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Stephen Few

Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten Second Edition

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Most presentations of quantitative information are poorly designed—painfully so, often to the point of misinformation. This problem, however, is rarely noticed and even more rarely addressed. We use tables and graphs to communicate quantitative information: the critical numbers that measure the health, identify the opportunities, and forecast the future of our organizations. Even the best information is useless, however, if its story is poorly told. This problem exists because almost no one has ever been trained to design tables and graphs for effective and efficient communication. Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten is the most accessible, practical, and comprehensive guide to table and graph design available.

The second edition of Show Me the Numbers improves on the first by polishing the content throughout (including updated figures) and adding 91 more pages of content, including: 1) A new preface; 2) A new chapter entitled "Silly Graphs That Are Best Forsaken," which alerts readers to some of the current misuses of graphs such as donut charts, circle charts, unit charts, and funnel charts; 3) A new chapter about quantitative narrative entitled "Telling Compelling Stories with Numbers"; and 4) New appendices entitled "Constructing Table Lens Displays in Excel," "Constructing Box Plots in Excel," and "Useful Color Palettes."

ISBN-10

0970601972
ISBN-13

978-0970601971
Edition

Second
Publisher

Analytics Press
Publication date

June 1, 2012
Language

English
Dimensions

8.5 x 1.4 x 11 inches
Print length

371 pages
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Few is the founder of the consultancy Perceptual Edge. He speaks, teaches, and consults around the world and writes the quarterly Visual Business Intelligence Newsletter. He is also the author of Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-Glance Monitoring, Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis, and Signal: Understanding What Matters in a World of Noise.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Analytics Press; Second edition (June 1, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 371 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0970601972
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0970601971
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.57 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 1.4 x 11 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #109,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10 in Graph Theory (Books)
- #111 in Running Meetings & Presentations (Books)
- #327 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving

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Stephen Few

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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, founded in 2003, for many years Stephen taught simple, clear, and practical data visualization techniques for analyzing and presenting quantitative information. During this time he wrote four popular books about data visualization: "Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten," "Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring," "Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis," and "Signal: Understanding What Matters in a World of Noise." His work now extends beyond data visualization to address other aspects of data and its use, resulting so far in his two most recent books: "Big Data, Big Dupe: A Little Book About a Big Bunch of Nonsense" and "The Data Loom: Weaving Understanding by Thinking Critically and Scientifically with Data." You can learn more about Stephen and his work at www.perceptualedge.com and at www.stephen-few.com.

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325 global ratings

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Dallas Marks

Great visualization advice, patiently explained

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 11, 2013

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Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten by Stephen Few- now in its second edition- is filled with 371 pages of analytical goodness. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I don't own the first edition of Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten , which was published in 2004. But I didn't really know who Stephen Few was until I started working with Xcelsius and somebody turned me onto his outstanding dashboards book, which was also recently revised into a second edition.

While the dashboards book, Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-Glance Monitoring , is focused on at-a-glance dashboards, Show Me the Numbers is more broadly focused and goes into extreme depth on both table and graph design. Like the dashboards book, Show Me the Numbers begins by laying a foundation with the science on how our brains perceive visual information, then builds its design principles on that foundation. Mr. Few is widely cited (or disparaged) as "the cranky guy that hates pie charts". But his criticism of pie charts (and other poor visualization practices) is grounded in the science of visual perception, not his personal taste in visualizations.

A 371-page book may sound kind of scary, but it is broken down into fourteen chapters that can be easily digested. Mr. Few's writing style is clear and easy to understand, although if you're like me you'll put the book down at the end of each chapter so you can think. The book is tool agnostic, so even if your primary tool is Microsoft Excel you'll benefit from reading it.

The book is rather large, but it's beautifully designed and constructed with lots of clear illustrations. If I traveled more, I'd probably prefer Kindle edition for portability, but it doesn't exist. Mr. Few's reading style lends itself to a comfortable reading chair and a cup of coffee, so I'm quite satisfied with the print edition. I am finding in my day-to-day work that I am slowly internalizing the wisdom of Show Me the Numbers. But it's still a book that I open while in the middle of a project and one that I'll take the time to read cover-to-cover again.

3 people found this helpful

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Sorry, Not Sorry

Good book, but....

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 31, 2021

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I purchased this for a Technical Writing course, and the book manages to explain how tables and graphs are designed. The problem with this book isn't in the information but how the information is communicated. The book fails to break the information down more simply, to the level of plain language. This failure may result in prolonged frustration for many readers.

