Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis 1st Edition

by Stephen Few (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0970601988

ISBN-10: 0970601980

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Now You See It: An Introduction to Visual Data Sensemaking
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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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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Few is the author of Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis (2009), 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 Signal: Understanding What Matters in a World of Noise (2015). 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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Analytics Press; 1st edition (April 1, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 329 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0970601980
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0970601988
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.43 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 1.3 x 11 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #101,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #46 in Data Modeling & Design (Books)
- #138 in Statistics (Books)
- #531 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving

Customer Reviews:
149 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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John M. Ford

Finding the Forest in the Trees

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2012

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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 points. I encountered the book as the text in a four-week online class on visual data analysis. But it also works well as a standalone introduction to this area.

The first half of the book has a different focus than I expected. Few suggests that "...we've largely ignored the primary tool that makes information meaningful and useful: the human brain. While concentrating on the technologies, we've forgotten the human skills that are required to make sense of the data." He describes the human visual system, how it processes information, and the errors in perception it sometimes makes. His emphasis, however, is on the strengths of visual perception which he links to best practices in data analysis. One of the most useful parts of this section is in Chapter 2, where he lists and describes the "aptitudes and attitudes of effective analysts."

The book's second half describes and illustrates specific visual analysis techniques. It is rich with visual examples, comparisons of effective and ineffective displays, and series of related visualizations which show incremental steps of data transformation and analysis. Chapters are organized by specific data patterns and analytical techniques, describing how to look for the following six kinds of patterns:

- Time-series
- Ranking and part-to-whole relationships
- Deviations
- Distributions
- Correlations
- Patterns in multivariate data

Two final chapters present recommendations for developers of data analysis software and make predictions about future trends in visual data analysis.

The book is recommended for any researcher who works with large data sets. It is well-written, contains clear examples, and references recent research and the latest tools available for data analysis. Readers may also be interested in Few's Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten which discusses how to best describe patterns in data to nonresearchers.

7 people found this helpful

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Frederick Eli Nelson

Well presented exposition of things you've always suspected

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2013

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I've worked with graphs and charts for a long time, and it has always been my experience that certain things work "better" in some kinds of presentations than others, but I have never been able to articulate why. The author does a great job of walking through what is happening in our heads when presented with visualized data, and how to take advantage of those thought processes to make presentations more effective. The best kind of teaching is when you keep having "Aha!" moments while confronting things that you're already a little bit aware of. This book abounds with them, and Mr. Few does a creditable job of making it all very digestible.

If you're new to creating charts, have a deviant's level of interest in data geekery, or need this book for a class, get it. And get it in print. The Kindle version doesn't have the same impact.

4 people found this helpful

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Alan Gideon

Builds Nicely on Tufte's Work

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2013

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This is the first book purchased for use in my PhD program, and at work, that I have felt others should read. I mention my current academic undertaking only because the academic world suffers as badly as the business world when it comes to actually communicating quantitative information. The author starts by stating that we have an information problem; that we have too much to digest effectively without changing our methods. I disagree. What we have is mounds and mounds of unorganized data that too few people have taken the effort to turn into useful information.

The author's (achieved) goal was to provide a number of methods by which that data can be used more effectively. But he does more than provide a catalog of methods. He shows how some of them are better in one situation, and that other methods are better in other situations or when the presenter's goals are different. By doing so, he has also given us a very nice set of tools for determining if the next graph or chart is failing to provide all it can or if the presenter is misleading his audience. Mr. Few provides figures on nearly every page of the book and does an outstanding job of explaining them.

This book will be referred to often in my career.

3 people found this helpful

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Highmark

This is an excellent book.

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2014

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I'm only on page 53, starting chapter 4, but Stephen broke it down line by line. Literally! I am a Senior in college and I figured out why I struggle in college. It's not that I am stupid. The authors who write books write them with YEARS of experience (15, 20, 25, etc) under their belt. I guess they forgot the simple stuff. They never did teach ANYTHING about ways to improve our memory to aid in data analysis. Basically, here's some charts, study them, understand the material, and if you don't understand it, "you need to study harder". The teacher only says that because he/she doesn't know the correct answer. Anyway, thanks for the excellent book. It really is a great deal. It's hard cover (although made of a flimsy cardboard) and protects the pages. The paper is great quality and includes some colored graphics. Colleges should consider this book for their programs. It's that valuable. I'm Gen Y and I learn different than my predecessors. All I need is a basic understanding of material and I've got it. This book CERTAINLY does that. It provides the history, mental cognition tools, ways to improve memory, errors in graphing, etc. I am only on page 53 and I've learned that much. MORE than my University has taught me. We need more books like this. Thank you! I forgot to add, this book is well written. And below market price. It's a wealth of information.

8 people found this helpful

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Kras

Too simplistic and basic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2015

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I had moderate expectations buying this book and unfortunately it has been a disappointment. The book is too basic, the examples are simplistic. For most of the book, the author is trying to define what functionality the perfect visualization software should have. I was hoping for more examples of customized solutions I cannot find in the menu of a typical visualization software package. This book might be helpful to a beginner as it is simple and well organized. I cannot recommend it to anyone who has worked as an analyst, though. I personally find Gene Zelazny's book much more helpful.

4 people found this helpful

David Allsopp

Another excellent book from Stephen Few

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 14, 2009

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This is another practical, clear book from Stephen Few, along the lines of his Dashboards book, but weightier.

Contains numerous examples using modern software such as Tableau and Spotfire, but also tips on beating Excel into submission.

The focus of this book is displays for analysis and understanding, rather than for presentation or monitoring (dashboards). The book therefore covers some displays (such as parallel coordinate plots) that only really work when used dynamically, rather than being static slides or paper printouts.

Sidebars throughout the book give succinct requirements that good information visualisation software should support, such as "provide a means to easily filter all tightly-coupled tables and graphs together by a single action".

Much of the material I have seen before, but this is still a useful collection of 'good practice' for common display types such as line graphs and dot plots, and a good source book for less-well known types of graph.

16 people found this helpful

Stefan Steinbauer

Wundervoll gemacht...

Reviewed in Germany on July 23, 2009

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Das Buch zeigt wie eine geschickte Visualisierung von Daten gut umgesetzt werden kann. Reich bebildert und mit dem gewohnten gut zu lesenden Stil von Stephen Few gewürzt ist dieses Buch eine wahre Fundgrube und Zusammenfassung von Visualisierungen: Auch im Büroalltag sind diese Methoden schnell und einfach umzusetzen, da Sie sich keiner Spezialwerkzeuge bedienen, sondern alles mit Tabellenkalkulationen und den darin enthaltenen Visualisierungstools realisiert werden kann. Besonders gefreut habe ich mich einen alten bekannten wiederzusehen: den Stem-and-Leaf Plot.
Stephen Few bietet hier eine geführte Reise durch die Visualisierung beginnend von der Funktionsweise des Sehens bis zu Analyse von sehr komplexen Daten. Fasziniert bin ich bis jetzt durch die gelungene Grätsche von der "guided tour" zum Nachschlagewerk.

8 people found this helpful

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MR MICHAEL MINTO

Great Book for data visualization theory

Reviewed in Australia on February 10, 2021

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Great Book for data visualization theory

JavJav

Esencial en la forma en que mostramos datos.

Reviewed in Spain on July 14, 2014

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Completo, extenso y muy clarificador. Muy buen formato y presentación para un volumen de este tipo. No solo en la parte de visualización "gráfica" si no en la interpretación de diferentes escenarios.