Book Review: The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication by Alberto Cairo

Abstract

Alberto Cairo's The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication (2016), is an aesthetically-pleasing and timely work aimed at improving the quality and effectiveness of visualizations within the framework of truthfulness and design. Cairo, a journalist, faculty member, and director of the University of Miami’s Visualization Program in their Center for Computational Science, frames his examples within journalism and marketing. The book provides examples that Communication Center staff can use to demonstrate to students how visuals might be made more appealing, more effective and/or more accurate. Also useful are Cairo’s illustrations of the ways in which an omission in a graphic can lead to skewed results.