You do not need to buy any textbooks for this class. All readings (and there is a pretty large amount) will be provided for you online.
The two “textbooks” for the class are placed on “electronic reserve” by the library, so they are available online completely. For all other books, we will use a small enough amount that I can provide you with the readings under “reasonable academic fair use.”
If you like to own the physical books (which you might for some of these – as they are really good books), or if you like to support the authors, or if you want to see more of books that I can only give you a few pieces of, then go ahead and buy them. I have not arranged for them at the University Bookstore (because they are not required, it probably doesn’t make sense for them to order in textbook quantities), but you can get them almost as fast online (see my 2015 rant about online bookstores).
We will read most, if not all of these textbooks (links are to the 2015 rationales):
- Tamara Munzer’s Visualization Analysis and Design. You can access the Munzer book online here.
- Colin Ware’s Visual Thinking for Design. You can access the Ware book online here.
We will also look at selections from the books of Edward Tufte (see my 2015 discussion) and Alberto Cairo (see this for my thoughts). Cairo’s books are excellent tutorials on visualization. Tufte’s books look nice on a coffee table and… well… you’ll see.