Book review: Effective data visualization
| Author | Lyn Alderman |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X19879038 |
| Subject Matter | Book review |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X19879038
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
2020, Vol. 20(1) 57 –58
© The Author(s) 2020
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sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1035719X19879038
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Book review
Stephanie D. H. Evergreen, Effective data visualization (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE,
2019. ISBN 978-1544350882 (paperback); 352 pp. AU$58.00.
Reviewed by: Lyn Alderman , Principal, The Evaluators’ Collective, Australia
It is always interesting how you find out about a great book. As an evaluation mentor,
it is exciting to see your mentee adopt advice, practices or read through an article you
have recommended. In this instance, my mentee suggested that I subscribe to Stephanie
Evergreen’s blog as a great way to keep abreast of new ways to visualise data. When I
signed up, the first blog was to introduce this new edition of the book. My thanks also
go to SAGE Publishing for a copy of the book and the opportunity to review this book.
I am hooked, and if you could see my copy it has post-it notes all over it, which indi-
cates that I have jumped right into it. In writing this book review, I am very aware that
I will be using words to describe a book that is about developing visual literacy to
illustrate data. This is my challenge as the book reviewer.
This book is an instructional text. It describes how to visualise qualitative and quan-
titative data together with step-by-step instructions for Microsoft Excel software. These
instructions are further supported by screen images and examples from practice. The
book is written in a way that the reader can start at any chapter and move through the
book following their interest. Stephanie also provides skill levels from 0 to 10 to help
readers understand the level of difficulties involved in each visualisation. I would sug-
gest that my Microsoft Excel skills are good even though I do not have an analyst
background. When I was trying some of the extremely high skill level activities, I found
it useful to also go across to the Internet to watch some YouTube instructional videos.
Between the book’s instructions, images and the videos, I was able to produce attractive
data visualisations. Another interesting feature is the way in which readers are advised
about when to use a style of graph and also when NOT to use it. This is an important
lesson to learn in data visualisation, particularly when you want to be clear and not
misleading in your messaging. Each of the chapters is outlined below.
Chapter 1 introduces the reader to how to tell a story using data together with an
explanation of the structure of the book. Chapter 2 describes showing Mean, Frequency
and Measure of Variability. The reader is introduced to the concept of muting some
879038EVJ0010.1177/1035719X19879038Evaluation Journal of AustralasiaBook review
book-review2020
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