Rating: 
Summary: A sensory/intellectual marvel.
Review: Dear Dr. Tufte,
Your books are sensory and intellectual marvels. I was doing my thing at amazon.com (trying to spice up the Updike story) when I came across a
review of Visual Explanations. I was so intrigued that I splurged my book money for the month and ordered it and its two predecessors sight unseen.
I began at the beginning and just finished reading the last confection.
I own no books that are as well-conceived as yours: the luscious heft and texture of the paper, the elegant placement of the unique, well- chosen
illustrations, their accompanying complete and careful references in the margins, the clear intelligence of the text reflected in the precise
language, the overall feel that there is not one wasted word or image. These books are the best examples of how-to-really-make-a-book that I have
ever seen. Please accept my compliments on a job exceedingly well done.
Rating:
Summary: The consumate book of how to powerfully present information
Review: A picture is worth a thousand words! A big challenge in the marketing world is powerfully portraying your products and services in an easily and quickly understandable visual way. This book gives some outstanding examples
Rating: 
Summary: Learn how human information capacity affects your designs
Review: An amazing book! While I'm not sure that it's worth giving up shelf space for, it's more than worth borrowing from your local library and reading. The biggest things I pulled out of this were around information density and the capacities that humans have. This book provided me with a framework for looking at mediums of display to the user and to better understand how I can choose how much data and how to present it to best allow them to reason around it. The examples are also beautifully produced and masterfully composed. The book itself is an amazing artifact! Near the end, he talks about 'confections' and, while it was an interesting section, it was the one section of the book that it was difficult to pull out prescriptive guidance from.
Rating:
Summary: Rewarding to those willing to spend time on it
Review: As an extension of his observations described in his earlier book, "Envisioning Information", Tufte's third installment of the trilogy turns the discussion to the display of dynamic information. Again, Tufte draws from numerous examples throughout history to illustrate his points. The chapter on 'Visual and Statistical Thinking' contains some of the most poignant arguments in the book, including an engaging visual narrative of the 1854 Cholera Epidemic and a study on the Challenger space-shuttle tragedy. This book may not for everyone, however. It does not contain ready-to-use concepts nor does it present a comprehensive solution for displaying dynamic information. What it does contain, are keen observations and commentary on past attempts at dynamic information display. The relation of each chapter to the next is not readily apparent and is quite precarious in fact. What results, is a book that reads better if each chapter is taken independently. In short, this book will be more rewarding to those willing to spend time to ponder over Tufte's observations. Conversely, the book will appear to have a lack of focus to those in a rush to find solutions.
Rating:
Summary: Rewarding to those willing to spend time on it
Review: As an extension of his observations described in his earlier book, "Envisioning Information", Tufte's third installment of the trilogy turns the discussion to the display of dynamic information. Again, Tufte draws from numerous examples throughout history to illustrate his points. The chapter on 'Visual and Statistical Thinking' contains some of the most poignant arguments in the book, including an engaging visual narrative of the 1854 Cholera Epidemic and a study on the Challenger space-shuttle tragedy. This book may not for everyone, however. It does not contain ready-to-use concepts nor does it present a comprehensive solution for displaying dynamic information. What it does contain, are keen observations and commentary on past attempts at dynamic information display. The relation of each chapter to the next is not readily apparent and is quite precarious in fact. What results, is a book that reads better if each chapter is taken independently. In short, this book will be more rewarding to those willing to spend time to ponder over Tufte's observations. Conversely, the book will appear to have a lack of focus to those in a rush to find solutions.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable and Revealing Insights
