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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
124 of 129 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. This is when you realize that learning another program like R could be useful. I almost feel like this chapter was written for software developers who are trying to create their own data analysis software, so if you're in that camp this is your book.
Part 2 - Honing Skills for Diverse Types of Visual Analysis, goes in depth with various types of charts that you can use to analyze your data. There is a chapter for each of the major types of visual analysis: Time Series, Ranking and Part-to-Whole, Deviation, Distribution, Correlation, and Multivariate.
Within each chapter Stephen Few shows you which types of patterns you should look for in your data and shows you what those patterns mean. He then shows you different ways of displaying the data, which can range from simple Excel charts to complex visualizations which could belong in a magazine. Finally he finishes each chapter with a list of best practices for analyzing the data, such as scaling chart intervals properly or using logarithmic scales to compare the percent change of data with different starting points (look at almost any stock market graph to see a logarithmic chart in action).
These chapters form nearly 50% of the book, and could be very useful reading to a student getting started with statistics, or anyone else who is not completely comfortable with numbers.
Part 3 - Further Thoughts and Hopes. The first chapter of the book opens with the history of information visualization, and the final chapters conclude with the author's thoughts on the future. As computing power gets stronger and the internet becomes more ubiquitous new innovations are in the works, and some of them are covered here.
Recommendation
I finished reading this book about a week ago, and at first I didn't think much of it. I already have a strong analytical background and didn't feel like I got much out of this book in terms of learning anything new. But after a few days I noticed that I starting thinking about problems differently - I started thinking about how I could present them in a visual manner, and I started sharing my simple charts with others.
I am finding that being able to throw together a chart quickly and effectively is extremely helpful for me and a great way to share results with coworkers. Despite having seen almost everything in this book before, reading it has got me thinking about using charts more to analyze data. It is also the kick I needed to start learning to do charts in SAS so I can expand my visualizations beyond what Excel can do.
The benefits of this book may not be immediately apparent like "Show Me The Numbers,", but if you give it some time to sink in I think you will start thinking of new ways to visualize your data. The charts shown by Few in this book are, for the most part, accessible to those of us in business, versus Edward Tufte who emphasizes charts created with design tools such as Adobe Illustrator. There are some examples shown in Tableau and Spotfire, which are both quite expensive. But there are also illustrations created in R, which is free. Of course if you are going to use those programs you have to learn to use them, but that will only increase your job appeal that much more.
If you work as a business analyst and are looking for practical ways to expand your knowledge and abilities, I highly recommend this book.
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. This is when you realize that learning another program like R could be useful. I almost feel like this chapter was written for software developers who are trying to create their own data analysis software, so if you're in that camp this is your book.
Part 2 - Honing Skills for Diverse Types of Visual Analysis, goes in depth with various types of charts that you can use to analyze your data. There is a chapter for each of the major types of visual analysis: Time Series, Ranking and Part-to-Whole, Deviation, Distribution, Correlation, and Multivariate.
Within each chapter Stephen Few shows you which types of patterns you should look for in your data and shows you what those patterns mean. He then shows you different ways of displaying the data, which can range from simple Excel charts to complex visualizations which could belong in a magazine. Finally he finishes each chapter with a list of best practices for analyzing the data, such as scaling chart intervals properly or using logarithmic scales to compare the percent change of data with different starting points (look at almost any stock market graph to see a logarithmic chart in action).
These chapters form nearly 50% of the book, and could be very useful reading to a student getting started with statistics, or anyone else who is not completely comfortable with numbers.
Part 3 - Further Thoughts and Hopes. The first chapter of the book opens with the history of information visualization, and the final chapters conclude with the author's thoughts on the future. As computing power gets stronger and the internet becomes more ubiquitous new innovations are in the works, and some of them are covered here.
Recommendation
I finished reading this book about a week ago, and at first I didn't think much of it. I already have a strong analytical background and didn't feel like I got much out of this book in terms of learning anything new. But after a few days I noticed that I starting thinking about problems differently - I started thinking about how I could present them in a visual manner, and I started sharing my simple charts with others.
I am finding that being able to throw together a chart quickly and effectively is extremely helpful for me and a great way to share results with coworkers. Despite having seen almost everything in this book before, reading it has got me thinking about using charts more to analyze data. It is also the kick I needed to start learning to do charts in SAS so I can expand my visualizations beyond what Excel can do.
The benefits of this book may not be immediately apparent like "Show Me The Numbers,", but if you give it some time to sink in I think you will start thinking of new ways to visualize your data. The charts shown by Few in this book are, for the most part, accessible to those of us in business, versus Edward Tufte who emphasizes charts created with design tools such as Adobe Illustrator. There are some examples shown in Tableau and Spotfire, which are both quite expensive. But there are also illustrations created in R, which is free. Of course if you are going to use those programs you have to learn to use them, but that will only increase your job appeal that much more.
If you work as a business analyst and are looking for practical ways to expand your knowledge and abilities, I highly recommend this book.
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.
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 21 days 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 2 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 4 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 4 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 11 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 11 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 13 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 15 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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