REVIEW: "The Art of Visualization in Business" - a handbook for professionals in the field of infographics and presentations

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

For the first time, I came across the need to build graphs and charts not by hand, but using Excel or Access, in my third year at a university, when statistics and macroeconomics began. Since then, working with data has stepped forward in 9 years - but there are no more high-quality beautiful diagrams, information diagrams and "pay-charts". Even the domestic media do not always use visual representation of figures and facts on TV and on the Internet. Although it is visual information that people perceive best and fastest. The book that is on my desk today is not just a statement of this fact, but a professional textbook for those who draw "columns" and "ladders" every day and thus earn their living.

First impression of the book

You take it in hand - and you understand that before you is not just a gift album of beautiful infographics, but a solid textbook. In fact, students of both technical and humanitarian universities would find such a book more useful than boring lectures on building diagrams. Illustrative examples, algorithms and step-by-step instructions are broken down into sections here depending on what data and in what form you want to show your audience.

Most useful

Actually, you can not read the entire book from beginning to end, but only the chapter or subsection that you need at the moment to prepare materials for your presentation, speaking at a conference, or simply to discuss ideas with colleagues.

And then you are unlikely to fence presentations with "sheets of text" again.

Reading this book, you understand that there is never a lot of information: there is a wrong interpretation. After all, it is important not just to jot down a mountain of numbers. It is important to show what exactly all the tables and graphs you create are talking about.

Nathan Yau explains where you can find the data you need, how to format it, process it, and prepare it for proper visualization, and what software should be used for this purpose.

There are also practical examples of data visualization using R and Adobe Illustrator, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. For the most hardcore marketers and analysts, there are even tutorials on how to create interactive maps based on Python, SVG, ActionScript, and Flash.

Whom to read

Marketers - to understand how the right diagrams and diagrams affect your customers and users. And also to make beautiful presentations.

For startups - to make beautiful presentations, not just for the sake of presentations, but also for the sake of presenting meaning (financial and managerial) in a digestible form. And also to win over investors.

Journalists - If you work in investigative journalism and data journalism, then this book is a must.

For designers - I think it's superfluous to explain why designers need a book on data visualization, and even with a set of lessons.

“The art of visualization in business. How to Present Complex Information in Simple Images , Nathan Yau