Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations Paperback – May 17, 2016

Years ago in a development program I was asked to draw something that "represented me." Drawing upon all of my visual, artistic and creative skills ... I drew a single vertical line down the center of the flip chart page. If you can relate, then this book is for you. To be clear, this is not a beginner's guide, per se; many of the example visualizations in the book are quite sophisticated, although the author's use of them to illustrate design points are easy to understand and implement. The beauty of this book is in the author's immensely readable writing style, the system of thinking visually to build better charts that he lays out in the book, and the use of many (many!) examples to make his points. On p. 12 the author states "I hope this book will become a well-worn, dog-eared companion." After just a few weeks my copy is already in that state.

The best I've seen yet. This wide-ranging book, in addition to what most other books cover, adds two nifty frameworks that, between them capture the essence of what took me years of experience to master, Firstly, while most other books focus on design execution, Berinato adds the dimension of contextual awareness as an essential element of a good chart, and devotes considerable space to elaborating how to create contextually aware charts. Secondly,his "Four types" framework covers both data driven and conceptual charts, which are not usually treated as related. It also makes a clear distinction between exploratory and explanatory charts, emphasizing how their requirements differ, a distinction which usually goes unappreciated. Hence it unifies, expands and at the same time differentiates the topic of charts in a remarkably useful way."Good Charts" has the clarity of thinking that makes it points clearly and simply, without clutter and without oversimplifying - the signature of a master. Highly recommended.

Easy read and insightful. There are some good tips on how to go about the planning process and really making impactful charts. Seems to be more geared towards info graphic charts that are created and static rather than continuously updated. However most of the points still apply

I have accumulated a collection of data visualization and analysis books over the years. Most of them have some interesting points but they're mostly regurgitating the same crap that isn't very useful in practice. This book is different. This is the only book I actually open up and reference regularly when I'm considering how to communicate information most effectively. I actually let an exec at my company borrow it and I never got it back so I just bought it again. Highly recommended.

Great examples, recaps, and just enough theory. Every discipline has its dogma; The author provides pragmatic techniques for individuals and teams to story-tell with data.

Thoughtfully written. Probably not great for experienced professionals. A little outdated.

This was excellent for a business intelligence class. I used it to rapidly get an edge to my peers and my presentations showed a dramatic difference in being effective. The author included many practical stories that you could easily relate to. This book will help also help with your work presentations. Give it a read and keep it in your personal library.

I use this book as a guide for Data Visualization class, it provides great examples on different graphs and when to use which. While the content is very similar to other books on the subject, the way its written makes it easy to explain and integrate in to daily practice.