Data Points: Visualization That Means Something

The review trends of Yau's last book have already started with this edition: "too basic." Maybe we could graph the stats of those reviews, then look at the very topmost band of readers to find the "perfect" audience, vs. the large body of outliers who will trash this as oversimplistic. So, get into alpha, and visualize a bell curve, with "perfect for me" on Y and age/experience on x:

DON'T BUY IF:

--You're in the heavily skewed, lightly shaded, experienced right side of the curve, with even good basic experience in data presentation. I'd include any mid level manager who has decent powerpoints in this group. The colorful pictures are gorgeous, as in Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics, and if you have a LOT of disposable income, you "could" buy it just for the pictorial ideas (paper is coated matte, images are 4 color, very high quality book production wise). If you're a post undergrad freshman, you might find the advice too basic. There also are a lot of discussions of data "types" but very little about psych. For example, starting a presentation with the statment "My purpose here is to INFORM" often gets audience hackles down if they're resistant to being sold or convinced-- not much of that is covered here.

--You're a graphic artist or graphic pro, unless, again, you're just looking for pictorial and presentation ideas, and not advice (the illustrations, as in the last edition, are stunning).

BUY IF:

--You're very new to data presentation and aren't even sure whether red goes with green or tables are better than scatters in a given situation. Read more ›