I have known Brian Suda for many years. We first met through the microformats community, where he uses his skills to make structured data readily available and easily understandable.
Now he is applying those skills to the world of data.
I am covetous of Brianʼs mind. It is the mind of a scientist, constantly asking questions: “What was the first man-made object with a unique identifier?”, “What would a hypercube of bread classification look like?”, “What would it sound like to say all fifty of the United States at the same time?”
Okay, that last one was from Family Guy. But whereas you or I would be content to laugh at the joke and move on, Brian actually tried it by layering fifty audio recordings on top of one another. For the record, it sounds like this: Mwashomomakota.
As you would expect from such an enquiring mind, this book is not a shallow overview of graphs and charts. If you are looking for a quick fix on how to make your PowerPoint presentations pop, this isnʼt the book for you. But if you want to understand what happens when the human brain interacts with representations of data, you have hit the motherlode.
It isnʼt hyperbole to say that this book will change the way you look at the world. In the same way that typography geeks canʼt help but notice the good and bad points of lettering in everyday life, youʼre going to start spotting data design all around you.
Better still, you are going to learn how to apply that deep knowledge to your own work. You will begin asking questions
of yourself: “Am I communicating data honestly and effectively?”, “What is the cognitive overhead of the information I am presenting?”
Your mind will be more Suda-like once you have read this book. The phrase “change your mind” is usually used to mean “reverse a decision”. I want to use the phrase in a different, more literal way.
This book will change your mind.