Quantity:

More Buying Choices

22 used & new from $26.30

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Express Checkout with PayPhrase

What's this? | Create PayPhrase

Share with Friends

Share your own customer images

Search inside this book

Tell the Publisher! I�d like to read this book on Kindle Don�t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.

Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

List Price:	$45.00
Price:	$29.70 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save:	$15.30 (34%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 10? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

14 new from $26.30 8 used from $26.63

Frequently Bought Together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten

by Stephen Few

4.0 out of 5 stars (31)

Picturing the Uncertain World: How to Understand, Communicate, and Control Uncertainty through Graphical Display

by Howard Wainer

5.0 out of 5 stars (3) $19.77

Rapid Graphs with Tableau Software: Create Intuitive, Actionable Insights in Just 15 Days

by Stephen McDaniel

4.6 out of 5 stars (5) $39.00

Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand

by Connie Malamed

5.0 out of 5 stars (1) $26.40

Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving

by Jonathan G. Koomey PhD

4.6 out of 5 stars (27) $16.47

› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This companion to Show Me the Numbers teaches the fundamental principles and practices of quantitative data analysis. Employing a methodology that is primarily learning by example and “thinking with our eyes,” this manual features graphs and practical analytical techniques that can be applied to a broad range of data analysis tools—including the most commonly used Microsoft Excel. This approach is particularly valuable to those who need to make sense of quantitative business data by discerning meaningful patterns, trends, relationships, and exceptions that reveal business performance, potential problems and opportunities, and hints about the future. It provides practical skills that are useful to managers at all levels and to those interested in keeping a keen eye on their business.

About the Author

Stephen Few is the author of Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data, Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, and the monthly Visual Business Intelligence newsletter. He has worked for more than 25 years as an information technology innovator, teacher, and consultant. As the principal of the consultancy Perceptual Edge, he focuses on practical uses of data visualization to explore, analyze, and present quantitative business information. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Product Details

Hardcover: 329 pages
Publisher: Analytics Press; 1st edition (April 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0970601980
ISBN-13: 978-0970601988
Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,905 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

#1 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Graphic Design > Information Visualization
#5 in	Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Statistics
#22 in	Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Decision-Making & Problem Solving

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Stephen Few Page

Inside This Book (learn more)

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	74% buy the item featured on this page: Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis 4.6 out of 5 stars (11) $29.70
	9% buy The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World's Most Consequential Trivia $17.81
	8% buy Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data 4.4 out of 5 stars (53) $23.09
	5% buy Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten 4.0 out of 5 stars (31)

Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

data visualization(10)

information visualization(9)

stephen few(7)

business intelligence(6)

data analysis(6)

tufte(5)

quantitative analysis(4)

data(3)

information(3)

analytics(1)

bi(1)

See all 19 tags...

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Visualization Tools For Business Analytics, June 20, 2009

By	Rich Johnson (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

"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.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to Visual Analysis, July 15, 2009

By	Jock D Mackinlay - See all my reviews

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.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

5.0 out of 5 stars Now you see it - Stephen Few, September 18, 2009

By	Joel Dias (S�o Paulo, Brasil) - See all my reviews

Stephen Few is the best on the information vizualization. Very appropriate for the Business Intelligence development. Is easy to recomend the best.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 11 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Basic Book
This book is useful only at a very basic level. Otherwise worthless.

Paresh

Published 2 days ago by Paresh Shah

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good book. Plain and simple!
WOW! I have followed Mr. Few for few years. This book is one stop shop if you want to maximize and make sense from your data. A must read for the ones who are in the BI space.

Published 2 months ago by Puneet Neotia

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'must' read...
"Now you see it" is Stephen Few's new book explaining one of the more overlooked aspects of analysis - the graphic representation of information. Read more

Published 4 months ago by C. V. Pirrello

5.0 out of 5 stars One more excellent book !
Very good and pleasure book to read. An other reference book for those who are interested to the presentation of quantitative data.

Published 4 months ago by Cristiane R. Soares

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and calm guide to info visualization

Clarity and calm are great virtues in making difficult problems seem easy. Stephen Few offers an abundance of these virtues in his book, Now You See It: Simple... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Ben Shneiderman

5.0 out of 5 stars How to build your visual vocabulary
As do the two reviewers before me, I highly recommend this book. First of all the book is gorgeous to behold, in the tradition of Edward Tufte. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Richard Giambrone

5.0 out of 5 stars Stephen Few Continues to Enlighten!
Stephen continues to enlighten his readers by sharing essential theories of data visualization using brilliant examples from different software like: Excel, Spotfire and Tableau... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Anthony J. Rose

5.0 out of 5 stars One for the analysts
I consider Stephen Few's works compulsory reading for anyone who calls themselves a BI (Business Intelligence) professional. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Nicholas Barclay

› See all 11 customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jqOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jqOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jqOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; }