Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference

Rating:
Summary: Consultant's best friend
Review: As a consultant in the computer industry I often wonder if I am a technical specialist or a technical writer because of the high volume of writing I do. While I have honed my writing skills through both experience and training in Information Mapping, I used to be at a loss about how to best portray technical data in my documents.

Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference changed that. With this handy reference, which is never far from my keyboard, I have a 450-page catalog of ideas and guidance. What is remarkable is that in the 450 pages are 4,000 illustrations (nearly 10 per page). This book has allowed me to measurably improve the quality of my proposals and deliverables by picking the best possible way to convey information.

Don't let the fact that I am in the computer consulting industry deter you from buying this book - if you are in business, graphic arts, advertising and marketing or just about any other profession that uses data this book will be worth its weight in gold.

Rating:
Summary: Consultant's best friend
Review: As a consultant in the computer industry I often wonder if I am a technical specialist or a technical writer because of the high volume of writing I do. While I have honed my writing skills through both experience and training in Information Mapping, I used to be at a loss about how to best portray technical data in my documents.

Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference changed that. With this handy reference, which is never far from my keyboard, I have a 450-page catalog of ideas and guidance. What is remarkable is that in the 450 pages are 4,000 illustrations (nearly 10 per page). This book has allowed me to measurably improve the quality of my proposals and deliverables by picking the best possible way to convey information.

Don't let the fact that I am in the computer consulting industry deter you from buying this book - if you are in business, graphic arts, advertising and marketing or just about any other profession that uses data this book will be worth its weight in gold.

Rating:
Summary: Unimaginative textbook
Review: Be forewarned that this is a boring (but thorough) textbook on presenting data graphically. The intended audience must be students, beginning researchers, and untrained graphic artists. It tells readers how to graphically present data in the driest possible way and is illustrated with thousands of extremely boring and unimaginative line drawings. Do not look to this book for inspiration or for advanced design concepts. I returned my copy immediately.

Rating:
Summary: Dramatically improved by graphic communication skills
Review: I have an array of powerful graphics tools ranging from Microsoft Excel's rich charting add-in, to Visio Professional and Harvard Instant Charts. Despite my technical skills that allow me to quickly produce just about any kind of chart or graphic imaginable, I was never such how to select the best graphic or chart to convey information in the most efficient way before I got this book.

This book is a catalog of ideas and a guide for selecting the best possible way to display information in graphical format. Now, instead of floundering around playing with two or three ways to graphically depict information I turn to this book and pick the most appropriate graphic type. My ability to communicate has dramatically improved because now that I have confidence that I am using the optimal method to display information I find myself using graphics not only more effectively, but more wisely.

Prior to this book my graphics tools were implements that more often than not produced inappropriate charts, giving credence to the adage that "A fool with a tool is still a fool". Since this book I now use my software tools like a skilled craftsman who has the perfect blueprint. With 450 pages of illustrations that show how to depict information visually in the best possible way this book is my perfect blueprint.

Rating:
Summary: A great source for graphical ideas.
Review: This book is 400+ pages, and I would estimate it contains
5-10 graphics examples per page. If you've got "writer's block"
and can't think of a new way to graphically present your data,
then this is the book for you. Just thumb through it until
something catches your eye, and then read the details about
that kind of graph. Maybe not 100% 'comprehensive' as the
title implies ... but pretty darn close! ;)

For people like me who have to do a lot of different kinds
of graphs, this book is a great resource to have on your shelf.


Rating:
Summary: Explains how to visually represent many types of information
Review: This book is an overwhelming reference to all types of graphs, maps, tables, diagrams, and charts. Most of the graphics are accompanied by one or more examples along with explanations for when and how to use them. A fun book to browse.

Rating:
Summary: Information Graphics is a great reference tool
Review: This is a very useful compendium for information graphics designers, business professionals and casual chart readers. Graphic terminology is categorized alphabetically and interpreted using easy language and clear illustrations. Examples are sometimes repeated when there is more than one variation in a term. Browsing through the pages brings to mind a wish list of every chart you ever wanted to make!

Rating:
Summary: Encyclopedic Work About Data Presentation
Review: This is not a how-to-book. Harris has written a definitive book about data presentation. Topics are organized alphabetically and cross-referenced. Almost every entry is accompanied by illustrations and sometime many of them. I have other books that describe data presentation but they are incomplete compared with Harris's book. I have not seen such an array of presentation illustrations in one place before. Some of the illustrations show plots that I frequently use with interesting additions; for example, the diagonal in pairwise scatter plots typically names variables, Harris has an illustration with histograms for each variable on the diagonal. What a great idea! Almost everyone knows how to construct pie charts. Harris's discussion of pie charts is six pages long. After a brief introduction, he gives a description and terminology, general characteristics, methods to incorporate descriptive and quantitative information, reference angles, showing changes over time, varying the size of circles proportional to the overall value of the data, highlighting slices of the pie, improving legibility, grouping sections of the chart, using pie charts instead of histograms, encodeing additional quantitative data, adding depth, overlapping pie charts, decographs, belt charts, and cirlce graphs. Who could have imagined that lowly pie charts were so versatile and communicative? Some have dogmatically asserted, "Pie charts are a very bad way of displaying information." Although I generally agree, Harris has given me much to think about and I will not be so averse to using them in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Alphabetical arrangement not very useful
Review: Three stars is perhaps harsh, but this book would be much more useful if it had been structured differently. Open this book
and on the first page the entries start rolling: "Abscissa", "Abscissa axis", "Abstract graph", etc. Most readers will be
exhausted before reaching the letters D or E...

Having compiled this exhaustive list of information graphics, one would expect the author to provide some kind of an
overview, guidelines, or some useful grouping of the different types of graphics. The closest thing to such insights is
found in the brief preface (pp. 4-5) and the "Graph" entry (pp. 164-177).

I have to disagree with the reviewers describing this book as helpful "to select the best graphic or chart to convey
information in the most efficient way". When you "turn to this book and and pick the most appropriate graphic type", which
alphabetical entries are you going to look up? And which entries are you going to miss?

This book does serve a purpose as a catalogue and a 4 page bibliography, but the best books for learning how to create
informative and efficient graphics are those written by Edward Tufte and William Cleveland.