Sometimes we need a little creative distraction. Here’s the podium finish for coffee table books.
- Visual Explanations by Edward Tufte: How to stop a plague with a great graph! Fascinating book that will help your charts and presentations tell clear, compelling stories.
- Extraordinary Chickens by Stephen Green-Armytage: two words for you…Polish Frizzle!
- Minipops by Craig Robinson: somehow celebrities become fascinating when drawn 12 pixels tall.
Your comments: which coffee table book got robbed of a top spot on the podium?
images from Amazon.com
Re: coffee table book number 1: good infographics are worth the time it takes to construct them. I’ve been visiting http://flowingdata.com for good tips. Our best graphic last year got some attention from Wired:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/science-graphics/?pid=2614&pageid=89116
Step 1: quit using Excel.
Step 2: make it colorful.
Step 3: remove unnecessary details.
Thanks for the links Chris. What do you suggest instead of Excel that is “business friendly”? Tufte also has an essay explaining how PowerPoint default formatting is the least effective form of human communication…
Lots of good options. ‘Processing’ is the hi performance language for visualization, but for something more friendly for plug and play Weave looks promising http://www.oicweave.org/
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