What if I told you that the most influential books in the field of Visualization were self-published books written by a guy with no formal training in Visualization, Perception, or Design. A political scientist was forced to teach statistics to journalists, and in the process decided to think about visualization from an art historian’s point of view. Supposedly, no one would publish his book at first, so he took out a mortgage on his house and self-published it. Yes, this is Edward Tufte. If you’re not familiar with him, there’s an interesting article here, although, it is clearly written by a Tufte believer.

There is no denying that Tufte is an important figure in Visualization. He has strong (extreme?) views, that are not necessarily based on evidence or empiricism. They are not always right. For example, his assertions about the importance of minimalism are a huge over-simplification (although, if you understand the historical context of them, you can see the point he was trying to make). He fails to acknowledge that there are many who do similar things to what he does, but in a more rigorous (and scientifically justified) way.

Tufte (and his books) are kind of like religious documents. To a believer, they are true facts. Suggesting otherwise is heresy. But to most people, they are best interpreted as historical fiction that is designed to make a worthwhile point. And no one can deny that it is influential.

Tufte’s books are wonderful. They are artistically beautiful: well designed, and full of nice examples. View them as an art history lesson, showing you historical examples of the art (of visualization) . View his writings as provocations: designed to challenge you to think, not to be taken literally.

If you are going to work in Visualization, you will probably want to have a set of Tufte books on your shelf. In fact, if you’re a student, you can take Tufte’s one day seminar at a discount and get a set of books. (note: I have not seen a Tufte one day seminar, but I have sent students to see them – I do own the books). (see update below)

For this class, it is valuable to read some Tufte. Thanks to the concept of academic fair use, we can provide you with a chapter or two from some of his books as part of the course reader. Sadly, looking at a scan of the book belies the beauty of the book design. So, hopefully, seeing the chapters will inspire you to look at the whole books.

 Update: It seems that Tufte is selling complete sets of books directly for a reasonable price ($100 for the 4 books in softcover).

Update: Chapter 3 of Alberto Cairo’s The Functional Art has a great discussion of the good and bad aspects of Tufte, and the “religious war” with designers like Holmes. Cairo is somehow fair and kind to both sides. Cairo’s books are awesome. I recommend them.

Colin Ware’s Visual Thinking for Design is the “second” textbook. Munzner (by her own admission) doesn’t cover the connection to perception well. So, we need another book.The library has it online!

Fortunately, you don’t need to buy this book. It is available in the online reserves through the UW library. Yes, you can read it online!

If you want to buy a copy, it should be available at the UW bookstore. Or, you can buy it on Amazon (Visual Thinking: for Design”) – if you like Amazon.

Why is this the textbook?

This is a thin little book that will give you some of the elements of how the human visual system works, well contextualized with how that influences visual design and visualization. It is concise and generally well thought out. It doesn’t take the place of a more thorough introduction to perception, or a more thorough discussion of visualization, or even a touch into the research that connects perception to visualization. But it’s a great starting point.

I think this book is a great place to start for thinking about how perception influences visualization. So I will recommend we start with it. We’ll pretty much read the whole thing. Parts are better than others.

Ware’s other book (Information Visualization, Third Edition: Perception for Design) is also really good – and I considered it as the text for this class. However, its a lot more to read, and it still just focuses on the perceptual side of visualization.

Tamara Munzner’s Visualization Analysis and Design is the primary textbook for this class. It is required. We will read a lot of the chapters as required reading. The book just came out (it only began to ship in hardcover form in November), so its fresh and new (you aren’t going to find any used copies).

However, there is some good news: you don’t need to buy the book! The UW library owns the online version, so you can read the book online! You can find it here. If you want to own a physical copy of the book, it should be on sale at the UW Bookstore. Or you can buy it at Amazon (Visualization Analysis and Design (AK Peters Visualization Series)). (for my feelings on Amazon, read this).

Why is this the textbook?

This book will give you a good way to think about visualization. It’s not about the details, or the specific techniques. It totally avoids the discussion of how to do implementation. Tamara (I refer to her by first name, since we’ve been friends for a long time) has thought long and hard about this stuff, and has a coherent way to talk about it.

A lot of the structure of the book comes from a series of papers (that you still might want to read). However, the book uses the ideas from the paper (notably the nested model) as a way to organize a lot of other stuff you need to know.

Is the book perfect? Not by a long shot. There are some topics it totally leaves out (perception, implementation, specific designs, …). We’ll get those with other readings. She tends to over-emphasize her own work.

She also has a pretty strong and specific viewpoint – which I don’t always agree with. However, since her viewpoint is (almost) always well thought out and explained, it is worth hearing. It’s just important that you get some other viewpoints as well.