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, and in 2006 I wrote the first and only guide to the visual design of dashboards, entitled Information Dashboard Design.

Some of My Clients

Kaiser Permanente
Southwest Airlines
eBay
Rio Tinto
Coldwater Creek
The Drees Company
Fannie Mae
UNESCO
Centers for Disease Control
McKesson
Health Foundation of Cincinnati
American College of Surgeons
Boston Scientific
U.S. Navy
Internal Revenue Service
Comptroller of the Currency
AAAS
Port of Seattle
City of Richmond, CA
PG&E
Swiss Statistical Society
Purdue University
University of California, Berkeley
University of Nebraska
Stanford Research Institute
MITRE Corporation
Global Business Network Cisco Systems
T-Mobile
British Telecom
Scientific Atlanta
Veritas Software
Medtronic
QC Metrix
IndX (A Seimens Company)
Wachovia Bank
Bank of Montreal
Buckingham Asset Management
Daruma Asset Management
Success Factors
CB Richard Ellis
Noetix
Inova Solutions
Pilot Software
QlikTech
SAS Institute
Hyperion Solutions
ProClarity Software
Actuate
Corda
Cognos
Tableau Software
Spotfire
Information Builders

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.