I wanted to read this book because I think Nadieh and Shirley are two super nice and smart people – and I knew it would be a very neat experience to read about….well, their experiences. (And it was!)
“It’s huuuuge!” That’s the first thing I noticed when getting this book. And I thought it would take a really long time to go through it, but it was actually a surprisingly easy read. I really liked the format – half coffee table book, half technical book – and think it worked surprisingly well. It made the tech somehow less daunting. (But maybe that was also because of Nadieh’s and Shirleys’s super personal style.)
I very much appreciated the honesty with which Shirley and Nadieh wrote about their projects. You feel with them; I felt almost like I was in the same room while they worked on their projects. And you get the honest “This worked well; this didn’t; I was disappointed by x.” It was refreshing. And it made me realize that I miss that honest, personal touch in other books or data vis documentations. It would make them better.
Also: This book encouraged me to create data visualizations for the learning effect! “I liked this project because I learned so much” is something I read more than once in Nadieh’s and Shirley’s book….and it made me realize that this is a great reason to create a data vis. If you learn something while creating a data vis, then even if the data vis isn’t awesome, you’re still getting something out of it.
I’d recommend it to ever data vis designer who wants to go beyond simple charts. This books gives you a better understanding of what to expect when you’re creating bespoke, super-duper-creative data vis (like….how much time it takes 😱). I wouldn’t read it as a total data or data vis newbie.