Perceptual Edge

Topical Index of All Stephen Few's Writings
Books
Articles
Whitepapers
Other Brief Publications

Books

Show Me the Numbers, Second Edition, Stephen Few, $45.00 (U.S.), Analytics Press, 2012

Most presentations of quantitative information are poorly designed—painfully so, often to the point of misinformation. This problem, however, is rarely noticed and even more rarely addressed. We use tables and graphs to communicate quantitative information: the critical numbers that measure the health, identify the opportunities, and forecast the future of our organizations. Even the best information is useless, however, if its story is poorly told. This problem exists because almost no one has ever been trained to design tables and graphs for effective and efficient communication. Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten is the most accessible, practical, and comprehensive guide to table and graph design available.

Now You See It, Second Edition, Stephen Few, $49.00 (U.S.), Analytics Press, 2021

Now You See It does for visual data sensemaking what Show Me the Numbers does for graphical data presentation: it teaches simple, fundamental, and practical concepts, principles, and techniques that anyone can use—only this time they're exploring and making sense of information, not presenting it. These techniques rely primarily on something almost everyone has: vision. They use graphs to display data in ways that make meaningful patterns visible to reveal the stories that reside within. These techniques also involve interacting with data in particular ways to tease out relevant facts and their meanings.

Although some quantitative data sensemaking can only be done with sophisticated statistical techniques, most of the questions that organizations typically ask about their data can be answered using simple visualization techniques—techniques that can be learned by people with little or no statistical training. In other words, Now You See It is for the great majority of people whose jobs require them to make sense of quantitative information.

This second edition of the book now integrates the contents of Stephen Few's book Signal: Understanding What Matters in a World of Noise, which extends it into the realm of Statistical Process Control.

Information Dashboard Design Cover Graphic

Information Dashboard Design, Second Edition, Stephen Few, $40.00 (U.S.), Analytics Press, 2013

Stephen Few exposes the common problems in dashboard design and describes its best practices in great detail and with a multitude of examples in this updated second edition. Dashboards have become a popular means to present critical information at a glance, yet few do so effectively. When properly designed to support rapid monitoring, dashboards engage the power of visual perception to communicate a dense collection of information efficiently and with exceptional clarity and that visual design skills that address the unique challenges of dashboards are not intuitive but rather learned. This book not only teaches how to design dashboards but also gives a deep understanding of the concepts—rooted in brain science—that explain the why behind the how.

The Data Loom, Stephen Few, $15.95 (U.S.), Analytics Press, May 15, 2019

Data, in and of itself, isn't valuable. It only becomes valuable when we make sense of it. Weaving data into understanding involves several distinct but complementary thinking skills. Foremost among them are critical thinking and scientific thinking. Until information professionals develop these capabilities, we will remain in the dark ages of data. If you're an information professional and have never been trained to think critically and scientifically with data, this book will set your feet on the path that will lead to an Information Age worthy of the name.

Big Data, Big Dupe, Stephen Few, $11.95 (U.S.), Analytics Press, February 1, 2018

Big Data, Big Dupe is a little book about a big bunch of nonsense. The story of David and Goliath inspires us to hope that something little, when armed with truth, can topple something big that is a lie. This is the author's hope. While others have written about the dangers of Big Data, Stephen Few reveals the deceit that belies its illusory nature. If "data is the new oil," Big Data is the new snake oil. It isn't real. It's a marketing campaign that has distracted us for years from the real and important work of deriving value from data.