Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 110
 Tufte's first design book March 9, 2009
Trevor Burnham (Ann Arbor, MI)
The title might lead you to think that this is a dry book, of interest only to stuffy academics in statistics-heavy fields. It isn't. Yes, people in those fields should read the book, and the world would be a better place if they'd do so before foisting their graphs on the rest of us. But this book should be enjoyed by everyone with an interest in graphic design, including artists and web designers.
I would recommend reading Tufte's entire "tetralogy" in order, starting with this one, followed by Envisioning Information, Visual Explanations and Beautiful Evidence. I'd say that this one is the second-best, after Visual Explanations.
Excellent book! February 28, 2009
Ana R. Hernandez (Boston, MA, US)
Highly recommended! This book has been extremely important for understanding the way quantitative information should be displayed.
One of the best books I have ever read.
Required reading, yet fun! February 10, 2009
Sophie Lagace (Eureka, CA)
This gorgeous, entertaining, and fantastically helpful book needs to be required reading for all students and practitioners of science and engineering. Read it! Never again will you dare concoct an illegible chart or a nonsensical table, and you will learn about many other techniques for usefully displaying information.
Read This Tufte First December 28, 2008
Keith McCormick (North Carolina, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have attended one of the author's talks (easy to find on the web), and have all four books. One criticism of Tufte is that it is not obvious how to go about doing many of the graphics in his books. They are carefully crafted by individuals with great skill and expensive software. The fourth book, Beautiful Evidence, might leaving you scratching you head as to how to use the information in preparation for your next business presentation. He deserves his reputation, however. The books are beautiful, and his ideas have great merit. If you want an introduction to Tufte that gives you a chance of putting the advice into practice at work, you must read this one first. To go for the most recent, would be a mistake for most readers. If you become a convert, the other three are also excellent, but offer less practical application for the everyday business person. (For instance, I am a statistician and data miner, not a graphic designer).
The second book is Envisioning Information, and the third is The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition. Beware the inexpensive paperbacks - they are excepts from the hardcovers. Good content, but potentially redundant.
Although it is not a book for everyone, there is a very interesting discussion (albeit short) of Minard's Napoleon's march chart (made famous by Tufte) in The Grammar of Graphics (Statistics and Computing).
Interesting and enjoyable December 7, 2008
User313 (England, UK)
Stimulates the visualisation of information with illustrations on every page and easy to read text. Provides many helpful ideas, as well as some `do and don't's. Some overlap with the other book (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information / Envisioning Information).
Showing reviews 11-15 of 110
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