Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten [Hardcover]

Stephen Few (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0970601999 | ISBN-13: 978-0970601995 | Publication Date: September 1, 2004

Tables and graphs can more adequately communicate important business information when they reflect the good design practices discussed in this practical guide to effective table and graph design. Information is provided on the fundamental concepts of table and graph design, the numbers and knowledge most suitable for display in a graphic form, the best tabular means to communicate certain ideas, and the component-level aspects of design. Analysts, technicians, and managers will appreciate the solid theory behind this outline for ensuring that tables and graphs present quantitative business information in a truthful, attractive format that facilitates better decision making.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Students attend business school to hone their decision-making skills. They are taught dozens of statistical tools and analytical methods, but their education almost always contains a gaping hole: they rarely learn the importance of careful and effective presentation of data. Once they graduate and enter the business world, their decisions and their firms can suffer as a result.

"Show Me the Numbers" is rare and special. It is a practical and commonsense guide that you can use in your business today and every day. Stephen Few grounds his principles in the work of Edward R. Tufte and others, extends them to comprehensively address the needs of business, and then applies them to hundreds of examples drawn from his own experience. No matter where you are in your career, more skilled presentation of information will help you and your business prosper, and this book will help you do just that. Read it and put it to work – your shareholders and colleagues will thank you for it.

About the Author

Stephen Few is the author of Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten (2004), Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data (2006), 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 more than 25 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. He also teaches in the MBA program at the University of California, Berkeley.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Analytics Press (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970601999
• ISBN-13: 978-0970601995
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Information Visualization

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 speaks internationally, teaches in the MBA program at the University of California in Berkeley, and writes the Visual Business Intelligence Newsletter. He is also the author of three popular books: Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data, 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

122 of 131 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best there is -, November 16, 2004

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten (Hardcover)

- after Tufte. Tufte writes about brilliant, eloquent graphic design. Few writes about competent, legible business presentation. Tufte writes about good art, Few writes about servicable craft. If you've ever seen data presented in Excel, Word, or (god forbid) PowerPoint, you know how much we need competent craft.

The book is gently paced. It's for people who need to present numbers, but may not be wholly comfortable with numbers. It takes the reader by the hand, and walks through a series of very basic steps in reasoning about how a chart communicates, or fails to.

The book is very much oriented towards the chart and graph types that Excel can produce. Like it or not, that makes sense. Excel is what most readers have most acess to, and is what causes some of the ugliest problems. This book addresses those problems.

Few illustrates his points with a number of examples, both good and bad ones. He presents problems to solve, and presents answers to many of them. It's a textbook, and a good one. Its main message is, "Less is better."

This is for anyone who presents information, and for anyone who creates presentation software. I recommend this one.

//wiredweird

77 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The summaries make it worthwhile, August 16, 2006

By 

Bart Denturck (Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten (Hardcover)

I bought and read the books of Tufte and Cleveland (The elements of graphing data). Tufte is pushing things too far, there are certain expectation people have about what they want to see in a graph, but his analysis of the "lie factor" is great and it's a beautiful book. Clevelands book is becoming outdated; the use of colours is really helpful and other than two glued-in pages he does not mention it at all. The analysis is cristal clear and it's full of good and bad examples. Someone ought to rework it, it's invaluable to me.
The recommendation that Few makes in his book are worth buying it and you can read this book in a day, just skip the long explanations. Its indeed long and a somewhat simple, leaving the impression that the content is rather thin, but if anyone presenting data would stick to these simple rules, presentations would make a major step forward in clarity.
My conclusion:
- if you are a scientist, go for Cleveland.
- If have been a scientist and became a "manager" buy Few.
- If you are active in politics or other domains that communicate to the large public, Tufte will tell you how to tell the truth :-)
One more thing: pie charts are there to stay, no matter how hard we fight them and how many authors hate them and break them down with good arguments. One cannot turn back the clock, there is something like fashion in the way we present data.

67 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Use Excel (or PowerPoint)? Read this book, January 20, 2005

By 

Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten (Hardcover)

As a consultant I need to gather and analyze data and transform it into information and findings. This book leads you through the transformation of data - especially if you use Excel or PowerPoint - by showing how to select the best table and chart formats to convey the information aggregated from data.

The thrust of the book is communicating. The author lays a solid foundation early in the book by covering qualtitative relationships, summarization and various data types. He then builds upon the foundation with succinct discussions and advice on selecting tablular formats and the correct charts to convey the information.

While Excel is the principal tool used to illustrate the concepts and techniques in the book, I have applied the author's advice to Visio and PowerPoint, as well as a few more obscure charting and graphics programs.

I like the clarity with which the information is presented, and the practical examples given throughout the book. More importantly, this book isn't a tome that is aimed at graphic designers, making it an ideal resource for technical and business professionals who do not fully grasp the nuances of graphic presentation.

If you present data and information - using any application - I strongly recommend this book because it will make your presentations meaningful and easy-to-understand, and will show you how to avoid a plethora of common mistakes like using the wrong chart or impossible to understand tables.