The Functional Art is the first book to offer a broad, hands-on introduction to information graphics and visualization, the use of charts, maps, diagrams, and illustrations to communicate and understand data and phenomena. Alberto Cairo, who teaches at the University of Miami, explains that visualizations should be conceived as tools that extend our perception, letting us go beyond what the bare eye can see, and allow us to identify patterns and trends that would be invisible otherwise.<br> <br> The book is divided into four parts: Foundations, Cognition, Practice, and Profiles.<br> <br> Part 1, Foundations, explains the core concepts in the book, such as that visualization should be thought of not as a fine art, but as a "functional art", a discipline in which the structure of the information and the efficiency of its visual encoding are intertwined with the aesthetics of design pieces.<br> <br> Part 2, Cognition, discusses the psychology of perception and how scientific findings over the past 30 years should affect the way we create graphics and visualizations today.<br> <br> Part 3, Practice, gets hands-on, as the author shows each step of the creative process, walking the reader through the creation of several of his own graphics as well those of other respected designers.<br> <br> Part 4, Profiles, showcases and explains the work of several top designers and visual journalists. For the book, Cairo interviewed, among others, John Grimwade (Condé Nast Traveler), Steve Duenes (The New York Times), Hans Rosling (Gapminder Foundation), Geoff McGhee (Stanford), Hannah Fairfield (The Washington Post), and European superstars Moritz Stefaner, Jan Willem Tulp, and Gregor Aisch. The extensive gallery of projects presented in the fourth part of the book will serve as an inspiration for students and professors alike.<br> <br> The book also includes a DVD-ROM containing 90+ minutes of video lessons that expand on the concepts explained in the book.