Kindle Free Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis

Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis

Author: Visit Amazon's Stephen Few Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0970601980 | Format: PDF

Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis Description

About the Author

Stephen Few is the author of 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 Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis (2009). 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.

Customer Reviews

(37)

4.3 out of 5 stars

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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.

Alan Gideon

Following Stephen's advice will help readers explore their data better, discover trends and patterns more quickly, and make decisions with confidence.

C. V. Pirrello

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is either involved with data or designing software for data analysis or visualization.

Anthony J. Rose

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

132 of 137 people found the following review helpful

Visualization Tools For Business Analytics

By Rich Johnson on June 20, 2009

Format: Hardcover Amazon Verified Purchase

"Now You See It" is the latest book by author Stephen Few. The description says this book is a companion to "Show Me The Numbers," which is a favorite book of mine. "Show Me The Numbers" is about building charts and tables that will help you show others what you see in your data. "Now You See It" is about helping you to find new ways to display your data for your own analysis. Before you can show others your data you need to understand it yourself, and that's where this book fits in.

Creating charts is front and center as the focus of this book. "Show Me The Numbers" focused on charts and tables that could be built with simple tools such as Excel. Now You See It shows you the types of analysis you can do when you employee more advanced software such as Tableau and R. Some of the illustrations are really cool to look at and inspirational, even if I will never have the tools or time to prepare my own version of them.

"Now You See It" is broken up into 3 sections:

In Part 1 - Building Core Skills for Visual Analysis. Stephen Few covers the history of information visualization, the basics of analysis, and how we perceive data. There is some overlap with "Show Me The Numbers," but it's only one chapter, and not a deal breaker for me. I found the history of information visualization chapter interesting, and I imagine that in 50-100 years there are going to be new kinds of visualization methods available that we haven't even thought of yet.

In chapter 4, Analytical Interaction and Navigation, the author covers the role of good software in the data analysis process. He lists a few requirements that good software should have, and in many cases popular software such as Excel fall short.Read more ›

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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

The one visualization book to have in the office

By Georgette Asherman on November 13, 2009

Format: Hardcover Amazon Verified Purchase

Stephen Few has put together a book that is useful as a reference but readable as well. I heard him speak at a conference and really think he has hit the mark. The book is accessible without being shallow. He gives worthwhile examples of how to combine the features of the software with good graphing techniques. As someone who has worked with many of the techniques, he provides a reason for what I did intuitively. This is invaluable for both displaying findings and training subject experts to analyze their data.

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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful

Great introduction to Visual Analysis

By Jock D Mackinlay on July 15, 2009

Format: Hardcover

As someone who's done over two decades of research and development on visualization technology, I highly recommend "Now You See It" for everybody - novice to expert. Stephen Few explains visual analysis clearly and conversationally. His examples are accessible, appropriate, and beautiful.

The book is well-structured. Part I focuses on core concepts, principles, and practices. It prepares the general reader for Part II, which focuses on more technical material involving specific types of analysis (time-series, deviation, correlation, etc). Part II contains practical advice that will help everyone become better at visual analysis.

I particularly like the recommendations Stephen Few has included for visual analysis techniques that should be supported by commercial systems that are helping us work with data. After all, computers are now automatically collecting data. This book teaches us how to use this data to inform our individual work and to enhance our communication with each other. I believe these are key skills that will help us improve our modern, complex world.

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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

Clear and calm guide to info visualization

By Ben Shneiderman on June 23, 2009

Format: Hardcover

Clarity and calm are great virtues in making difficult problems seem easy. Stephen Few offers an abundance of these virtues in his book, Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis. He methodically guides readers from example to example in an orderly journey made even more tranquil by his gentle personal style of writing. The "I", "you", and "we" phrasing make for easy reading, even as the information visualization concepts get progressively more complex and potent.

The example data sets are easy to understand and the lessons of good design seem to pop up from the surface of the pages. Color is used cautiously and appropriately, with no wasteful distractions. The clean designs show respect for Tufte's data-to-ink ratio.

