Stephen Few Knihy

Before you can present information to others, you must understand its story. Now You See It teaches the concepts, principles, and practices of visual data sensemaking. The skills taught in this book rely primarily on something that most of us possess—vision—interactively using graphs to find and examine the meaningful patterns and relationships that reside in quantitative data. Although some questions about quantitative data can only be answered using sophisticated statistical techniques, most can be answered using relatively simple visual data sensemaking skills. Until Now You See It was published, no book taught these basic skills comprehensively and in a way that was accessible to a broad audience. Even though these skills can be developed by anyone with eyes to see, they are not intuitive—they must be learned. Without these skills, even the best data visualization tools are of little use, and data will remain nothing but noise.

Information, no matter how important, cannot speak for itself. To tell its story, it relies on us to give it a clear voice. No information is more critical than quantitative data ... numbers that reveal what's happening, how our organizations are performing, and opportunities to do better. Numbers are usually presented in tables and graphs, but few are properly designed, resulting not only in poor communication, but at times in miscommunication. This is a travesty, because the skills needed to present quantitative information effectively are simple to learn. Good communication doesn't just happen; it is the result of good design.

Dashboards have become a popular means to present critical information for rapid monitoring, but few do this effectively. When designed well, dashboards engage the power of visual perception to communicate a dense collection of information efficiently, with exceptional clarity. This can only be achieved, however, by applying visual design skills that address the unique challenges of dashboards. These skills are not intuitive; they must be learned. The author teaches a comprehensive set of effective design practices through examples that reveal what works, what doesn't, and why.

Argues against the value of big data, suggesting that it is a marketing campaign that distracts from the real and important work of deriving value from data.