Few (the author) relies on a certain vocabulary ("quantitative values", "categorical values") that is impenetrable for the new reader. While he explains what everything means early on, things get bad when he uses many difficult terms at once to explain a specific concept. Suddenly, I had to review nearly every word in a sentence to make sure I understood it correctly. And, to be honest, I'm still not sure. I needed to reread difficult paragraphs until their meaning matched with what I was seeing in the accompanying visual examples.

What Few must add in a succeeding edition is sections written such that a child could understand them. That's not something I mean to say to ridicule the author or the text. Writing clearly enough for a child IS the purpose of technical communication at times; some concepts are so difficult to grasp that using "grown-up" language obscures meaning for the reader. It's absolutely critical to use plain language and helpful visualizations in order to imbed these concepts in the reader's mind at the lowest level. It's more work for the author, and it involves understanding his audience's needs a bit better, but it's worth it to help the reader understand the material.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Galen Menzel

Excellent coverage of the basics of chart design

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 17, 2013

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Stephen Few has a rare talent for explaining apparently opaque concepts in simple terms, but without simplifying the subject. This book starts from the *very* beginning and provides the reader with a solid understanding of the basics of chart design, including when to use a table vs a graph, what types of tables and graphs to use for what kinds of data, and why certain graphical features are more effective than others. Throughout, Few maintains a plain, readable writing style that is never patronizing even when spelling out seemingly obvious points (e.g., use a table if you need to look up a specific value). His patient tone and simple presentation end up guiding you through some unexpectedly sophisticated waters of design almost without your even realizing you've gone anywhere.

In addition to the design coverage, Few covers some (very) basic statisics, how to adjust for inflation, rgb values of a nice selection of colors to use in graphs, how to make box graphs in Excel, and many other workaday details that make the book immediately useful. Most of the charts in the book are made in Excel, showing that you don't need advanced design software to make attractive, clear charts.

The book itself is a beautiful large hardback. This is the source of my one complaint: its large size makes it somewhat difficult to just pop off the shelf and flip through to find something.

If you want to learn how to design good tables and graphs, get it.

39 people found this helpful

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Tired Dad

The best book on data visualisation?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 11, 2018

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I must have a dozen books on data visualisation. I use the skill all the time for my work in financial analysis and management. I train junior team members (accountants and analysts) in data viz and make them buy this book. This is my top pick out of everything I've read on the topic. It takes the classical authors in the subject (e.g. Tufte) and builds on their insights. It covers everything you need to know from the basics of the art/ craft to the more outlandish and creative elements. It is amazingly non-boring. Just get it!

7 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Great book. 100% recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

Great purchase. If you are starting to get involved with data visualisation and you have no previous or reduced knowlage on data visualisation, this book is for you. It starts from something as basic as describing the type of data you can have till which graphs or tables could be better to communicate these data. However, no matter even if you have an advanced knowlage in data visualisation, this book will help you to understand things you usually do and even you can get a few tips more.

The book is so easy to read. Even the stadistical explanations he provides are simple but accurate, providing the relevant knowledge you require. Also, it is really fun and interesting to read. It could look like a really technical book, but definitely it could be something you can sit in your garden, read and chill.

If you think that you would require a mot advanced book but that approach the same knowlage, his book Now You See It is for you.

Warning: this book is practical form the point of view that you learn to identify the best graphs for specific data, when you should use them, then using a table is preferable, how to use the colours in a graph etc. You develop a critical knowledge to identify if a graph is good or not and how could be improved. However, if you are expecting that he explains you how to do these graphs in excel or in other program, this is not the book you are looking for. Yet, it gives you a recommended reading appendix when you can find what you are looking for depending of your interests.

Mr. P. Nagpal

Exhaustive!!!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 21, 2013

Verified Purchase

I have never read a book of this size in one sitting. Frankly, I started a bit slow but then found myself not being able to put the book down. Four hours later! I have read the entire book.

This is great. The language is simple, clear and crisp. The explanations make total sense. To make a subject such as tables and graphs interesting is difficult at the best of times but Mr Few has done it. I have learnt a hell of a lot such as geospatial considerations, box plots (never heard of them before), perception of visual display etc etc etc.

Normally, I consider a book great if I learn just one thing from it but I have learnt such a lot from this book. To supplement this, I suggest that one also reads 'How to make an impact' by Jon Moon.

13 people found this helpful

deepak s fernandes

A must have book if you want to create better reports

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book gives you the basics and advanced ways of creating compelling reports and insightful visuals

Charles Rink

Practical, relevant and helpful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 21, 2014

Verified Purchase

Superb book that gives practical, sensible advice instead of unusual and pretty charts for unusual cases. Is up-to-date and relevant to modern tools and practices. Used this as the basis for training at my work.

2 people found this helpful

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