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Designing with data is less than a month away from being available. It is due to be out August 9th, 02010 as the Five Simple Steps team are diligently cranking out proofs and illustrations for the book.
The five, in Five Simple Steps is a great constraint for a writer. It made me consider what was important and what wasn‘t and how the book would flow. Overall, it is broken down into two major parts. The first, second and third sections (the first 15 chapters) lay the ground work. They discuss the history of charts and graphs, some issues with colour and layout, and then issues with being deceived by data and poorly (or deliberatly) designed charts. After that, the last two sections, all ten chapters worth, deal with common and not so common charts and graphs. Each chapter digs into a single chart type and discusses the pros, cons and usage for each. It is the bulk of the book, with plenty of examples and illustrations.
This book is an introduction to those who have to create charts and graphs for a living, but could be doing it better. This isn‘t a foray into infographics and visualizations, partly because they are incredibly difficult to get right. It’s more an art than a science. Plus, to be able to create visualizations, you need a good grasp of the basics. Which is why I wrote this book, and why the Five Simple Steps team had confidence in me to write it, because there aren‘t any good resources about how to get started. There are plenty of excellent books showing off great visualizations, but not helping you go from novice to expert.
I hope everyone will enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it. It took a lot of hard work, time and effort to get this book finished. It will never be a complete reference, nor be a silver bullet for your workflow. That is where this blog comes in. It is intended to supplement what is found in the book, give a few pointers, links and potentially other books to help take you to the next steps in learning how to design with data.