Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten

by Stephen Few

Book Overview

Addressing the prevalent issue of poorly designed quantitative information presentations, this accessible, practical, and comprehensive guide teaches how to properly create tables and graphs for effective and efficient communication. The critical numbers that measure the health, identify the opportunities, and forecast the future of organizations are often misrepresented because few people are trained to design accurate, informative materials, but...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0970601972
• ISBN13: 9780970601971
• Release Date: June 2012
• Publisher: Analytics Press
• Length: 371 Pages
• Weight: 3.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 8.7" x 11.2"

Customer Reviews

Use Excel (or PowerPoint)? Read this book

As a consultant I need to gather and analyze data and transform it into information and findings. This book leads you through the transformation of data - especially if you use Excel or PowerPoint - by showing how to select the best table and chart formats to convey the information aggregated from data. The thrust of the book is communicating. The author lays a solid foundation early in the book by covering qualtitative relationships, summarization and various data types. He then builds upon the foundation with succinct discussions and advice on selecting tablular formats and the correct charts to convey the information. While Excel is the principal tool used to illustrate the concepts and techniques in the book, I have applied the author's advice to Visio and PowerPoint, as well as a few more obscure charting and graphics programs. I like the clarity with which the information is presented, and the practical examples given throughout the book. More importantly, this book isn't a tome that is aimed at graphic designers, making it an ideal resource for technical and business professionals who do not fully grasp the nuances of graphic presentation. If you present data and information - using any application - I strongly recommend this book because it will make your presentations meaningful and easy-to-understand, and will show you how to avoid a plethora of common mistakes like using the wrong chart or impossible to understand tables.

A Must-Study Book for the Business Professional

I highly recommend this book because it teaches the critical skill of designing tables and charts essential for every business professional. Our fact-based corporate culture requires us to effectively explain and motivate through the use of tables and charts. It is the `bread-and-butter' of business intelligence. As a practical teach-me-the-skill book, Stephen Few has created 'Show Me The Numbers' by taking well-grounded principles (from Tufle and others) and by artfully applying them. The title echoes throughout the book as the recurring theme. The book unfolds design principles based on context and relationships. Through a series of practice exercises, the author has shown a sincere interest in teaching the reader this skill. Stephen nudges the reader to think about the proper design that clearly tells the story embedded in the numbers and to communicate that story accurately and honestly.

A Terrific Guide to Good Data Presentation

After reading "Show Me the Numbers," while preparing to post a review of this exceptional book, I felt compelled to respond to the odd and uninformed comments posted by the reviewer who goes by the name Joey Canuck. His primary criticism seems to be that the book is bloated with more words than necessary to present the content. I couldn't disagree more. Perhaps Mr. Canuck disapproves of the author's approach to teaching, which involves a thorough, step-by-step construction of the concepts, complemented by many practical examples, which I believe to be a sound approach when you intend to help people learn. Just like well designed tables and graphs, the design of this book, without frivolous or distracting content, demonstrates a clear focus on communication. Contrary to Joey Canuck's claim, this book has nothing to do with Excel, other than instructions that appear in an appendix for using Excel to create a particular graph. The principles and practices taught in this book are software agnostic. Regarding consistency with the principles taught by Edward Tufte, I found this book to be quite true to them, and a fitting application and extension of Tufte's principles to the data presentation needs faced every day in the business world. Canuck's complaint that the first grid line does not appear in a graph until page 207 suggests that he is not very familiar with Tufte's teachings, which would deem grid lines in most business graphs as "chartjunk." Actually, the first graph with grid lines appears on page 4, but as an example of the poor design that is common in business today. A big part of my work involves the creation of reports, consisting largely of tables and graphs. I must often fight for the need to keep the presentation of data simple and clear. "Show Me the Numbers" provides me with the support I need to do this effectively and compellingly.

An absolute "must" for Business School students

This book is the first real effort to address the poor quality of business graphics that have been so easily produced with the proliferation of personal computer software like Excel and Powerpoint. Few's insights are intelligent, well-thought out and practical enough to be understood and implemented by every businessperson. I've always been a big fan of Edward Tufte, but never felt that his books provided enough practical guidance for analysts and knowledge workers. Show Me the Numbers fills that void and provides readers with a framework for not only designing superior business graphics, but more importantly, communicating effectively with an audience. Business schools should make this book mandatory for all students.

The first practical guide to presenting information

As a person who's created reports, dashboards and analytical products professionally for the last 20 years, I've found information design skills took years to acquire the hard way. I'm a big fan of the literature from people like Edward Tufte, but applying it to everyday work is too abstract for most people. This book fixes all that, by providing practical, straightforward best practices to handle the situations that come up in the real world. It shows many examples of typical bad designs, why they are bad, and how to fix them, in a way that makes learning the techniques easy. Besides that, it's a beautifully finished book that can serve as both a text and a reference