Information Design Book Reviews

When you create a computer program, map, book, or Web system, you have to decide how to arrange and present information. Some people call this process information design. Even if the term seems hopelessly pretentious, there are a lot of really interesting books on the subject.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward Tufte: A Top Ten Book List selection.; Despite its dry title, this is one of them most interesting books I’ve ever read. It is a point of reference for architects, graphic designers, statisticians, cartographers, and programmers. Tufte’s creed is that statistical graphics should honor data. His examples and illustrations are an eclectic blend from several centuries and cultures. Most highly recommended.; Tufte’s next two books, Visual Explanations and Envisioning Information, are also highly recommended. All of his books are beautifully written, illustrated, and produced. Reviews added 1998.
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville: A Top Ten Book List selection.; Information Architecture is as useful as Designing Web Usability. The authors were trained as librarians. They apply centuries of library research and best practices to organizing and presenting information on the Web. This book is filled with practical details, specific suggestions, and useful background information. Most highly recommended. Review added March 2000.
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Jon L. Dunn: Field guides are one of the best, and least discussed, examples of practical information design. Field guides need to be accurate, compact, portable, and helpful in the field. They have what Ed Tufte calls an "information density" rivaled only by high-quality maps and encyclopedia. The National Geographic guide has been the standard field guide for North American birders for years. It is an outstanding example of excellent field guide design. Lately, The Sibley Guide to Birds has set a new standard of excellence. Review added January 2001.; I'm an avid birder and have field and bird finding guides for many countries.
Please send me email with suggestions and questions about bird guides.
Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora: The best field guide on any subject I've ever seen in any language. David Arora manages to make a 1,000 page book about wild mushrooms simultaneously funny, interesting, and immensely helpful. The dichotomous keys, used throughout the book to help discriminate amongst similar mushrooms, function like an expert-in-a box. The keys should be of particular interest to programmers as they are at once compact and powerful. Review added January 2001.
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud: This book is a singular piece of information design. Understanding Comics explores how and why comics function. The book is in the form of a comic that demonstrates its arguments. A classic that is also a lot of fun. Read Scott McCloud's online column for a taste of his work. Review added April 2000.
Information Architects edited by Richard Saul Wurman: Richard Saul Wurman, a famous graphic designer, is best known for his Access travel guides and maps. Information Architects is a collection of project descriptions from top designers in different fields, edited by Wurman. This is a great sourcebook for thinking about information design. Review added 1999.
Designing Business by Clement Mok: Clement Mok is another name-brand graphic and Web designer. This book is a sometimes insightful, sometimes misguided look at the shape of information in the world to come. Although parts are already dated, it gave me enough good ideas within ten pages to pay for the book itself. Read this book, and you'll be convinced that programming is a small subdiscipline of design. Review added 1999.

Read a great book lately? Send an email to dpadams@island-data.com.