– Functional Art, The: An introduction to information graphics and visualization (Voices That Matter)

I loved this book. It is written in an easy style but never talks down to its readers. It intrudes a whole swathe of rich concepts with leads to key reading materials some of which I have followed up with much learned. The visual examples are excellently chosen and expose one to a whole array of topics and presentation styles which just make one think. And the case studies again expose one to a richness from professionals at the very top of their game. The one chapter I found slightly weaker was the one about interactive media. Partly because the book shows its age here - possibilities have moved on so much - but also because this very complex area is covered in a very short space, so is too sketchy to be useful. I doubt the book would have lost out by it being left out - it needs a full book of its own to start to do it justice. But I found this a seriously engaging and thought provoking book, with just the right amount of background theory but always highly practical.

For anybody starting out in the field of information graphics and visualisations, or for any journalists who work with designers - this is a must read. The book is clearly laid out and very easy to read and understand. Its one of those books that you can delve into when you have 10 minutes to spare. Cairo takes you through what makes a successful graphic, backing up his arguments with clear examples, both of his own work as well as others. He also goes into the cognitive aspects of our brains, but not in too scientific a way as to put anybody off. The last part of the book is taken up with interviews conducted by Cairo with 10 designers at the top of their particular fields in information graphics and data visualisations. Full of interesting, colourful examples and a great resource. I found it to be an excellent overview, a great resource, easily read and full of inspiration, even for someone like me who has been producing graphics for over 30 years. One to keep by your desk. Highly recomended

A very good and in depth look at data visualization put together by someone who clearly knows what he is talking about

Rather a disappointing book. It begins with a very rapid survey of basic features of graphics. It continues with personal experiences of a spanish/portuguese designer of newspaper graphics. These would be more interesting if they were printed on a scale large enough to read, preferably translated into English. The authour is mainly concerned about appearance, rather than use, and admires some graphics condemned by Tufte as 'chart-junk'. A second portion discusses information graphics. This is a notoriously difficult field to discuss, and, although the author makes considerable efforts and provides generous links to on-line sources, he does not really overcome the difficulty of discussing dynamic processes in the static form of a book. The book is bulked out with interviews with ten 'prominent' graphics designers, occupying pages 212-350. The author does not conceal his personal friendship with the interviewees, but the results have an unfortunately obsequious air.

A brilliant book. Readable, logical, informative, and full of insight and discovery. This is one of my very favourite books. The interviews at the end led me to look into the interviewees work which has led to more great discoveries for me.

Cairo's prose reads like a favourite novel. I feel inspired at the end of every page and wish I could be an apprentice of his for a year or two.

Great book !

Easy to read, liked the examples.

the book is very good, but the print quality is disgusting.

Very interesting book but the resolution of the visuals was very poor — was hard to see details. Strange since this is a book about visuals

In The Functional Art, Alberto Cairo has written a real standout in the new wave of books about data visualization. His book weaves visualization theory and techniques with real applications and critiques about existing visualization projects. One of the reasons why I think Cairo's book succeeds is that he has background as both a journalist--specifically, data journalism--and as an academic (at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Miami). In the first part of the book, Cairo explains what I take away as three main tenets of good data visualization practice: first, good graphic techniques and strategies (minimal use of pie charts, reducing non-data ink, etc.); second, how to create eye-pleasing graphics (how to choose color, fonts, layout, etc.); and, most importantly, how to use data visualization to tell a story. I think this is where The Functional Art really stands out as a great reference--Cairo shows you how to use data visualization not as a way to just show your data or to create a tool for people to explore your data, but as a way to be a storyteller with data. The second part of the book is more about the eye-brain connection--how we as humans perceive different shapes, colors, etc. Cairo isn't a cognitive scientist, but he's done a great job pulling from the literature and summarizing the issues and, importantly, how to use that knowledge to create better graphics. These two first parts of the book will be helpful for anyone who has ever created visualizations before or who are just starting out. The graphics used in the book are all excellent and should inspire you to try to similarly create great visualizations. Finally, in the last part of the book, Cairo profiles 10 prominent data visualization experts and creators. For me, this section wasn't as exciting as the first two parts, but there are definitely nuggets of wisdom from some of the interviews and is something that you really can't find in a single source anywhere else. Also, just a final note about the DVDs that are included with the book. The DVDs are basically a summary of each of the chapters, but the last two are especially interesting. In lecture 10 (Gay Rights), Cairo discusses a graphic produced by The Guardian magazine and why this particular use of a circle graphic works. Since there is a continuous debate about circles in the data visualization field--see also Chapter 2 in the book--this is a nice video on why circles can work in certain circumstances. In lecture 11 (Obesity and education), Cairo shows how he creates some basic graphics in Adobe Illustrator, which is great if you're not too familiar with that software (though I would never have the patience to make a map in Ai!).

I bought the book in order to follow an online course about information graphics and visualization. Alberto Cairo immerse the reader into this world in an enjoyable way so you can know really interesting thins of how to create awesome graphics and visualizations.

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