This is the third edition of a book intended as an introduction to information visualization. The present content is the result of a major revision, whereas its structure remains basically the same. Such a process of natural maturing contributes to the book’s quality. The language is precise and very comprehensible, often witty. The basic intention of the author has solidified: it is an introductory text of information visualization intended for students of any discipline. The author names disciplines as diverse as medicine, marketing, geology, security, and demographics. He explicitly distances himself from the assumption that the book should be targeted solely at computer science students. His approach is based on the observation that visualization basically has nothing to do with computer science. According to the definition that the author states and lets guide him consistently throughout the whole book, visualization is the activity of forming a mental model of something. The definition is quite abstract. In fact, it may seem too abstract, since it does not make any explicit reference to a picture or diagram or any other (graphical) object that can be perceived visually. Implicitly, however, such a quality could be assumed to be connected to the concept of a mental model. On the other hand, I am not sure if this is fully consistent with the way the concept is defined in psychology or human-computer interaction where perhaps forms of mental models other than visual ones are contemplated, too.

The author uses a reference model of the information visualization process, which consists of three principal subprocesses: representation, presentation, and interaction. The process works with data and interacts with a human user. These are the major considerations throughout the book. The book consists of seven chapters and an appendix. In chapter 1, the topic is introduced by way of carefully chosen examples from pre-computer history. To name two of them, Florence Nightingale, a founder of modern nursing, wrote in 1858 a report for the British government in which she used a so-called rose diagram to show the numbers of deaths in the hospitals month by month. Her idea was to associate a segment with each month. The area of the segment was proportional to the number of deaths. Another example details how Harry Beck designed in 1931 a new map of the London Underground. It does not retain geographical accuracy but forms a very useful mental model of the Tube. Further in the introduction, the author explains why information visualization is worthwhile, again by way of examples. In chapter 2, several principal issues are discussed that the author feels should be addressed by a book on information visualization.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are the key parts of the book. They focus on the three principal processes of the information visualization process, as identified by the reference model: representation, presentation, and interaction. As in previous chapters, the author uses many examples. In fact, this is one of the characteristics of the book. Any theme is developed by way of examples rather than by a theoretical treatise. The examples are well chosen. They serve not just an illustrative purpose; they are essential in conveying ideas.

Chapter 6 is devoted to design, more precisely to design of a system to support information visualization. It has a mere ten pages. As the author explains, it gives only a very personal view of this topic. The author feels that while undertaking some short project within an introductory course on information visualization is very desirable, and the personal view presented in this chapter will support it, there is no need to deal with this important topic in a more extensive way. Rather, the book continues in chapter 7 with a number of interesting case studies.

Each chapter contains exercises. They are very useful. They are supportive to learners who want to acquire understanding of the topics by doing. The book itself is a very good introduction to information visualization, and as such, it can serve for an introductory course allowing various pedagogical paths for an instructor to take. It takes a rather practical approach. Obviously there is no mention of Vorstellung or Darstellung, but perhaps surprisingly neither is there a mention of Gestalt, a concept frequently used in visualization. All in all, however, it is a very readable book to be recommended not only to prospective students of information visualization, but to anyone interested in the topic, since it is written in such a way that there are no prerequisites to be able to read it.