In sixth grade, my teacher tried to teach the class how to read line charts – and something fell into place for me. Ever since then, I’ve tried to sort data into forms that we can use to make sense of it. As a researcher at Microsoft, I consulted with teams across the organization – from sales to legal; and from Excel to XBox – to help them understand their data. At Honeycomb, I design tools for software operations teams to diagnose their complex systems. These books each gave me an “ah-hah” moment that made me think differently about the craft of creating visualization. They now sit on my shelf in easy reach – I hope you find them fascinating too.
I wrote
Making Data Visual: A Practical Guide to Using Visualization for Insight
I learned Tukey’s name about as soon as I learned that data visualization existed as more than a menu in Excel and a personal obsession. Tukey coined the term “exploratory data analysis,” and so tapped into a passion for swimming around in all the interesting rows and columns. Tukey was working before computers were widespread, and so I got a view of how he saw data: working against the constraints of pencil and paper; keeping your hand moving as fast as possible. While the explorations we can do with gigabytes of memory and powerful rendering are very different, the goal of getting information into your head as fast as possible is unchanged.
This title is part of the Pearson Modern Classics series. Pearson Modern Classics are acclaimed titles at a value price. Please visit www.pearson.com/statistics-classics-series for a complete list of titles.
The approach in this introductory book is that of informal study of the data. Methods range from plotting picture-drawing techniques to rather elaborate numerical summaries. Several of the methods are the original creations of the author, and all can be carried out either with pencil or aided by hand-held calculator.
0134995457 / 9780134995458 EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS (CLASSIC VERSION), 1/e
I’ve always felt a desire to make the world make sense through data – that numbers and structure could help unlock hidden meanings. When I read this novel, I felt seen: it’s told from the perspective of T. S. Spivet – a 12-year-old boy who has the same urge. Spivet thoroughly documents the world around him, sketching an ant he sees in the grass, and drawing schematics and maps of the spaces he travels through on his quest to travel to the Smithsonian Institution. The book’s margin is lavishly illustrated with Spivet’s diagrams – in seeing the world through his eyes, it felt like how I see it through my own.
A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S. Spivet's attempts to understand the ways of the world
When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal-if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal-is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum's hallowed halls.
T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures step into…
I had read some Du Bois in school; until I learned about this book, I’d had no idea he had created a set of compelling and provocative illustrations of graphs showing the state of Black America at the turn of the 20th century. Du Bois’ information graphics are carefully and elegantly structured to tell a story: he masterfully chose colors, designs, and representations to manage to seem completely objective – while conveying resilience, opportunity, and hope for the future. His work is a masterclass in how visualization can be so much more than a list of numbers.
"As visually arresting as it is informative."-The Boston Globe
"Du Bois's bold colors and geometric shapes were decades ahead of modernist graphic design in America."-Fast Company's Co.Design
W.E.B. Du Bois's Data Portraits is the first complete publication of W.E.B. Du Bois's groundbreaking charts, graphs, and maps presented at the 1900 Paris Exposition.
Famed sociologist, writer, and Black rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois fundamentally changed the representation of Black Americans with his exhibition of data visualizations at the 1900 Paris Exposition. Beautiful in design and powerful in content, these data portraits make visible a wide spectrum of African American culture, from…
Maps and data visualization live in my mind as close cousins: geographical coordinates are often the best way to show where data happens, and the techniques that cartographers have worked out can be adapted to the ways I represent visuals. Maps also have some interpretive advantages over abstract data: San Francisco is always west of Washington, DC. That’s not as true of information graphs, where their respective data points might move around depending on what is being plotted and what the axes are.
Now available in paperback for the first time, this classic work presents a cognitive-semiotic framework for understanding how maps work as powerful, abstract, and synthetic spatial representations. Explored are the ways in which the many representational choices inherent in mapping interact with information processing and knowledge construction, and how the resulting insights can be used to make informed symbolization and design decisions. A new preface to the paperback edition situates the book within the context of contemporary technologies. As the nature of maps continues to evolve, Alan MacEachren emphasizes the ongoing need to think systematically about the ways people interact…
A new edition of Bertin’s 1963 Semiology was released a few years ago, and my heart swelled with joy. For years, I’d worked off of bad photocopies of an inter-library loan book that had long since gone out of print. In this new edition, I could see how Bertin works through different dimensions and axes – when you want to plot two different quantitative axes over a map, what are your choices? What if you want to plot them over a graph, instead? What changes? I loved exploring these choices with Bertin, as he explores how different color mappings, iconic representations, and design choices change the way the reader interprets the graph.
Originally published in French in 1967, Semiology of Graphics is internationally recognized as a foundational work in the fields of design and cartography. Based on Jacques Bertin's practical experience as a cartographer, part one of this work is an unprecedented attempt to synthesize principles of graphic communication with the logic of standard rules applied to writing and topography. Part two brings Bertin's theory to life, presenting a close study of graphic techniques, including shape, orientation, colour, texture, volume, and size, in an array of more than 1,000 maps and diagrams.
On a fairly regular basis, people come to me with a pile of data and say, “Hey, can you visualize this for me?” I’ve learned that the important part of that process isn’t the visualization – it’s refining the underlying question to be answered. Which parts of the data actually matter? Where is the insight hiding? My co-author and I wrote this book to capture a set of straightforward steps that helps refine your questions and map them to a visualization. If you’re trying to navigate the murky space between data and insight, this practical book shows you how to make sense of your data through high-level questions, well-defined data analysis tasks, and visualizations to clarify understanding and gain insights along the way.
From the time I was a girl, I’ve loved stories that put a lump in my throat even as I’m laughing. As a fiction writer, that funny-sad tone is the one I go for in my own work. I gravitate toward female protagonists of all ages who break the mold—women who are intelligent and strong but who also have unconventional, quirky personalities. Women who can be hilarious, infuriating, and heartbreaking—sometimes all at once. Because they are complex and unique, these women tend to struggle with life’s challenges more than their contemporaries. That’s what makes their stories so interesting, and why I have chosen the books on this list.
When Mar’s husband divorces her, she reacts by abandoning everything in her past: her home, her friends, even her name. Though it's not easy starting over, she’s ready for new adventures—as long as she can keep things casual. Each month, Mar goes from one acquaintance to the next: a fellow gym member down on her luck, a flirty hip-hop instructor, a bossy but comical consultant. . . and a handsome novelist who wants more than she can give. Mar learns from each encounter. But can she open herself up to true connection?
Surrounded by quirky, endearing characters, Mar navigates her…
"A fun, entertaining novel! I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy this book as much as I did." -Leslie A. Rasmussen, award-winning author
When Mar Meyer's husband divorces her for another woman, she reacts by abandoning everything in her past: her home, her friends, even her name. Though it's not easy to start over, Mar is young-looking, fit, and ready for new adventures-as long as she can keep things casual.
With each passing month, Mar goes from one acquaintance to the next. Among them: a fellow gym member down on her luck, a flirty hip-hop instructor, a bossy but comical…