Review: Edward R. Tufte again raises the bar both on his scholarly treatment of how we portray visual information and on how books of value ought to me made. His third book on information design, Visual Explanation: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative is, in his words, "about pictures of verbs, the representation of mechanism and motion, process and dynamics, causes and effects, explanation and narrative." Within this book, Mr. Tufte first tackles tough, fundamental issues related to quantity, scale, and magnitude. Determining if a visual representation is honest or accurate may, at first, not seem a vital skill, but Mr. Tufte clearly shows how data and information can be distorted or manipulated and offers sharp observations to help one see more clearly what is presented. He addresses methods of presenting and analyzing data, using the now classic medical investigative work of John Snow and the fatal flawed decision making that resulting in the Challenger tragedy, to build a steady, compelling argument that there are right and wrong ways to show data. A chapter on magic and designing disinformation is full of anecdotes, examples, and illustrations about the how's and why's of masking content and diverting attention. Perhaps my favorite chapter is The Smallest Effective Difference, a challenging but insightful primer on using subtle but effective visual distinctions to create compelling visual information. The long chapter about visual parallelism treats a complex subject by offering a plethora of examples, all explained with a terse elegance. Students of typography will take a special interest in Mr. Tufte's treatment of letterforms. How we use and react to multiple images and how to effectively use multiples to evoke repetition, change, pattern, and surprise form the basis of the next chapter. Mr. Tufte again reminds readers that good design must take into account how, when, and even where information will be used. The final chapter covers what Mr. Tufte has termed visual confections, that is an assembly of myriad visual events to convey a story, make comparisons, merge the real and imaginary. Digital artists should switch off their Macintosh computers until they have studied carefully this chapter, replete with superb illustrations and laser-intense commentary. Mr. Tufte self-publishes his books because no commercial press would indulge his demands for perfection. His books are wonderful not just because of the information he presents but also because they represent the craft of bookmaking. The printing, binding, the acid-free paper, inks, the arrangement of words and images---these books are to treasure when so much is disposable and fleeting.
Rating:
Summary: "Visual Explanations" could've spared some contrivances.
Review: Edward Tufte set high standards for himself with his previous books. Consequently the weaknesses of his newest stand out more than they would have otherwise. As usual, his bad examples have more impact than any amount of instruction or philosophizing, especially the "hyped Venus" animation from the Magellan probe. Other topics get a bit confusing. Tufte's criticism of Richard Feynman's O-ring "experiment" makes sense only because both Tufte and Feynman imprecisely called it that and not what it really was: a demonstration. Was Feynman supposed to do in two minutes what all prior researchers had not? Tufte goes from critiquing illustrations of magic tricks to equating a lecture with a magic show. His advice to keep things short and sweet, leave the audience wanting more, and the like are off-topic. The author may be reaching for a grand theory of visual communication, and more power to him. However, the word "confection" is an unfortunate choice. It stinks too much of the disparaging phrase "eye candy" to be taken seriously. I would have preferred a term that might imply a connection with an electronic communications buzzword like "worldbuilding." Calvino's literary archeology, even live theater or filmmaking might have yielded preferable analogies. Quibbles aside, this is a bargain at any price. It offers much better advice to interface designers than any overlarded, pseudo-psychedelic coffee table book I've seen so far on Website building
Rating:
Summary: Explaining Quality Visual Information
Review: Edward Tufte's book "Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative" is a 157 page exercise in critical thinking. The author discusses and analyzes visual information, pointing out flaws and strengths of various visual depictions. One becomes more aware of visual information and what constitutes ideal pictorial information.
"Visual Explanations" covers the topics of images and quantities, displaying evidence, pictorial instructions and disinformation, the smallest visual effective difference, repetition and change, multiples, and visual confections. Although the book has little to do with charts and graphs, reading the book makes one aware of all visual information and its ideal presentation. Anyone that works with or uses charts, illustrations, and any visual data will probably find this book useful. The book is richly illustrated with examples.
This book would be great for people that use statistics in their work or make presentations. It teaches people to be a critical thinkers concerning visual information and presentation. Even if you do not agree with Tufte, "Visual Explanations" will make you think about things you otherwise might not have.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant (as you'd expect)
Review: For me, not quite as cool as Visuallising Information, but still essential.
Rating:
Summary: Good overall but not very contemporary
Review: Good overall but not very contemporary
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