Drawing on a Napkin

I keep track of the Change This website. It provides PDF summaries of 12-20 pages on new books. I like reading them - I don't think I've bought a book from it yet (the to-read pile is huge) - but it is a great source of new ideas.

I really enjoy the summary from the "Back of the Napkin" book. The author is Dan Roam and he has a blog too - the book is on Amazon. His point is that simple pictures can help tell business stories.

Its a well known fact for business intelligence - so many bad charts are made using Excel and other tools. Geographers know this well since they utilize maps so effectively. Statisticians use lots of charts to explain their models.

However, these uses are mainly to show quantiative data. Roam dives into using pictures to tell qualitative stories - and his examples have fired up my imagination. I'll certainly try some of his ideas and I might even buy his book...