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Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
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- ISBN-100961392126
- ISBN-13978-0961392123
- PublisherGraphics Press
- Publication dateJanuary 14, 1997
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions11 x 9 x 1 inches
- Print length156 pages
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
This third Tufte book on the display of information is not for novices: it provides pictures of verbs, cause and effect, and other dynamic patterns of information display, exploring how visual evidence influences computer interfaces, design strategies, and how information is transferred and represented. This should hold appeal beyond the arts, into the scientific and computer realms. --Midwest Book Review
Product details
- Publisher : Graphics Press (January 14, 1997)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 156 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0961392126
- ISBN-13 : 978-0961392123
- Item Weight : 2.3 pounds
- Dimensions : 11 x 9 x 1 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #57,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Graph Theory (Books)
- #43 in Social Sciences Research
- #89 in Probability & Statistics (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Statistician/visualizer/artist Edward Tufte is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Statistics, and Computer Science at Yale University. He wrote, designed, and self-published 5 classic books on data visualization.
The New York Times described Tufte as the "Leonardo da Vinci of data," and Bloomberg as the "Galileo of graphics."
Having completed his book Seeing With Fresh Eyes: Meaning, Space, Data, Truth, ET is now constructing a 234-acre tree farm and sculpture park in northwest Connecticut, which will show his artworks and remain open space in perpetuity.
He founded Graphics Press, ET Modern Gallery/Studio, and Hogpen Hill Farms.
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This book may not for everyone, however. It does not contain ready-to-use concepts nor does it present a comprehensive solution for displaying dynamic information. What it does contain, are keen observations and commentary on past attempts at dynamic information display. The relation of each chapter to the next is not readily apparent and is quite precarious in fact. What results, is a book that reads better if each chapter is taken independently. In short, this book will be more rewarding to those willing to spend time to ponder over Tufte's observations. Conversely, the book will appear to have a lack of focus to those in a rush to find solutions.
While engineers may be great at making great results, presenting the information is still a challenge (especially to customers and management).
She really likes this book. It provides a great guide on how to present information so that other engineers and the 'layman' can understand it. Data presentation can be quite a problem for engineers, and this book does a fantastic job at providing methods and means for producing useful and meaningful visual representations of findings.
I'm not an engineer 'per se,' but I'm a degreed Mathematician. I flipped through the book, and it seems as though the book does a very good job at helping us that may be poor at presenting our technical ideas in a way such that it is easily comprehensible to others - in particular others that are not mathematicians or engineers.
This aside, the limited reading I did was pretty easy, and his ideas and points were easy to comprehend and well articulated.
The only thing is, as pretty and as well-founded the book is in certain principles, it's my opinion that... that the average reader doesn't understand design problems enough that this book will present anything new.
Meaning, the book is so intuitive, that, it seems pointless anyone would ever have to write a beautiful book like this -- *UNLESS* you have been stymied over and over again by mudglobs of creative ad hoc-kery and ad-hoc functionality, or, if you have been victimized by the unfunctional sheen of superglossy animated 3-d search engines (data visualizations, etc).
Here's maybe the test -- if the price tag of this book seems excessive, you haven't been slogging through enough terrible textbooks to see what a light and airy gem of fresh... >sigh< air this book is.
Otherwise - buy the Tufte series all at once, and see if you can't save bucks on the group discount.
Imagine someone wants to learn football. They buy a book that, rather than teaching the three-point stance or how to run a hook pattern, instead shows grainy black and white photos of rugby players and explains that football originated in Wales in 1883. Then it shows pictures of leather helmets and some more grainy shots of the Yale football team from 1920 and so on. Rather than learning HOW to play football, you are taken on a quaint exploration of how football started.
This was my experience reading Tufte's book. I was completely disappointed with his writing style and lack of practical guidance. From the reviews, it appears others have gotten more from the book than I did, because they were willing to spend time pondering Tufte's examples. But for myself, I found Stephen Few's book "Information Dashboard Design" covers the material much more comprehensively and - most important to me - practically than Tufte did.
I'll be returning my Tufte history books for a full refund.
He has received so many accolades that one more won't add to his credibility.
These are among the most significant non-fiction books (there are a half dozen in an informal series) ever written, and an absolute must for anyone even marginally involved in producing information graphics.
*** And by the way, if you ever get the chance to see Tufte in person, do not miss it.
I've seen him twice, maybe $500 a pop. Worth every penny.
The man is a genius who is the primary influence in defining an industry.
Needless to say, the books are each graphically exquisite.
Top reviews from other countries

This book explores the methods and values of excellence in presenting information on change: how you represent movement, actions and ideas in a way that enlightens, informs and educates.
The book has excellent production values (what else did you expect) and is a a delight to explore. Tufte explains concepts and ideas in an engaging manner, pulling examples from hundreds of years of human history, from Hobbs "Leviathan", to abstract art of the 20th century. Amongst the pages are gems of insight from random places: be it descriptions fo magic tricks to descriptions of fish for those underwater! Brilliant.
It's interesting to read and reflect on how this is still relevant in a digital age where images can be distorted, manipulated or created on a whim. Even more than ever, the integrity of data and information has to meet these standards to be credible and effective. Powerpoint slaves, take note!

Since it's the third book of Edward Tufte I can greatly recommend the previous 2 as well.
To keep in mind, especialy with the previous books, is that Tufte has a large focus on the use of graphs and visualisations as to help with analysis and give a technically good representation of your information and data.
If your looking to know more about how to sell or pitch with your presentations you might want to look for something else as a complement.
Cheers
/Christian


