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Summary: excellent source of inspiration
Review: This book is a must have for anyone into design. It is very inspiring, and the concept and the thought behind the book could actually lead to creation of good design. It is very well written in a simple language easy to comprehend. As a designer I feel it covers the most important aspect of design, which is to blow life into the product one is designing!
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Summary: A Truly Remarkable Book
Review: This book will forever change the way you look at how information is presented. In addition to showing how good information design works, Tufte takes to task those who deceive or confuse using charts and graphs. There is no better book on this subject. Plus, besides providing useful information, the book itself is a fantastic example of good design.
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Summary: Very worthwhile and readible book for peaceful times
Review: This is now the third and last of Tuftes trilogy of design books I read and I still love to read them. I love the enspirement. It needs a peaceful pace and as the author states "it pays you back". I learned a lot, I will read it again in a couple of years, and I Want another one of his books.
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Summary: words and graphs to go from 2 to higher dimensions
Review: This is the second book in Ed Tufte's trilogy on graphical displays. It is a sequel to "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information". In this book Tufte shows how color, multiple pictures from different perspectives, graphs, charts and even newspaper text can be used to convey on a flat piece of paper information for high-dimesional data. Most important is the ability of two-dimensional pictures to display the information of the three dimensional world that the human mind can comprehend through sight. This is the reason for the title to the first chapter "Escaping Flatland".However, as interesting as the pictures are themselves it is necessary to read the text and look back and forth between pictures to fully appreciate the points of the text. As with his earlier work, Tufte demonstrates the principles of good graphics through effective demonstartaion of ideas conveyed by good and bad examples. The difference is a broader coverage of techniques and greater emphasis on the good examples. This book is a nice lead in for the third book, "Visual Explanations", which deals with examples where Tufte believes the graphical displays actually lead to good inferences about a problem under study.
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Summary: Every Web designer should read this book
Review: This is the third of Edward Tufte's brilliant trilogy on how information should be displayed. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information is about pictures of numbers. Envisioning Information is about picturing nouns. Visual Explanations is about picturing verbs. All three are beautiful artefacts in their own right, encapsulating the author's ideas in the actual production of the book. Each is crammed with examples of good and bad practice over the past centuries.
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Summary: A Tour De Fource of Information Design
Review: To me, this is Tufte's best book, although they are all really good. Although its visually gorgeous, its not a coffee table book to just flip through. You have to be willing to spend time with it, and if you do the rewards are tremendous. Tufte presents a collection of some the best examples of information design ever invented, and some of the worst examples. And then he goes into the underlying principles that make the great ones sing out. This book will be really helpful to any web page designer, UI designers, statisticians, cartographers, scientists, or anyone concerned with presenting dense information in a clear way. There is a chapter on presenting multiple dimensional data on a flat, 2D paper that all by itself is worth the price of the book. Then there's the chapter on "Small Multiples" which presents wonderful examples of how to show patterns and changes. But then there's the chapter on layering of information, so the key pieces of data appear first, and the less relevant ones reveal themselves later. And on and on and on. Its just a great book. To add to it, Tufte is obsessed with quality like nobody else I can think of in the book business. Its printed on 100% rag paper using real lead type because he thinks that all other methods are inferior. Which means the book is costly to make, but its of heirloom quality.
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Summary: Exquisite
Review: Tufte is a genius, and this, the first of his series (of three), is an exquisite testimony to visual design. Wonderful for brainstorming or just feasting the eyes. No designer should be without these books.
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Summary: A treat for the eyes and mind!
Review: Tufte's book was recommended to me recently because I create and design maps for my travel guide, "PassPorter Walt Disney World." What a delight it was to find a book that *explains* why it is important to present information clearly, succinctly, and responsibly. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and could only have hoped for more information and examples on maps. You can bet the next edition of my travel guide will have enhanced maps based on Tufte's principles. "Envisioning Information" will have a proud place on my bookshelf for many years to come. Jennifer Watson, Co-Author of PassPorter Walt Disney World: The unique travel guide, planner, organizer, journal, and keepsake!
Rating: 
Summary: A very good book. All could be said in 10 pages though
Review: Very well produced and interesting work. However, I don't think it sums up to a book. A profusion of illustrations, though interesting, is at times gratuitous and barely related to anything in text, and after reading this book (in one sitting) I can say, this all could be said on 10 pages (including illustrations.)
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