Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 31
 2005 Writers Notes Book Award Winner May 18, 2005
Writers Notes Magazine (www.WritersNotes.com)
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
Have you ever witnessed a presenta-tion and seen charts that don't seem to ap-ply to anything in the world, much less the business at hand? You often recognize the ledgers, but no matter how many slick graphics and overlays the presenter shows, the results are mumbo-jumbo, guaranteed to put you asleep faster than a foreign film without subtitles. Stephen Few feels your pain. He understands that charts are designed to visually communicate greater concepts, and in Show Me the Numbers, he's made a science of effective visual data presentations.
Everything You Need to Know March 12, 2005
Daniel Richards (Pleasant Hill, CA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
As other reviewers have already noted, this is indeed an excellent book. Show Me the Numbers covers just about everything you need to know in order to present quantitative information in a clear and persuasive manner. Follow the author's advice and your graphs will tell a useful story, rather than merely list statistics; highlight significant trends, rather than obscure meaningful relationships.
I particularly liked the chapter on how visual perception influences a reader's ability to understand various types of graphic displays. The author clearly illustrates graphic techniques which work WITH our natural tendencies, and thus promote rapid comprehension of the underlying quantitative message. Learning about visual perception helped me more deeply understand and internalize the essence of good graphic design.
In summary, this is a tremendously practical book. The only bad thing about Show Me the Numbers, is that I now cringe nearly every time I see a graph - as I am painfully aware of how poorly designed most of them are. Do yourself a favor, buy a few extra copies of Show Me the Numbers and pass them around at work!
Use Excel (or PowerPoint)? Read this book January 20, 2005
Mike Tarrani (Deltona, FL USA)
51 out of 56 found this review helpful
As a consultant I need to gather and analyze data and transform it into information and findings. This book leads you through the transformation of data - especially if you use Excel or PowerPoint - by showing how to select the best table and chart formats to convey the information aggregated from data.
The thrust of the book is communicating. The author lays a solid foundation early in the book by covering qualtitative relationships, summarization and various data types. He then builds upon the foundation with succinct discussions and advice on selecting tablular formats and the correct charts to convey the information.
While Excel is the principal tool used to illustrate the concepts and techniques in the book, I have applied the author's advice to Visio and PowerPoint, as well as a few more obscure charting and graphics programs.
I like the clarity with which the information is presented, and the practical examples given throughout the book. More importantly, this book isn't a tome that is aimed at graphic designers, making it an ideal resource for technical and business professionals who do not fully grasp the nuances of graphic presentation.
If you present data and information - using any application - I strongly recommend this book because it will make your presentations meaningful and easy-to-understand, and will show you how to avoid a plethora of common mistakes like using the wrong chart or impossible to understand tables.
 The best there is - November 17, 2004
wiredweird (Earth, or somewhere nearby)
97 out of 103 found this review helpful
- after Tufte. Tufte writes about brilliant, eloquent graphic design. Few writes about competent, legible business presentation. Tufte writes about good art, Few writes about servicable craft. If you've ever seen data presented in Excel, Word, or (god forbid) PowerPoint, you know how much we need competent craft.
The book is gently paced. It's for people who need to present numbers, but may not be wholly comfortable with numbers. It takes the reader by the hand, and walks through a series of very basic steps in reasoning about how a chart communicates, or fails to.
The book is very much oriented towards the chart and graph types that Excel can produce. Like it or not, that makes sense. Excel is what most readers have most acess to, and is what causes some of the ugliest problems. This book addresses those problems.
Few illustrates his points with a number of examples, both good and bad ones. He presents problems to solve, and presents answers to many of them. It's a textbook, and a good one. Its main message is, "Less is better."
This is for anyone who presents information, and for anyone who creates presentation software. I recommend this one.
//wiredweird
A Must-Study Book for the Business Professional October 23, 2004
Richard Hackathorn (Boulder, CO)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I highly recommend this book because it teaches the critical skill of designing tables and charts essential for every business professional. Our fact-based corporate culture requires us to effectively explain and motivate through the use of tables and charts. It is the `bread-and-butter' of business intelligence.
As a practical teach-me-the-skill book, Stephen Few has created 'Show Me The Numbers' by taking well-grounded principles (from Tufle and others) and by artfully applying them. The title echoes throughout the book as the recurring theme. The book unfolds design principles based on context and relationships. Through a series of practice exercises, the author has shown a sincere interest in teaching the reader this skill. Stephen nudges the reader to think about the proper design that clearly tells the story embedded in the numbers and to communicate that story accurately and honestly.
Showing reviews 21-25 of 31
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