I’m starting to recognize several clusters of data visualization books. These include:
- how-to and best-practices books like Stephen Kosslyn’s Graph Design for the Eye and Mind [my notes] or Stephen Few’s Now You See It
- academic books like Colin Ware’s Information Visualization: Perception for Design or Leland Wilkinson’s The Grammar of Graphics [my notes]
- a category exemplified by Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information: lots of concrete examples, but with abstract commentary rather than how-to advice; a book that you wouldn’t mind setting on your coffee-table for the pretty pictures, though with much more content than what a “coffee-table book” usually connotes
(Of course this list calls out for a flowchart or something to visualize it!)
Howard Wainer’s Visual Revelations falls in this last category. And it’s no surprise Wainer’s book emulates Tufte’s, given how often the author refers back to Tufte’s work (including comments like “As Edward Tufte told me once…”). And The Visual Display of Quantitative Information is still probably the best introduction to the genre. But Visual Revelations is different enough to be a worthwhile read too if you enjoy such books, as I do.
Most of all, I appreciated that Wainer presents many bad graph examples found “in the wild” and follows them with improvements of his own. Not all are successful, but even so I find this approach very helpful for learning to critique and improve my own graphics. (Tufte’s classic book critiques plenty, but spends less time on before-and-after redesigns. On the other hand, Kosslyn’s book is full of redesigns, but his “before” graphs are largely made up by him to illustrate a specific point, rather than real graphics created by someone else.)
Of course, Wainer covers the classics like John Snow’s cholera map and Minard’s plot of Napoleon’s march on Russia (well-trodden by now, but perhaps less so in 1997?). But I was pleased to find some fascinating new-to-me graphics. In particular, the Mann Gulch Fire section (p. 65-68) gave me shivers: it’s not a flashy graphic, but it tells a terrifying story and tells it well.
[Edit: I should point out that Snow’s and Minard’s plots are so well-known today largely thanks to Wainer’s own efforts. I also meant to mention that Wainer is the man who helped bring into print an English translation of Jacques Bertin’s seminal Semiology of Graphics and a replica volume of William Playfair’s Commercial and Political Atlas and Statistical Breviary. He has done amazing work at unearthing and popularizing many lost gems of historical data visualization!
See also Alberto Cairo’s review of a more recent Wainer book.]
Finally, Wainer’s tone overall is also much lighter and more humorous than Tufte’s. His first section gives detailed advice on how to make a bad graph, for example. I enjoyed Wainer’s jokes, though some might prefer more gravitas.