chapter, and not a deal breaker for me. I found the history of information visualization chapter interesting, and I imagine that in 50-100 years there are going to be new kinds of visualization methods available that we haven't even thought of yet.
In chapter 4, Analytical Interaction and Navigation, the author covers the role of good software in the data analysis process. He lists a few requirements that good software should have, and in many cases popular software such as Excel fall short.... Read more ›
Creating charts is front and center as the focus of this book. "Show Me The Numbers" focused on charts and tables that could be built with simple tools such as Excel. Now You See It shows you the types of analysis you can do when you employee more advanced software such as Tableau and R. Some of the illustrations are really cool to look at and inspirational, even if I will never have the tools or time to prepare my own version of them.
"Now You See It" is broken up into 3 sections:
In Part 1 - Building Core Skills for Visual Analysis. Stephen Few covers the history of information visualization, the basics of analysis, and how we perceive data. There is some overlap with "Show Me The Numbers," but it's only one chapter, and not a deal breaker for me. I found the history of information visualization chapter interesting, and I imagine that in 50-100 years there are going to be new kinds of visualization methods available that we haven't even thought of yet.
In chapter 4, Analytical Interaction and Navigation, the author covers the role of good software in the data analysis process. He lists a few requirements that good software should have, and in many cases popular software such as Excel fall short.... Read more ›
25 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As someone who's done over two decades of research and development on visualization technology, I highly recommend "Now You See It" for everybody - novice to expert. Stephen Few explains visual analysis clearly and conversationally. His examples are accessible, appropriate, and beautiful.
The book is well-structured. Part I focuses on core concepts, principles, and practices. It prepares the general reader for Part II, which focuses on more technical material involving specific types of analysis (time-series, deviation, correlation, etc). Part II contains practical advice that will help everyone become better at visual analysis.
I particularly like the recommendations Stephen Few has included for visual analysis techniques that should be supported by commercial systems that are helping us work with data. After all, computers are now automatically collecting data. This book teaches us how to use this data to inform our individual work and to enhance our communication with each other. I believe these are key skills that will help us improve our modern, complex world.
The book is well-structured. Part I focuses on core concepts, principles, and practices. It prepares the general reader for Part II, which focuses on more technical material involving specific types of analysis (time-series, deviation, correlation, etc). Part II contains practical advice that will help everyone become better at visual analysis.
I particularly like the recommendations Stephen Few has included for visual analysis techniques that should be supported by commercial systems that are helping us work with data. After all, computers are now automatically collecting data. This book teaches us how to use this data to inform our individual work and to enhance our communication with each other. I believe these are key skills that will help us improve our modern, complex world.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Stephen Few has put together a book that is useful as a reference but readable as well. I heard him speak at a conference and really think he has hit the mark. The book is accessible without being shallow. He gives worthwhile examples of how to combine the features of the software with good graphing techniques. As someone who has worked with many of the techniques, he provides a reason for what I did intuitively. This is invaluable for both displaying findings and training subject experts to analyze their data.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've read Stephen's book about 6 months ago, and found it then very interesting. But I am only starting to appreciate its true greatness.
What must first be said about Stephen's writing is that he's first and foremost a teacher. As such, he is very good at explaining a subject in a way that the reader understands it with minimum effort, and with no pre-requisite knowledge. His writings are very accessible, but are also well-constructed: he doesn't just handle his point of view, but justifies his recommendations in a way that makes perfect sense. And he manages to do so without being dogmatic. On top of that, I really appreciate the quality of his language, which is simple enough for folks like me (English is not my 1st language) yet subtle enough to convey the finesse of his arguments.
Anyway. The above can be said of all 3 books of Stephen Few. So what makes Now you see it so great?
people who've worked in the field of visual analysis for some time are well aware of what vendors can do for them and tend to focus on the capabilities of a specific solution, rather than on the business needs of their organisations. Such practitioners may not feel that they are learning much from reading the book.
on the other end of the spectrum, decision makers in the broad sense have typically no idea of how visual analysis can make their life easier. And they could be awed by a novel tool, which may not be appropriate for their needs - but how could they know?
this book, which does a superb job of explaining the hows and whys of visual analysis, can really enlighten managers and present them with a world of possibilities they didn't suspect exist.... Read more ›
What must first be said about Stephen's writing is that he's first and foremost a teacher. As such, he is very good at explaining a subject in a way that the reader understands it with minimum effort, and with no pre-requisite knowledge. His writings are very accessible, but are also well-constructed: he doesn't just handle his point of view, but justifies his recommendations in a way that makes perfect sense. And he manages to do so without being dogmatic. On top of that, I really appreciate the quality of his language, which is simple enough for folks like me (English is not my 1st language) yet subtle enough to convey the finesse of his arguments.
Anyway. The above can be said of all 3 books of Stephen Few. So what makes Now you see it so great?
people who've worked in the field of visual analysis for some time are well aware of what vendors can do for them and tend to focus on the capabilities of a specific solution, rather than on the business needs of their organisations. Such practitioners may not feel that they are learning much from reading the book.
on the other end of the spectrum, decision makers in the broad sense have typically no idea of how visual analysis can make their life easier. And they could be awed by a novel tool, which may not be appropriate for their needs - but how could they know?
this book, which does a superb job of explaining the hows and whys of visual analysis, can really enlighten managers and present them with a world of possibilities they didn't suspect exist.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
good but a bit too many commercials for his software Tableau
Nice presentation but not as ground breaking as Tufte's. Will keep as a complement of the later work. Again nice to have.
Published 1 month ago by Jean-Pierre Riffaud
5.0 out of 5 stars
Useful
I liked an approach of this book, as it takes such real-life tasks as change in time, seasonal cycles, part to whole analysis, gives just enough theoretical explanations and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Gregory Moiseev
3.0 out of 5 stars
A big book for a modest payoff
I learned a couple of new graphical formats in this book. There are a handful of software packages mentioned which may be useful if not too costly. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Blaine Bateman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Builds Nicely on Tufte's Work
This is the first book purchased for use in my PhD program, and at work, that I have felt others should read. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Alan Gideon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent treatment of visual analysis
This is an outstanding book that explains how to visualize quantitative data for analysis and presentations. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Greg Klinkel
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finding the Forest in the Trees
Stephen Few introduces the visual analysis of data. He shows readers how to discover patterns in large data sets through clever arrangement, highlighting and filtering of data... Read more
Published 12 months ago by John M. Ford
2.0 out of 5 stars
good content bad media
I expected getting a quick reference for visualizing finance and stat data, and in most part it serves the purpose. Read more
Published 14 months ago by
4.0 out of 5 stars
Seen, Now
If Edward Tufte if a Mac, Stephen Few is a PC --- perhaps not as beautiful, certainly not as trendy, but just as functional, if not even more useful in many situations. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Karl S.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome book
"Now You See It" is like a modern version of Edward Tufte's books because it focuses on interactive visualization rather than on creating static charts. Read more
Published 16 months ago by JR
5.0 out of 5 stars
Learn to capture your audience while capturing complex information...
"Read this book to learn how to serve up vast amounts of data in a single illustration, that can actually be understood! Read more
Published on March 19, 2011 by Marjorie McGuirk
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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