Alberto Cairo: The Functional Art. An introduction to information graphics and visualization, Berkeley 2012

Abstract

Review of the first book to offer a broad, hands-on introduction to information graphics and visualization, the use of charts, maps, diagrams, and illustrations to communicate and understand data and phenomena. Alberto Cairo, who teaches at the University of Miami, explains that visualizations should be conceived as tools that extend human perception, letting go beyond what the bare eye can see, and allow to identify patterns and trends that would be invisible otherwise.