Human beings are fundamentally visual in the way they process information. I think the invention of writing was as much about visually representing our thoughts to others as it was about record keeping and accountancy. In the modern world, we are bombarded with formalized visual representations of information, from the ubiquitous opinion poll pie chart to clever and sophisticated infographics. The website http://data-art.net/resources/history_of_vis.php provides an informative and entertaining quick history of data visualization. If you want a truly breathtaking demonstration of the power of data visualization, seek out Hans Rosling's The best stats you've ever seen at http://ted.com.

In the last chapter, we spent time getting to know some of Spotfire's data capabilities. It's important that you continue to think about data; how it's structured, how it's related, and where it comes from. Building good visualizations requires visual imagination, but it also requires...