As early as 1965, statistician John Tukey recognized that one of the great payoffs of interactive computing was the potential for exploratory data analysis. Stephen Few reiterates Tukey's vision and then fulfills it by showing that good graphical representations "pave the way to analytical insight." Few has a potent advantage in that modern software tools enable him to show off the good and bad approaches for each concept. Successful commercial tools like Spotfire and Tableau are put to work repeatedly, while university research projects show up where appropriate. Over all, Few lays out the territory and gives us a grand tour.

Few closes with this declaration: "I love information, in part for the understanding that it offers...Mostly, though, I love it for what I can do with it to leave the world a little better off than I found it." Few proudly presents this noble aspiration to his readers in a compelling way; now it's up to us to realize this goal through the emerging discipline of information visualization.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Overrated

Everyone raves about this book. It's OK. But it's overrated, imho. I found the book's style to be condescending at times. And the examples to be overly simplistic. Read more

Published 6 days ago by J. Suchocki

If you are looking for ways to explore your data, don't buy this book

I initially thought the book would teach me the ways to look at the data I am working on daily. After finish reading the book, I found out that nobody could teach me how to look at... Read more

Published 25 days ago by Harry

For those interested in visual data analysis and presetations, this is...

Stephen Few has made a lasting reference for the selection and uses of the graphic representations of numerical data with this book. Read more

Published 1 month ago by D. W. Hicks

Good, if you're into that kind of thing

Excellent book for collegiate or professional use. The author blasts through a number of visualizations with a great explanation of why it is - or is not - ideally suited for... Read more

Published 2 months ago by TheLion?

Useful visualization tools and reference

Great book, but many of the graphics are black and white or greyscale. While the graphics are carefully chosen so that b&w doesn't detract from their information value, it has a... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Brian A. Lee

Well presented exposition of things you've always suspected

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... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Frederick Eli Nelson

Nice book. Nice print. Cool information.

the book is cool. Usefull information, and I like the quality of printing :)
Some chapters are a bit annoying. :)

Published 4 months ago by alina

Great book to read

Note that most of the charts in this book were created using the best practices that are built into Tableau software (I recommend Tableau Data Visualization Cookbook to learn that... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Vimlaksh

Great book on visualization techniques for quantitative analysis

May be I should start stating that my background is Sales and Marketing, and my interest in this kind of books is oriented both to better communicate with my customers as well as... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Mario Runciman

Meh, it's a textbook...

The layout and presentation of this book is beautiful, as you'd expect of a book focused on visuals. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Nathan Jones

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Product Details
Table of Contents
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Hardcover: 329 pages
Publisher: Analytics Press; 1st edition (April 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0970601980
ISBN-13: 978-0970601988
Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

"Now You See It" is the latest book by author Stephen Few. The description says this book is a companion to "Show Me The Numbers," which is a favorite book of mine. "Show Me The Numbers" is about building charts and tables that will help you show others what you see in your data. "Now You See It" is about helping you to find new ways to display your data for your own analysis. Before you can show others your data you need to understand it yourself, and that's where this book fits in.

Creating charts is front and center as the focus of this book. "Show Me The Numbers" focused on charts and tables that could be built with simple tools such as Excel. Now You See It shows you the types of analysis you can do when you employee more advanced software such as Tableau and R. Some of the illustrations are really cool to look at and inspirational, even if I will never have the tools or time to prepare my own version of them.

"Now You See It" is broken up into 3 sections:

In Part 1 - Building Core Skills for Visual Analysis. Stephen Few covers the history of information visualization, the basics of analysis, and how we perceive data. There is some overlap with "Show Me The Numbers," but it's only one chapter, and not a deal breaker for me. I found the history of information visualization chapter interesting, and I imagine that in 50-100 years there are going to be new kinds of visualization methods available that we haven't even thought of yet.

In chapter 4, Analytical Interaction and Navigation, the author covers the role of good software in the data analysis process. He lists a few requirements that good software should have, and in many cases popular software such as Excel fall short.

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