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Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen Few
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: £24.99
Buy New: £14.73
You Save: £10.26 (41%)
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 8378
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 223
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 8.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0596100167
Dewey Decimal Number: 005
EAN: 9780596100162
ASIN: 0596100167
Publication Date: June 11, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 2 - 3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Easy to read. Sensible advice. September 1, 2008
I'm about half-way through as I write this review but I am already very impressed with this book. Few has an easy-to-read style that's not full of fluff or pompous nonsense, and he provides sensible advise for producing effective designs.
The book begins by defining the term "information dashboard": the definition is suitably broad that you may realise that solutions you've build before would fit in and would therefore have benefited from the design advice given in the book. To make his points about poor design, Few then uses a selection of examples found on the web. Many of these are eye catching and graphically pleasing - but the commentary makes you appreciate the problems each exhibits. In the middle of the book, Few describes accepted scientific theories about human vision, perception and cognition that we should take into account in our designs - and these generally support the arguments that the example dashboards used earlier in the book were poor designs in one way or another. Later in the book (and I have not read these chapters yet), Few provides practical advice that can be applied in dashboard design. I am expecting these to be almost self-evident by the time I get there thanks to the Background Few has provided me with. But I am still looking forward to reading them nonetheless.
This book is in no way biased towards any display technology, user interface technology or programming technology and is therefore applicable whether you are producing a single-user desktop application, a multi-user, multi-screen information wall (as you've seen in pictures of the stock exchange) or even if you are producing printed reports. The advice given is about the design thought process rather than any particular notation so is applicable regardless of the software design methodology you may use.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic and would say it's a "must-have" if you are practically involved in the specification, analysis, design and even implementation of Information Dashboards.
Great insights March 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an excellent book and will change the way you look at how data is presented. I have struggled in the past trying to understand reports presented to me because of their poor design. The author offers a good mix of theory and practical examples, giving examples of poorly designed reports, pointing out their deficiencies and suggesting a better way of doing it. Overall it is a quick to read book that provides valuable insight.
Well Written, Well Presented January 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Stephen Few nods more than a little to Edward Tufte when it comes to approaches to visual and information design, and this book is both a highly informative and pleasant read for that. While not quite in the same league as one of Tufte's works, Information Dashboard Design is refreshingly devoid of waffle and mere personal opinion. The design principles he identifies are not hard to grasp, and the theory and rationale for them is very well argued and presented. Few's invention of the "bullet graph" also ensures his place alongside Tufte in the field of information design.
We can only hope that his ideas will now catch on, and that the awful drek that infests the vast majority of dashboard designs by even the largest of vendors will be swept away forever. If I never see another big shiny gauge again, it will be too soon.
Great book - a must for designing dashboards October 8, 2007
I agree with the two other reviews that I read prior to posting. This is a great book that is well written. The example screen shots really show you the difference that can be made by using good design principles as suggested. If you are doing any dashboard design you need to read this book. Also what was really good was at the end there was just one page acknowledgeing other major authors in the area and suggesting their texts as well. This was really useful as rather than wade through all the references it gave you a snapshot of who Mr. Few thought were the best in his field. Brilliant. Can't recommend it enough.
Spins your whole understanding of dashboards and charting on its head August 21, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you're currently using pie charts or graphs with lots of colours, you need this book.
If you've developed (or are developing) a digital dashboard that shares at least a few design ideas with a real in-car dashboard, you need this book.
If your users first reaction to your dashboard is 'wow, that looks cool' you need this book.
In fact, just buy this book. Your reporting and dashboards will benefit. The author really knows his stuff.
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