Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information [Hardcover]

Manuel Lima (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2011

Our ability to generate information now far exceeds our capacity to understand it. Finding patterns and making meaningful connections inside complex data networks has emerged as one of the biggest challenges of the twenty-first century. In recent years, designers, researchers, and scientists have begun employing an innovative mix of colors, symbols, graphics, algorithms, and interactivity to clarify, and often beautify, the clutter. From representing networks of friends on Facebook to depicting interactions among proteins in a human cell, Visual Complexity presents one hundred of the most interesting examples of information-visualization by the field's leading practitioners.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A rigorously researched, beautifully designed, thoughtfully curated anthology of the world's most compelling work at the intersection of two relatively nascent yet increasingly powerful techno-cultural phenomena, network science and information visualization.... A powerful tool in your visual literacy arsenal for navigating the Information Age. From the Bible to Wikipedia edits to the human genome, the gorgeous and thought-provoking visualizations in the book will make you look at the world in a whole new way, and the insightful essays accompanying them will vastly expand your understanding of the trends and technologies shaping our ever-evolving relationship with information." -- Brain Pickings

"Visual Complexity is a showcase for the intersection of art, design and science... Some of the examples are indeed silly. Some are profound. Many are decidedly beautiful. And all are fascinating, given the infinite kinds of data that can be visualized." --New York Times Book Review

"Manuel Lima, the New York-based founder of visualcomplexity.com, works at the forefront of network science and information visualization. Appropriately, his book Visual Complexity cuts through digital clutter, using colorful examples to illustrate these fields." --Surface magazine

"Intellectually ambitious... the author engages this heady material with a surprisingly sharp and lucid eye." --Metropolis

"Incredibly ambitious, deeply researched, and beautifully illustrated." --frieze

"From genealogical patterns in medieval tapestries to the math behind fractals, Lima, a senior UX design lead for Bing, shows how designers turn complex patterns into compelling artwork." --Wired

"Artistic analysis... tremendous potential for shaping how we understand our world... if you are the type who obsesses on Google Analytics or just feel the need to nerd out for a bit, pick up a copy." --Cool Hunting

About the Author

Manuel Lima is the founder of VisualComplexity.com and a Senior UX Design Lead at Microsoft. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was nominated by Creativity magazine as "one of the 50 most creative and influential minds of 2009".

Manuel Lima is a leading voice on information visualization and a frequent speaker in conferences and schools around the world, including TED, Lift, OFFF, Reboot, VizThink, IxDA Interaction, Royal College of Art, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, ENSAD Paris, University of Amsterdam, MediaLab Prado Madrid.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press (August 17, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568989369
• ISBN-13: 978-1568989365
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Information Visualization
  • #8 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Information Theory
  • #82 in Books > Arts & Photography > Design & Decorative Arts > Graphic Design

More About the Author

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, nominated by Creativity magazine as "one of the 50 most creative and influential minds of 2009", Manuel Lima is a Senior UX Design Lead at Microsoft and founder of VisualComplexity.com - A visual exploration on mapping complex networks.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Manuel worked as a Senior User Experience Designer at Nokia and Senior Interaction Designer at the leading digital agency R/GA. He holds a BFA in Industrial Design and a MFA in Design & Technology from Parsons School of Design, New York. During the course of the MFA program, Manuel worked for Siemens Corporate Research Center, the American Museum of Moving Image and Parsons Institute for Information Mapping in research projects for the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency.

Manuel is a leading voice on information visualization and a frequent speaker in conferences and schools around the world, including TED, Lift, OFFF, Reboot, VizThink, IxDA Interaction, Royal College of Art, University of Manchester, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Northeastern University, ENSAD Paris, University of Amsterdam, MediaLab Prado Madrid.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable!, September 16, 2011

By 

Maria Isabel Meirelles - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information (Hardcover)

As a practitioner and educator in information design I am writing to recommend strongly Visual Complexity by Manuel Lima. The field had been lacking analytical resources until this book beautifully filled the gap. It is well researched and well written with copious well chosen examples. It provides an in-depth and broad view of the history, theories and methods of visualizing data, mostly focusing on network visualizations. Furthermore, it proposes a methodology for visualizing data which can be very helpful especially for beginners.

I have been following Lima's visualcomplexity.com site for several years and have been suggesting it to my students as a resource. My excitement upon learning about the book immediately led me to reserve a copy of it. The book amazed me with its rigor and the quality of its research. I have to say that I learned a good amount from it which, of course, made me very happy!

I would like to end by recommending that Visual Complexity be an essential reference to all of us who work in visualizing data, from all fields of knowledge, not only designers. Above all, it is a must-have for communication design college students (and instructors). It will be a required book in all of my information design courses. I am certain Visual Complexity will impart both inspiration and information to all who read it.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Visually gorgeous, intellectually stunning, September 15, 2011

By 

Justin M - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information (Hardcover)

People interested in and fascinated by gorgeous data and network visualization will love this book.

Lima has done a masterful job of researching and showcasing some of the most beautiful visualizations in the world. However he has actually gone much, much further.

The book contains deep original research on the origins of visual representation, the emergence of networks and network thinking, as well as exploring a new syntax for mapping complex systems. All of this makes for something far more sophisticated than a compendium of pretty infographics -- even though aesthetes will be very much satisfied! -- instead it is an ambitious and intellectually significant dive into the very heart of networks, the desire to understand data, and the practice of discerning insights from their visualization.

A particular highlight are the jaw-dropping comparisons between Jackson Pollock's art and network visualizations in the chapter on 'Complex Beauty'. Lima compares one Jackson Pollock painting with a computer-generated model produced by an IBM supercomputer mapping millions of neuron connections in the brain. The two images, side-by-side, are eerily similar. It gives you the tingling sensation that Pollock's work was less raw artistic explosions and more a representation of what he was 'seeing' deep inside into his brain.

All up, an immensely valuable contribution to an exciting and emerging phenomenon. Brilliant for people interested in beautiful visualizations and perfect for those wanting to delve a little deeper into what's really going on.

'Visual Complexity' is taking pride of place on top of my coffee table.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational and Informative, September 15, 2011

By 

T. McCall - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information (Hardcover)

As an infographics designer and data visualization artists for nearly 20 years, I've been a big fan of Manuel Lima's webiste visualcomplexity.com. I was excited to find his new book here on Amazon and it's been a pleasure to absorb. Not only do I find it to be a great resource, I find it to be full of inspiration and have added it to our company library at infographics.com. My employees are often fighting over access to the book. I highly recommend it!