Perceptual Edge is a consultancy that was established to help organizations like yours learn to design simple information displays for effective analysis and communication.

Stephen Few, Founder & Principal

It was founded in 2003 by me, Stephen Few. It will probably always be a company of one (except for staff to handle day-to-day administration), which for me is the perfect size. With 24 years of experience as an innovator, consultant, and educator in the fields of business intelligence and information design, I currently focus on data visualization techniques for making sense of and communicating quantitative business information.

I write the monthly Visual Business Intelligence Newsletter, speak regularly at conferences (such as The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) and DAMA), and teach in the MBA program at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2004 I wrote the first comprehensive and practical guide to business graphics entitled Show Me the Numbers, in 2006 I wrote the first and only guide to the visual design of dashboards, entitled Information Dashboard Design and in 2009 I wrote the first introduction for non-statisticians to visual data analysis entitled Now You See It.

Some of My Clients

Education
Purdue University
University of California, Berkeley
Emory University
University of Nebraska
Simon Fraser University
Stanford Research Institute
Swiss Statistical Society
MITRE Corporation
Technology Transfer

Government
Centers for Disease Control
NASA
U.S. Navy
Internal Revenue Service
Comptroller of the Currency
National Center for Education Statistics
AAAS
City of Richmond, CA

Health Care
Kaiser Permanente
Genentech
McKesson
Health Foundation of Cincinnati
American College of Surgeons
Boston Scientific
Medtronic
QC Metrix
Martin's Point Health Care

Financial
Fannie Mae
Fidelity Investments
Wachovia Bank
Bank of Montreal
Buckingham Asset Management
Daruma Asset Management

Telecommunications
T-Mobile
British Telecom

Transportation
Southwest Airlines
Port of Seattle
Technology
Cisco Systems
Microsoft
Apple
eBay
Scientific Atlanta
Veritas Software
Siemens
TDWI
InfoHRM
Success Factors
Tableau Software
Spotfire
SAS Institute
Cognos
Noetix
Inova Solutions
Pilot Software
QlikTech
Hyperion Solutions
ProClarity Software
Panopticon
Actuate
Corda
Information Builders
XLCubed
BIS²
Centrifuge Systems
Visual Engineering

Energy
PG&E

Consumer
Coldwater Creek

Consulting
CB Richard Ellis
Global Business Network
LMG

Not for Profit
UNESCO

Others
Rio Tinto
The Drees Company

Why Perceptual Edge?

The name Perceptual Edge has dual meanings; both capture an important aspect of what I do.

The more obvious of the two meanings is that my services are designed to give you an edge on perception to set you apart from others who are unable to make good use of their information.

The less obvious meaning comes from the study of visual perception, which explains that for us to see an object in the physical world as distinct from its surroundings, that object must have a perceptual edge—a visible demarcation that sets it apart and thereby makes it detectable. Much of what is meaningful in any organization's information is camouflaged; it blends in with its surroundings and therefore goes unnoticed. To bring it to light, you must know how to endow it with a perceptual edge.

Only when you can give meaningful information a perceptual edge can you achieve the edge on perception that will lead to understanding and wise decisions.