Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative | 
 enlarge | Author: Edward R. Tufte
Publisher: Graphics Press
Category: Book
List Price: $45.00
Buy New: $17.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 15934
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 156
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 9 x 0.5
ISBN: 0961392126
Dewey Decimal Number: 302.23
EAN: 9780961392123
ASIN: 0961392126
Publication Date: February 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Hardcover, with dust jacket. New, still in the shrink wrap. Ships the next business day, with tracking and delivery confirmation sent to your email.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
With Visual Explanations, Edward R. Tufte adds a third volume to his indispensable series on information display. The first, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, which focuses on charts and graphs that display numerical information, virtually defined the field. The second, Envisioning Information, explores similar territory but with an emphasis on maps and cartography. Visual Explanations centers on dynamic data--information that changes over time. (Tufte has described the three books as being about, respectively, "pictures of numbers, pictures of nouns, and pictures of verbs.") Like its predecessors, Visual Explanations is both intellectually stimulating and beautiful to behold. Tufte, a self-publisher, takes extraordinary pains with design and production. The book ranges through a variety of topics, including the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger (which could have been prevented, Tufte argues, by better information display on the part of the rocket's engineers), magic tricks, a cholera epidemic in 19th-century London, and the principle of using "the smallest effective difference" to display distinctions in data. Throughout, Tufte presents ideas with crystalline clarity and illustrates them in exquisitely rendered samples.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 Great book August 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First time I read the book I thought it is waste of money but after analyzing it further I believe that this is one of rarest book that is solely based on application rather then theory. I can relate day to day application with examples specified in book. this has also helped me to gain praises from my boss at work.
P.S: This book is not a novel/story-bookyou need to spend some time thinking also.
another great book by Tufte on graphs February 6, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
In this third book by Tufte on graphics, he provides great examples through history where good pictures conveyed important information to decision makers and bad graphics left uncetainty and indecision. A great success story is the identification of the source of the cholera epidemic in London in the 1850s. With regard to the Challenger Space Shuttle, Tufte suggests that one good picture may have convinced the NASA engineers of the need to avoid launching at low temperatures. Great pictures, great examples and great advice are found throughout the book. You may not believe that graphs can be used to answer all scientific questions but Tufte will convince you that they are important and must be done right!
Many good examples of illustrations August 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Many excellent examples on conveying many types of quantitative data across a wide variety of subjects. The only problem is that, to create most of these, one must be a graphic artist. If one needs to convey highly technical quantitative information, especially to layman, this gives the reader a good idea/perspective of how to explain to graphic artists hired along what general lines an illustration should be made.
What a gem - but not your first design book February 15, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Tufte's series on visualization will surely go down as classics. He's readable, he's right, and he's engaging.
The only thing is, as pretty and as well-founded the book is in certain principles, it's my opinion that... that the average reader doesn't understand design problems enough that this book will present anything new.
Meaning, the book is so intuitive, that, it seems pointless anyone would ever have to write a beautiful book like this -- *UNLESS* you have been stymied over and over again by mudglobs of creative ad hoc-kery and ad-hoc functionality, or, if you have been victimized by the unfunctional sheen of superglossy animated 3-d search engines (data visualizations, etc).
Here's maybe the test -- if the price tag of this book seems excessive, you haven't been slogging through enough terrible textbooks to see what a light and airy gem of fresh... >sigh< air this book is.
Otherwise - buy the Tufte series all at once, and see if you can't save bucks on the group discount.
 Not a text book but a knowledgeable friend August 27, 2005
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
Visual Explanations is not a usual book. It is like a knowledgeable friend walking with you through a museum: pointing out good design and bad ideas; linking various domains (graphic design, usability, psychology) together. You learn things slowly, almost by symbiosis. Visual Explanations will be enchanting for people who have the time to read it in that way. It will be frustrating for people looking for a practical guide: This is not a textbook. The book itself is beautifully produced.
Topics covered include: clarity and purpose of information, color scheme choice, and composition of images.
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