“A picture is worth a thousand words,” or so the old saying goes. When portraying data, its visualization is often worth more than a thousand words. Indeed, in some contexts, it’s the only way that the data are accessible. In this book, Jonathan Schwabish provides a comprehensive look at visual options available to portray data.
True to his background as an economist, He provides examples mainly from governmental concerns and social-science fields. As a scientist, I wish he had more examples from the basic sciences. He is beyond expert at communicating infographics, but limited at portraying data for more exploratory purposes.
I appreciate the wide variety of images this book contains. The insightfulness of image types far surpass the text. For beginners, the text might be more valuable, but for experienced practitioners, the variety of crisp images will resonate much longer. Indeed, I found myself browsing and critiquing the images on my own more than reading every word of text. I’d read only certain texts when I found myself confused or ignorant about an image.
This book will be most useful to beginners in the field of information visualization. Its comprehensiveness will also be useful to those with intermediate progression through the field. Visualization books are helpful for data communicators to have on their bookshelves so as to point out what they want their graphic to look like, as a template. This book certainly offers a lot of options for that end. The appendices also help to point to tools that can make these inspiring images turn into a reality with a little work.
Better Data Visualizations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks
By Jonathan Schwabish
Copyright (c) 2021
Columbia University Press
ISBN13 9780231193115
Page Count: 449
Genre: Visualization
www.amazon.com