Alberto Cairo

Presents an introduction of information graphics and visualization, covering such topics as using color and type, how brains perceive and remember information, and the creative process behind information graphics.

An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization

The Functional Art

We've all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what if we don't understand what we're looking at? Social media has made charts, infographics, and diagrams ubiquitous--and easier to share than ever. We associate charts with science and reason; the flashy visuals are both appealing and persuasive. Pie charts, maps, bar and line graphs, and scatter plots (to name a few) can better inform us, revealing patterns and trends hidden behind the numbers we encounter in our lives. In short, good charts make us smarter--if we know how to read them. However, they can also lead us astray. Charts lie in a variety of ways--displaying incomplete or inaccurate data, suggesting misleading patterns, and concealing uncertainty--or are frequently misunderstood, such as the confusing cone of uncertainty maps shown on TV every hurricane season. To make matters worse, many of us are ill-equipped to interpret the visuals that politicians, journalists, advertisers, and even our employers present each day, enabling bad actors to easily manipulate them to promote their own agendas. In How Charts Lie, data visualization expert Alberto Cairo teaches us to not only spot the lies in deceptive visuals, but also to take advantage of good ones to understand complex stories. Public conversations are increasingly propelled by numbers, and to make sense of them we must be able to decode and use visual information. By examining contemporary examples ranging from election-result infographics to global GDP maps and box-office record charts, How Charts Lie demystifies an essential new literacy, one that will make us better equipped to navigate our data-driven world.

Getting Smarter about Visual Information

How Charts Lie

The Truthful Art is an introduction to data reasoning and statistical and cartographical representation written for anyone who wishes to communicate effectively, including journalists, graphic designers, scientists, and business professionals. A follow-up to The Functional Art, it goes into the specifics of how to design appealing, credible, and informative infographics and data visualizations. Part 1 in The Truthful Art provides a broad introduction to statistics, written with journalists and designers in mind. Cairo avoids using jargon and formulas, focusing instead on how to manage and interpret data sets, and how to extract stories from them. In Part 2, Cairo gets down to business giving specific advice on how to use charts and maps in infographics and visualization. Readers will learn what kind of statistical charts exist and how to use them correctly; how to talk about maps, with an introduction to cartography terms such as projection, scale, and symbolization; the basics of making maps, including how to create locator maps; and the main kinds of thematic maps (choropleth, isopleth, proportional symbol, etc.) and how to use them. In Part 3, Cairo leaves the classroom and enters the real world with an in-depth look at how information graphics and visualization teams are organized at publications around the world including The New York Times, La Nación (Costa Rica),Estado de São Paulo (Brazil), and more. He also explains how to develop a successful style book for graphics using sample pages from several real style books as examples. Part 4, the last section of the book, features interviews with leading designers of charts and maps including the talented Jer Thorp, Amanda Cox, Ben Fry, and more.

Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication

The Truthful Art

Mosaico afghano

Aquesta tesi explora les profundes transformacions que els gràfics periodístics -estadístiques, mapes, diagrames en publicacions de notícies-han experimentat en els últims vint anys. Descriu com l'aparició d'eines i tecnologies de dades digitals ha afectat la composició dels departaments de gràfics, el tipus de gràfics que aquests departaments produeixen i la manera com veuen la seva presència en el periodisme modern.

Nerd Journalism: How Data and Digital Technology Transformed News Graphics

&> ¿ Acclaimed data visualization instructor and journalist Alberto Cairo provides you with a brief introduction to Adobe Illustrator's tools and basic drawing techniques before diving into more advanced instructions specific to creating infographics. For example, if you're already familiar with Illustrator, you can skip ahead to lessons that teach you how to use Illustrator's Graph tool to design charts and greatly improve the look of your graphics. You'll also learn how to trace maps; create complex, explanatory vector illustrations; use advanced coloring techniques; simulate 3D effects to create infographics in perspective; and use Illustrator's Pen tool to draw just about anything. ¿ The video is wrapped in a unique interface that allows you to jump to any topic and also bookmark individual sections for later review. The unique Watch-and-Work mode shrinks the video into a small window to allow you to work alongside in Illustrator using project files that are included with the video course. And, at the end of every lesson, you can test your knowledge by taking interactive quizzes to help reinforce all of that freshly gained knowledge. The instructor uses Adobe Illustrator CS6 in this video; however the design principles are applicable to all versions of Illustrator. Duration:12 HR 17 min User Level:¿Beginning/Intermediate System Requirements: Mac: OS X 10.7.5+ and Safari 6.0+ PC: Windows Vista+ and Firefox 22+ Hardware: DVD-ROM drive Please Note: * This DVD-ROM can be viewed on your computer, but it will NOT play in a DVD movie player. * The course uses pop-ups; please enable them in your browser.¿For more information on how to enable Pop-ups please see our Learn By Video FAQ page¿http://www.peachpit.com/promotions/learn-by-video-faq-139397

Learn by Video

Creating Maps, Charts, and Infographics with Adobe Illustrator

Learn how expert data visualization designers reason about their craft In The Art of Insight: How Great Visualization Designers Think, renowned visualization designer and educator Alberto Cairo, in conversation with several leaders in the field, delivers an inspiring exploration of how they make design choices. The book is a celebration of visualization, and a personal journey that dives into subjects like: How the professional background and life experiences of every designer shape their choices of what to visualize and how to visualize it. What designers from different countries and cultures, and working in different fileds, such as data art, data analytics, or data journalism, have in common, or how they differ from each other. How designers reflect on research, ethical reasoning, and also aesthetic judgments, to make decisions such as selecting the most appropriate ways to encode data, or the most appealing visual style. Perfect for data scientists and data journalists, The Art of Insight will also inspire artists, analysts, statisticians, and any other professional who uses data visualizations.

Alberto Cairo

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