ETCETERA: ANOTHER KIND OF TOOLKIT
Books, articles and lectures are all building blocks in my profession. During the past year I have made a long list of resources for anyone interested in a thorough understanding of information graphics, both theory and practice. You will find the list on this page, with a short review for each resource. You are welcome to comment and send me your recommendations.
As much as we love numbers for their straight-forwardness, power and influence in decision-making, they are also potential tools for misleading. There is a terror in numbers, says Darrel Huff in How to Lie with Statistics.
As an infographics artist, one might face numbers in several stages of her work:
- when collecting data;
- when organizing and interpreting data;
- when setting or finding correlations;
- when creating the graphic.
For any of the steps above, it is worth reading How to Lie with Statistics. It starts from the premise that statistics are often used to sensationalize, inflate and oversimplify. This is a book that teaches how to use statistics to deceive. If you are honest and responsible, read it in self-defense. If not, it means you already know the tricks.
The book is an easy read, with lots of practical examples and pieces of advice. For example, he tackles the use of statistically inadequate samples, he describes the consequnces of having no numbers on charts, and also how important the sources of the statistics are. The book is even more relevant for infographics artists because Huff had no formal training in statistics, but in communication, so we can relate even more to his approach. The book has been reviewed twice by The New York Times, which would be impossible to beat nowadays.
After How to Lie with Statistics, Huff published six more books that count toward the same goal, which is to increase our qualitative literacy:
How to Take a Chance
Score: The Strategy of Taking Tests
Cycles in Your Life
How to Figure the Odds on Everything
The Complete How to Figure It: Using Math in Everyday Life
In an article published by The Institute of Mathematical Statistics, author Michael Steele lists the factors that led to such a huge succes of this book:
1. The title: intriguing, uncomfortable for statisticians;
2. The illustrations: yes, yes, yes;
3. The style: breezy, lightened up with cartoons and highly accessible;
4. The content.
Illustration by Irvin Geis (in How to Lie with Statistics)
If you feel like digging more on statistics after reading this book (and you should!), come back here for a list of books I am currently working on.