Over the years that I’ve been involved in data visualization, I have collected a number of books on the topic. Not every book in my library is great, but a few stand out as particularly useful for businesspeople who wish to become experts in using visualizations to analyze and communicate quantitative data. I have intentionally not included most of the books that focus on the visualization needs of scientists and statisticians. A few books that venture in this direction have been included, however, because they provide a great deal of general content that is extremely worthwhile, such as those by Edward Tufte and William Cleveland. Fundamentals of Graph Design I will begin the list with those books that cover the fundamentals of graph design for the communication of quantitative business information. Even though it will appear self-promoting, I unapologetically recommend my own book, Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, as the best available resource on the design of graphs (and tables) for communicating quantitative business information. As someone who has been involved in the business intelligence industry for many years, I am intimately aware of the needs of businesspeople who must make sense of quantitativ

Stephen Few

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Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 1 
 
 
Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  
Stephen Few 
February 14, 2006 
Over the years that I’ve been involved in data visualization, I have collected a number of 
books on the topic. Not every book in my library is great, but a few stand out as particularly 
useful for businesspeople who wish to become experts in using visualizations to analyze and 
communicate quantitative data. I have intentionally not included most of the books that focus 
on the visualization needs of scientists and statisticians. A few books that venture in this 
direction have been included, however, because they provide a great deal of general content 
that is extremely worthwhile, such as those by Edward Tufte and William Cleveland. 
Fundamentals of Graph Design 
I will begin the list with those books that cover the fundamentals of graph design for the 
communication of quantitative business information. 
Even though it will appear self-promoting, I unapologetically recommend my own book, Show 
Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, as the best available resource 
on the design of graphs (and tables) for communicating quantitative business information. As 
someone who has been involved in the business intelligence industry for many years, I am 
intimately aware of the needs of businesspeople who must make sense of quantitative 
information and then communicate what they learn to others. This book was specifically 
written as a simple, yet comprehensive resource for the practical needs of this audience in 
the language of this audience. The material is designed to support a rich learning experience 
and includes exercises to support this process. 
 
Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten 
Stephen Few, Analytics Press: Oakland, CA, 2004 Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 2 
Chapters: 
•  Introduction  
•  Numbers Worth Knowing  
•  Fundamental Concepts of Tables and Graphs  
•  Fundamental Variations of Tables  
•  Fundamental Variations of Graphs  
•  Visual Perception and Quantitative Communication  
•  General Design for Communication  
•  Table Design  
•  General Graph Design  
•  Component-Level Graph Design  
•  Design Solutions for Multiple Variables  
•  The Interplay of Standards and Innovation 
Another book on graphing fundamentals that I recommend, Creating More Effective Graphs 
by Naomi Robbins, ventures further than mine into the presentation of scientific research, 
drawing extensively from the work of William Cleveland. One of this book’s chief objectives is 
to make the work of William Cleveland more accessible to non-scientists and non-academics.  
When I initially discovered Naomi’s work a few months ago, I was delighted. There are few 
independent writers and consultants who specialize in data visualization and know how to 
apply it to the practical needs of business. There is plenty of room in our field for multiple 
experts, and I appreciate the collegial relationship that we have begun to build. There is a 
great deal of overlap between Naomi’s book and my own, and much consistency in the 
principles that we teach. Despite these similarities, her book features good material that I do 
not cover, or cover less extensively. 
 
Creating More Effective Graphs 
Naomi B. Robbins, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2005 Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 3 
Chapters: 
•  Introduction  
•  Limitations of Some Common Charts and Graphs  
•  Human Perception and Our Ability to Decode Graphs  
•  Some More Effective Graphs in One or Two Dimensions  
•  Trellis Graphics and Other Ways to Display More Than Two Variables  
•  General Principles for Creating Effective Graphs  
•  Scales  
•  Applying What We’ve Learned: Before and After Examples  
•  Some Comments on Software  
•  Questions and Answers 
Encyclopedic References 
Every field of expertise needs a good encyclopedic reference. The only such reference that 
I’ve seen for data visualization, Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated 
Reference, is thankfully excellent. Robert L. Harris includes every means of graphically 
displaying information that you can imagine from A to Z, including non-quantitative diagrams 
(Gantt Charts, process flow diagrams, etc.). I often pull my copy from the shelf to look up 
obscure references that I run across in my work. 
 
Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference 
Robert L, Harris, Oxford University Press: New York, NY, 1999 
Advanced Data Visualization 
In this section, I will list books by two authors, who have both served as important pioneers to 
the field of data visualization: Edward Tufte, probably the best known expert in the field, and 
William Cleveland, the person who provides the most comprehensive graph design 
guidelines for the scientific and academic communities. 
Edward Tufte labors over his books with great love and manages to publish a new one about 
every seven years. Later this year he’ll be coming out with his newest major work, Beautiful 
Evidence. His best known book is his first, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 
published in 1983. Much of my early inspiration, which eventually led me to write Show Me 
the Numbers, came from Tufte’s first book and a desire to apply his visual design principles Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 4 
to the practical needs of business. All three of Tufte's books are beautifully designed and 
eloquently written. They belong on every information designer’s bookshelf. 
 
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information 
Edward Tufte, Graphics Press: Cheshire, CN, 1983 
Chapters: 
•  Graphical Excellence  
•  Graphical Integrity  
•  Sources of Graphical Integrity and Sophistication  
•  Data-Ink and Graphical Redesign  
•  Chartjunk: Vibrations, Grids, and Ducks  
•  Data-Ink Maximization and Graphical Design  
•  Multifunctioning Graphical Elements  
•  Data Density and Small Multiples  
•  Aesthetics and Technique in Data Graphical Design 
 
Envisioning Information 
Edward Tufte, Graphics Press: Cheshire, CN, 1990 Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 5 
Chapters: 
•  Escaping Flatland  
•  Micro/Macro Readings  
•  Layering and Separation  
•  Small Multiples  
•  Color and Information  
•  Narratives of Space and Time 
 
Visual Explanations 
Edward Tufte, Graphics Press: Cheshire, CN, 1997 
Chapters: 
•  Images and Quantities  
•  Visual and Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Making Decisions  
•  Explaining Magic: Pictorial Instructions and Disinformation Design  
•  The Smallest Effective Difference  
•  Parallelism: Repetition and Change, Comparison and Surprise  
•  Multiples in Space and Time  
•  Visual Confections: Juxtapositions from the Ocean of the Streams of Story 
For those of you who want to delve into more sophisticated ways of presenting quantitative 
data and have a solid base in statistics, the books of William Cleveland are outstanding. His 
examples focus primarily on presenting the results of statistical analysis applied to scientific 
research. The Elements of Graphing Data carefully presents Cleveland’s graph construction 
principles and methods in great detail. Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 6 
 
The Elements of Graphing Data 
William S. Cleveland, Hobart Press: Summit, NJ, 1994 
Chapters: 
•  Introduction  
•  The Power of Graphical Data Display  
•  The Challenge of Graphical Data Display  
•  Principles of Graph Construction  
•  Clear Vision  
•  Clear Understanding  
•  Scales  
•  Graphical Methods  
•  Logarithms  
•  Residuals  
•  Distributions  
•  Dot Plots  
•  Plotting Symbols and Curve Types  
•  Time Series  
•  Scatterplot Matrices  
•  Coplots of Scattered Data  
•  Statistical Variation  
•  Graphical Perception  
•  Superposed Curves  
•  Color Encoding  
•  Order on Dot Plots  
•  Banking to 45°  
•  Correlation 
Dashboard Design 
Thus far, the relatively new topic of visual dashboard design has only been addressed by one 
book, my own brand new publication, Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual 
Communication of Data. This book builds on the principles that I teach in Show Me the Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 7 
Numbers for the construction of tables and graphs by addressing the challenges one faces 
when tasked with combining a great deal of disparate data on a single screen in a manner 
that doesn’t end up looking like a cluttered mess. To learn about the uses and benefits of 
dashboards and how to conduct the implementation process, get a copy of Wayne 
Eckerson’s Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business. 
To learn how to design dashboards for rapid and clear information delivery, my book is the 
ticket. 
 
Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data 
Stephen Few, O’Reilly Media, Inc.: Sebastopol, CA, 2006 
Chapters: 
•  Clarifying the Vision  
•  Variations in Dashboard Uses and Data  
•  Thirteen Common Mistakes in Dashboard Design  
•  Tapping Into the Power of Visual Perception  
•  Eloquence Through Simplicity  
•  Effective Dashboard Display Media  
•  Designing Dashboards for Usability  
•  Putting It All Together 
Complementary Skills 
To effectively display quantitative business information, you must know a bit about numbers 
themselves. You can easily get yourself into trouble if you do not understand a few simple 
statistical concepts. Quantitative data can be confusing and misleading if it is not handled 
with care. For instance, failing to take inflation into account when presenting monetary data 
across time can give a skewed impression of events, or using units of measure that most 
people cannot get their heads around can leave them spinning. Two books in my library 
address these issues in a manner that is practical, interesting and accessible.  Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 8 
The first book that I recommend on this topic is Turning Numbers into Knowledge by my 
friend and colleague Jonathan Koomey. After years of coaching data analysts in the proper 
use and presentation of numbers, Jonathan put the lessons that he found himself teaching 
again and again into a single delightful book. 
 
Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving 
Jonathan G. Koomey, Ph.D., Analytics Press: Oakland, CA, 2001 
Sample chapters: 
•  Things to Know  
•  Information, Intention, and Action  
•  Peer Review  
•  Be Prepared  
•  Get Organized  
•  Build a Toolbox  
•  Put Facts at Your Fingertips  
•  Assess Their Analysis  
•  The Power of Critical Thinking  
•  All Numbers Aren’t Created Equal  
•  Question Authority  
•  Distinguish Facts from Values  
•  Create Your Analysis  
•  Be a Detective  
•  Tell a Good Story  
•  Use Forecasts with Care  
•  Show Your Stuff  
•  Know Your Audience  
•  Document, Document, Document  
•  Use Numbers Effectively in Oral Presentations Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 9 
The other valuable book on quantitative data, What the Numbers Say, was written by Derrick 
Niederman and David Boyum, who do a great job of revealing the “old-fashioned logic, not 
advanced mathematical tools” needed for most quantitative reasoning and presentation.  
 
What the Numbers Say: A Field Guide to Mastering Our Numerical World 
Derrick Niederman and David Boyum, Broadway Books: New York, NY, 2003 
Chapters: 
•  The Quantitative Information Age  
•  The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Quantitative Thinkers  
•  For Good Measure  
•  Playing the Percentages  
•  Gaining Perspective  
•  Throwing a Curve  
•  Taking Chances  
•  The Proof Is in the Numbers  
•  A Peace Offering for the Math Wars 
Visual Perception 
Obviously, data visualization is a visual means of presenting information. To visualize data 
effectively, you must understand a few things about how people see and how they make 
sense of what they see. Two books stand out as excellent sources of what we know about 
visual perception and how that knowledge can be applied to data visualization.  
The best general reference on this topic is definitely Colin Ware’s, Information Visualization: 
Perception for Design. He surveys all of the important scientific research in visual perception 
and describes how the discoveries of this research can be applied to the presentation of data. 
As a scientist, Ware includes explanations and evidence that we non-scientists might find  Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 10 
difficult to follow, but the book is filled with many important facts about visual perception that 
are presented in a language that we can all understand. If you are like me and enjoy learning 
how things work and why, you need this book. 
 
