• Home
  • Free Resources
    • Storyboard Depot
    • Instructional Design Programs
    • Best Photo Sites
    • Graphic Editing Tools
    • Icon Collections
  • My Books
  • About
  • Book Store
  • ON-DEMAND COURSES

The eLearning Coach

For designing effective learning experiences

Connie Malamed
  • Podcasts
  • Career
  • LXD
  • eLearning Design
    • Audience
    • Instructional Design
    • Learning Objectives
    • Storyboarding
    • Tests
    • User Interface
  • eLearning 2.0
  • Cognition
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Graphics
    • Video
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • Software Reviews
  • At Work
You are here: Home / Reviews / 10 Books Of Visual Ideas (from 2006 to 2012)

10 Books Of Visual Ideas (from 2006 to 2012)

Explanatory, Information and Data Visualization Graphics

by Connie Malamed

10 Books of Visual Ideas

When the importance of visualization became popularized, an explosion of books were published for those who were hungry to understand and appreciate this graphic format. It was an obvious win for practitioners who were trying to improve communication and understanding. These books also served as inspiration for people who were needed visual ideas on demand, like instructional designers.

So that we don’t lose the value of these older books, I’m republishing this article listing ten compelling books from the early days of visualization: 2006 to 2012. The one exception, is Tufte’s book from 1990. I recommend these books for visual examples and for inspiring ways to visualize concepts, statistics and data. They are also a part of our graphic design history.

The list is organized into two categories. Books that feature explanatory graphics and those that portray information graphics and visualizations.

Explanatory Graphics

wordless diagrams book for visual ideas1. Wordless Diagrams by Nigel Holmes
This small book of wordless illustrations is brilliant and fun. It contains the wonderful explanatory visuals of Nigel Holmes, previous graphic director of Time Magazine. You might be surprised and inspired to see all the things he’s been able to explain visually. For example: How to Conduct; How to Curtsy; How to Carve a Pumpkin; How to Test Wine.
2. Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Knowshow me how book for visual ideas by Lauren Smith and Derek Fagerstrom
Show Me How achieves something that learning professionals are often seeking—an effective visual approach for teaching “how to” skills. It’s brimming with visual ways to portray a seemingly endless number of actions (500 to be exact), from decorating eggs to dancing a steamy tango.
visual aid book for visual ideas3. Visual Aid: Stuff You’ve Forgotten, Things You Never Thought You Knew, and Lessons You Didn’t Quite Get Around to Learning by Draught Associates
Visual Aid illustrates many common knowledge gaps people have using varied graphical explanations. The book isn’t organized as a reference. But it could be useful for anyone seeking ways to expand their visual ideas.
making comics book for comic ideas4. Making Comics by Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud is the hero of explaining things through the comic art form. If you want to improve your skills at conceiving or creating comic-style stories, he’s the one to read. Making Comics goes beyond illustration techniques, delving into storytelling and communication skills. His book covers all you need in order to “write with pictures.”

Information Graphics and Visualizations

envisioning information book for visual ideas5. Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte
In this classic, Tufte writes eloquently and academically about how to present visual information. The examples are subdued and often historical. A few chapter titles: Escaping Flatland; Layering and Separation; Small Multiples; Color and Information. You’ll find lots of visual ideas here, but they are more difficult to replicate. The publication date is 1990.
Show Me the Numbers book for visualizing number ideas6. Show Me The Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten by Stephen Few
Stephen Few excels at visual business communication. In this book, he provides guidelines for delivering information and data in tables and graphs. After discussing those basic statistical definitions, he focuses on visualizing for the real world, providing lots of sound design practices. Also see: How to Make Numbers Interesting.
7. Visual Language For Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics That People Understand by Connie Malamed
I had to include my own book, right? In Visual Language For Designers, I present principles of visual communication design based on cognitive science research, rather than intuition. This book is geared toward all visual communicators, including instructional designers. Designers and illustrators from around the world contributed over 250 graphics to the book.
Data Flow8. Data Flow: Visualizing Information in Graphic Design by R. Klanten, N. Bourquin, S. Ehmann and F. van Heerden.
Data Flow is a collection of visualizations showing off the many possibilities for depicting data. It focuses more on examples than it does on explanations. The book provides a rich browsing experience in you need inspiration.
9. The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics by Dona M. Wong
The WSJ Guide covers much of the basic information that beginners need to conceive and create information graphics. The title may be misleading. Wong takes you way beyond financial graphics into representations of all types of data. There is no way to look inside the book, but some of the pages are available as images.
Information is Beautiful10. Information is Beautiful by David McCandless
In this classic information graphics book, McCandless transforms facts, statistics, issues, theories, relationships, numbers and words into beautiful diagrams, charts and visualizations. You’ll find lots of ideas in this one. For more on information visualization, listen to my interview (or download the transcript) with Alberto Cairo, professor and information visualization designer.

Comments

  1. Connie Malamed says

    May 27, 2022 at 10:21 am

    I wondered who bought them. Thanks Laura 🙂 and I hope you find them helpful.
    Connie

  2. Laura Zuber says

    May 18, 2022 at 5:23 pm

    Thank you Connie! I bought both of your books: 1)Visual Language for ?Designers and 2) Visual Design Solutions. Almost done with both and trying to apply where ci can for software training.

    Appreciate your newsletter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Don’t Miss One Issue: The eLearning Coach Monthly Newsletter

the elearning coach monthly newsletter

LEARN MORE AND SIGN UP

The Learning Guild

Online Master’s Degree in Learning Design

u of san diego id program

Breaking Into Instructional Design

NOW AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK

You can now buy the email course as a PDF to get all the lessons at once. Price: $15.00 US.

eBook Cover
Click the image to buy the book.

SITE MENU

Home
Resources
My Books
About
Book Store
Membership Community

TOPIC MENU

Podcasts
LXD
eLearning Design
eLearning 2.0
Cognition
Multimedia (Graphics & Audio)
Reviews
At Work

RESOURCES

Storyboard Depot
Instructional Design Programs
Best Stock Images
PowerPoint Grids
eLearning Examples
Glossary of Online Learning
Graphic Editing Tools
Icon Collections

© Copyright 2023 Connie Malamed · All Rights Reserved