Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

I have used this book for years as a go-to reference when I am designing visualizations that need to convey specific and targeted information effectively. It's a practical book, and easy to navigate quickly to sections that relate to what you are trying to accomplish. It's definitely worth reading through from the beginning, as a reminder of the importance of identifying audience and context before you design anything. I would recommend as a core reference book for anyone who has to regularly create visuals from data in order to get an audience into context so they can make informed decisions.

I am a university professor who teaches biostatistics and I find this to be one of the best books that bridges the gap between analytics and presentation. There are some excellent books around that show visualization (e.g., The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics: The Dos and Don'ts of Presenting Data, Facts, and Figures or books by Few Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-Glance Monitoring & Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten or Cairo The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication ) and there are good books on presentation (in particular I love Duarte's books Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences ) but this book is unique in how well it blends the two topics. I have never seen such an excellent presentation on how to build a series of graphics. That is, with books by Few or Cairo you will know how to make *a* great graphic and with advice from Duarte, you can connect with your audience but with this book you will see how to build a series of interrelated graphics that highlight different parts of a dataset. Most of the examples are spun around business but the examples are easy to extend to any field. While I think the author wrote this for people who do presentations in any quantitative field for a living, this book should be required reading for graduate students preparing to defend a dissertation or thesis.

I no longer feel I just need to show a bunch of slides to make an effective presentation rather, I can think through a coherent story that I want the slides to represent. Love this book

This is a must read for anyone creating data visualization. It provides clear, succinct examples and explains why one approach is better than other and is loaded with example visuals. This is a great reference for any person or data team to better enhance their storytelling with data. There aren’t enough encouraging words to express what a game changer this book is.

An inspiring quick read to help break free of the tyranny of Excel's default chart styles. The book is packed with practical advice aimed at making your charts and accompanying stories more visually pleasing and impactful. There are many "before and after" examples with explanations of the "why" beyond the suggested improvements. The book provides a good foundation for the reader to then build upon with more advanced books covering (for example) interactive dashboards and the technical details of using various dedicated software data visualization tools -- topics that this book doesn't touch. After reading some of the negative reviews I almost didn't purchase the book; however, I took the chance based on the quality of the author's blog and podcast. Rereading these reviews now, the complaints regarding poor print and binding are likely from a since-resolved bootleg copy issue that the author mentioned in September 2018 a Data Stories podcast. Regarding being too basic, I can only say that I learned some valuable lessons even after several decades in the corporate world using Excel and PowerPoint and also recently completing an online course for how to use Tableau. If you are still debating purchase, do as I did and read some of the Storytelling With Data blog and then decide.

This book gives both an overall framework for thinking about data visualization and a toolkit for designing the most common types of visualizations. Each type of visualization is presented with insights and practical tips. The book presents all of this material and detail concisely. Well worth a read and occasional review.

Cole takes a difficult subject and makes it understandable. By itself that would be good and worthy of praise. Clarity is always appreciated. But she does this by employing the skills, traits, and tricks that she so clearly explains. Cole implores the reader to eliminate clutter, visually demonstrates why it is important and its potential impact, then strips away at difficult concepts with clear and concise prose again and again. We readily grasp all this because of her use of context, visual display, simplicity, focus, design, and in so doing she tells a story about dealing with data and information, so that we can inform and not confuse. Perfect. But she achieves even more because through the use of these concepts she makes them useful for everyone and not only those dealing with large data sets; she demonstrates that which she illustrates. I'm a trial lawyer. I found her chapters on thinking like a designer and lessons in storytelling to be more than helpful. From the importance of aesthetics, audience, controlling narrative flow, to repetition she provides lessons in telling stories that can benefit anyone. Recommended for everyone!

• Provides clear and insightful fundamentals for effective data visualization • Well adapted to real-world scenarios, helping beginners develop a constructive mindset for dashboard design • Particularly useful for structuring and communicating insights, though hands-on practice with messy, real-world data is still essential for exploration (eg. always prep raw data for users) • Overall, an excellent starting point for building a strong foundation in data visualization and analytical thinking

This book is really useful, it brings a lot of topics in a clear and easy way.

The book offers excellent visualization advice, but it comes at a steep price.

A guide for all business professionals. Easy to read and has great examples. 10/10 recommended.

I chose this book as part of my study for the BCS Data Visualisation Foundation Award and partly as a Product Manager to improve my presentation of how our system's value will be/has been impacted by developments. Everything about this book is clear from the chapter structure to the way every point of improvement is illustrated on the page. Cole knows her stuff - she refers a book by Stephen Few, who I have previously found to be the single most helpful source of advice on charts. Modern tools like Powerpoint boast "AI Design suggestions" which look great but the simple guidelines here, if followed, simply blow away the AI'd output. It's a timely book and should be compulsory study for presenters and managers. Within the first 3 days I had read 50 pages and enhanced my Product Values dashboard to something better than I thought possible but it was soo simple. It is very competitively priced as well

i moderni strumenti informatici ci mettono a disposizione delle applicazioni molto interessanti per poter creare grafici e tabelle per la presentazione dei dati. Ma la cosa più importante da capire é come conformare questo grafici per fare in modo che il nostro interlocutore comprenda il senso del messaggio che si vuole trasmettere. Da questo punto di vista l’autrice ha le idee molto chiare e porta letteralmente per mano il lettore nelle varie strategie di conformazione dei dati per rendere evidente la parte realmente importante da trasmettere all’interlocutore. In un certo senso é come parlare di “Lean Method” per la comunicazione di grafici e dati. Un testo sicuramente illuminante ed istruttivo sull’argomento. Dopo averne letto i contenuti, se nella vostra attività vi troverete ad assistere a presentazioni di analisi di dati o, se dovrete farle voi, avrete sicuramente un approccio differente alla modalità di presentazione. Una lettura piacevole e molto chiara