The Best Data Viz Books for Any Experience Level

So, you want to learn data visualization to communicate with impact? Good news: there are a lot of great data visualization books out there to help you level up! In this post, we’ll introduce you to the best data viz books for any level – beginner through advanced. With these, you’ll be able to tell a story with data in no time!

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What is Data Visualization? Why is it Needed?

Data Visualization (or data viz for short) is a set of principles and practices that help you to display information visually. Typically, data viz concerns the creation of charts and graphs that are composed using sound design. It is a powerful tool to have in your toolbox that requires a thorough understanding of the underlying data so that you can help your audience to better understand vast amounts of data in a simplified manner.

Telling a story with data and creating a visual story are often associated with data visualization. This is because stories are a powerful way to make the messages that you want to convey memorable. Your audience will be better able to take action when you boil the data down for them. This highlights the necessity of data viz: to simplify key messages through visual displays.

Best Data Visualization Books for Beginners

If you’re an absolute beginner, these are the top three books that I’d recommend you check out.

I chose these three books because they communicate the principles of data visualization well. They each use clear language and lots of examples that clarify complex topics for someone new to the field. Each one is also tool-agnostic. This means that they focus on principles, not on how to use a specific piece of software or technology (like Tableau, Power BI, or Python). With these, you can focus on the fundamentals and then apply them to any tool of your choosing.

Storytelling With Data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Storytelling With Data is one of the best introductions to data visualization in a business setting available! The author, a former Google data viz leader, presents engaging and actionable steps to communicate effectively with data.

The focus of this book is not on the technical aspects of summarizing data. Rather, the author introduces a number of ideas to help readers identify the story in their data, declutter their vizzes, and use design principles to focus their audiences’ attention.

I use this book when teaching my own data visualization classes, and it’s a student favorite. If you are ready to overhaul your visualizations and wow your managers and coworkers with your great reports, then this is the book for you.

Click here to buy Storytelling With Data

When I read How Charts Lie the first time, it became an instant favorite of mine. It very well may be the best book on data visualization as a topic currently on the market. Even without a strong technical background, this book will make you aware of how visualization design can impact the way that we perceive and interpret data that is presented to us.

This is another book that focuses, not on the technical aspects of data viz, but on the actual communication of information through visual displays of information.

Check this book out if you want to be more aware of how everyday charts and graphs that we consume can mislead us. This awareness will make you smarter about how you read what is presented to you, and more engaged as you build your own designs.

Click here to buy How Charts Lie

Fundamentals of Data Visualization by Claus Wilke

This book will fall somewhere between beginner and intermediate in your journey toward data visualization expertise. Fundamentals of Data Visualization is one of the best books for data viz because it introduces first principles and builds upon them to provide a comprehensive view of what types of visualizations are possible, and what they are intended to communicate.

One of my favorite frameworks that I use to analyze visualizations is presented where you are taught to discern between “good”, “bad”, “ugly”, and “incorrect” visualizations. I use this approach when looking at each viz that I encounter as it increases mindfulness about aspects of both design and visual perception. I like that this book marries both the science and the art of data visualization.

The book is divided into sections that gently introduce readers to the technical aspects of dataviz, design, and advanced topics. While the examples used in the book are prepared (and available on Github) in the R programming language, the book itself is tool agnostic. This makes it a great book on visualization principles!

Click here to purchase Fundamentals of Data Visualization

Best Books on Data Visualization As You Gain Experience

The Truthful Art by Alberto Cairo

This is the second book by Alberto Cairo on this list. While I consider all of Cairo’s books to be important, perhaps the most significant in terms of learning data visualization is The Truthful Art.

This book does a masterful job of positioning the discipline of Data Visualization. He clearly articulates the purpose of visual displays, and teaches readers the fundamentals of building designs alongside lessons on data and statistical analysis.

This is a beautiful book that includes several full color images and in-depth examples. This is my personal favorite book for introducing more of the technical details of data viz and the underlying analysis. While it covers a lot of foundational topics, some of the statistics may intimidate absolute beginners. For that reason, I rate this as an intermediate level text.

Purchase the Truthful Art by clicking here

Effective Data Storytelling by Brent Dykes

Effective Data Storytelling is a great read for going a step beyond data visualization. With a focus on describing how visual displays of information are used to tell an effective story with data, readers gain an understanding of the techniques to tell a story to make an impact.

The primary lessons are similar to what readers experience in Storytelling with Data (described above). This book, however, is a more comprehensive data storytelling book as it develops the discussion of story creation in greater depth. For this reason, it is one of the best books on visualization that I have come across.

Click here to purchase Effective Data Storytelling

The Big Book of Dashboards by Steve Wexler, Jeffrey Shaffer, and Andy Cotgreave

The Big Book of Dashboards is a beautiful book that explores dashboards. Dashboards combine many individual vizzes to create a visual display of data used to monitor and understand its subject. Dashboards are an important topic in the field, but there are relatively few good dashboard design books. This one takes the cake!

In this book, dozens of dashboards are discussed and critiqued, giving readers a chance to analyze what works and what does not work when building reports and dashboards.

Purchase The Big Book of Dashboards here

Best Data Viz Books for Advanced Practitioners

Information Visualization: Perception for Design by Colin Ware

Information Visualization is an amazing book! It discusses how our brains perceive what our eyes see, and goes into detail on topics such as color, space, movement and cognition.

This book reads like an advanced data visualization textbook. If you want to level up your data visualizations, gaining an understanding of the topics in this book will set you apart. It is not for beginners though, and requires some level of commitment to read from end to end. It is, however, one of the best information design books available.

Click here to buy Information Visualization

Best Books for Data Visualization Practice Problems

Storytelling With Data: Let’s Practice! by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Let’s Practice! is a personal favorite of mine to use in teaching. This book provides numerous examples and scenarios for readers to both follow along with and to practice on their own. The structure of the book is similar to Storytelling With Data, and a review of each of the major chapters is provided (as an infographic) at the beginning of each chapter.

My favorite part of this book are the step by step ‘Practice with Cole’ (the author) sections. These examples detail the thought process behind building and iterating upon visualizations. There is an accompanying website that houses the data and examples used in the book – mostly in Excel. Access these resources, and you will prdouce beautiful data visualizations in no time!

Get Storytelling with Data, Let’s Practice! here

Good Charts Workbook by Scott Berinato

The lessons presented in Good Charts and the Good Charts Workbook allow practice of individual design aspects (like color). I particularly like this approach because it gives you a chance to focus on specific elements and the impact that these have on overall design.

All of the books in this guide are tool agnostic. This book, however, assumes no technology at all. Instead, readers are encouraged to use paper and (colored) pencil to sketch. This is a particularly effective way to practice. Often the technical challenges of formatting a chart in a piece of software superscede the designers desire to create an honest-to-goodness good chart.

Order the Good Charts Workbook now

Conclusion

There are many options that exist when it comes to data visualization books and learning opportunities. Hopefully this guide helps you to sort out which are the best data viz books based on your experience level. Below we provide buying links for all of the books covered in this post.

Feel free to let us know if you have a personal favorite recommendation in the comments below.

Until next time, think and be thoughtful!