Information Visualization: Perception for Design, Second Edition 
Colin Ware, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers: San Francisco, CA, 2004 
The other book that I recommend in this category is A Field Guide to Digital Color by my 
friend and colleague Maureen Stone. As the title suggests, this book is all about color, not a 
general treatise on visual perception. Because color is so important to the effective 
presentation of data and so often misused, this book is definitely worth having. Maureen has 
thought a great deal about appropriate color choices for data presentation to get the most 
from this powerful attribute of visual perception. 
 
A Field Guide to Digital Color 
Maureen C. Stone, A K Peters, Ltd.: Natick, MA, 2003 
Chapters: 
•  Color Vision  
•  Color Appearance  
•  RGB and Brightness—Fundamental Concepts  Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 11 
•  Color in Nature  
•  Color Reproduction  
•  Color Image Capture  
•  Additive Color Systems  
•  Subtractive Color Systems  
•  Color Management Systems  
•  Color in Computer Graphics  
•  Color Selection and Design  
•  Color in Information Display 
Visual Data Analysis 
Whereas the previous categories have focused on using visualization to communicate data, 
this final category focuses on how visualization can help us think about the data. Many 
powerful visualization designs and interaction techniques for discovering meaningful patterns, 
trends and exceptions and making sense of them have been developed by researchers, 
especially in the last 20 years, primarily at universities. Interactive, computer-based 
visualizations extend our ability to explore and understand data in ways that would otherwise 
be difficult or impossible. The results of this research are beginning to find their way more 
and more into commercial software today and are ushering in an entirely new level in our 
ability to achieve business intelligence. The best introduction to findings and inventions of 
information visualization research is Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to 
Think, by three prominent innovators in the field: Stuart Card, Jock Mackinlay, and Ben 
Shneiderman.  
 
Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think 
Stuart K. Card, Jock D. Mackinlay, and Ben Shneiderman, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers: San Francisco, CA, 1999 
Chapters: 
•  Information Visualization  
•  Space  
•  Physical Data  
•  1D, 2D, 3D  
•  Multiple Dimensions > 3  
•  Trees  
•  Networks  Perceptual Edge  Recommendations for Your Data Visualization Bookshelf  Page 12 
•  Interaction  
•  Dynamic Queries  
•  Interactive Analysis  
•  Overview + Detail  
•  Focus + Context  
•  Fisheye Views  
•  Bifocal Views  
•  Visual Transfer Functions  
•  Alternate Geometry  
•  Data Mapping: Document Visualization  
•  Text in 1D  
•  Text in 2D  
•  Text in 3D  
•  Text in 3D + Time  
•  Infosphere, Workspace, Tools, Objects  
•  Internet and Infosphere  
•  Information Workspaces  
•  Visually Enhanced Objects  
•  Using Vision to Think  
•  Applications and Implications 
Only the Core 
These books will serve as a good core set of resources for your work in data visualization. 
They are certainly not the extent of what you will add to your library if you catch the fever and 
become eager, as I have, to find everything you possibly can on the topic. Perhaps you will 
even reach the point where you’re willing to fork over $300 or more to get your hands on a 
used copy of Jacques Bertin’s Semiology of Graphics and find yourself browsing the obscure 
corners of dusty bookstores hoping for a glimpse of an old volume by William Playfair. If you 
do, welcome to the club. 
__________________________________________________________________________ 
 
About the Author 
 
Stephen Few has worked for over 20 years as an IT innovator, consultant, and teacher. 
Today, as Principal of the consultancy Perceptual Edge, Stephen focuses on data 
visualization for analyzing and communicating quantitative business information. He provides 
training and consulting services, writes the monthly Visual Business Intelligence Newsletter, 
speaks frequently at conferences, and teaches in the MBA program at the University of 
California, Berkeley. He is the author of two books: Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables 
and Graphs to Enlighten and Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual 
Communication of Data. You can learn more about Stephen’s work and access an entire 
library of articles at www.perceptualedge.com. Between articles, you can read Stephen’s 
thoughts on the industry in his blog. 
 

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