Lesson 10

Information Dashboard Design

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Content

• Introducing information dashboard
• Information dashboard design best practices
• Common mistakes in dashboard design
• Ideal graphs for information dashboard
  • Bullet graph
  • Sparklines
  • Bandlines

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Introducing information dashboard

Source: Stephen Few (2006) Information Dashboard Design

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Introducing information dashboard

Why are dashboards so important?

• A  well-designed performance dashboard helps you to see more clearly by helping you to understand each fact more quickly so you can find patterns in the storm.

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Introducing information dashboard

Classifying Dashboards by Role

• Dashboards for strategic purpose
• Dashboards for operational purpose
• Dashboards for analytics purpose

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Introducing information dashboard

Dashboards for operational purpose

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Introducing information dashboard

Dashboards for strategic purpose

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Introducing information dashboard

Dashboards for analytics purpose

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Evolution of information dashboard

Traditional Dashboard and Reporting Tools

SAP-Business Objects

SAS Web Reporting Studio

Oracle Hyperion

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Evolution of information dashboard

Second Generation Information Dashboard
 

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Evolution of information dashboard

Second Generation Information Dashboard
 

• Excel-based dashboard is inexpensive
• Excel-based dashboard does not required costly and time-consuming training
• Excel-based dashboard is very flexible
• Excel-based dashboard is seamlessly integrated with spreadsheet’s advanced modelling functions

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Evolution of information dashboard

Second Generation Information Dashboard
 

Tableau

SpotFire

Panopticon

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Evolution of information dashboard

Third Generation Information Dashboard

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

• Preparing stage
  • Target the user
  • Know what value your dashboard will add
  • Display only actionable information
• Design stage
  • Right tool for the right job
  • Context
  • Layout and clarity
  • Visual aesthetics

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: Target the user

Source: http://www.datadrivenconsulting.com/2009/12/what-the-customer-needed/

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: User-centered Design Process

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: A User-Centric Dashboard Design Guide

• Who is my target audience?

• What value will the dashboard add?

• What type of dashboard am I creating?

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: A User-Centric Dashboard Design Guide

• Who is my target audience?

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: A User-Centric Dashboard Design Guide

• What value will the dashboard bring?
   

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: A User-Centric Dashboard Design Guide

• What value will the dashboard bring?

  • Help management define what is important.

  • Educate people in the organization about the things that matter.

  • Set goals and expectations for specific individuals or groups.

  • Help executives sleep at night because they know what’s going on.

  • Encourage specific actions in a timely manner.

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: A User-Centric Dashboard Design Guide

• What value will the dashboard bring?

  • Highlight exceptions and provide alerts when problems occur.

  • Communicate progress and success.

  • Provide a common interface for interacting with and analysing important business data.

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: A User-Centric Dashboard Design Guide

• What type of dashboard am I creating?

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: A User-Centric Dashboard Design Guide

• Information Discrimination

  • Find the core

  • Ask a better question

  • Push to the appendix

  • Reporting vs exploration

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Preparing stage: A User-Centric Dashboard Design Guide

• Choosing the perfect metric

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Design stage

• Common mistakes in dashboard design
• Context
• Layout and clarity
• Visual aesthetics

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Exceeding the boundaries of a single page

• Supplying inadequate context for the data

• Displaying excessive detail or precision

• Exposing measure indirectly

• Choosing inappropriate display media

• Introducing meaningless variety

• Using poorly designed display media

• Encoding quantitative data inaccurately

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Arranging information poorly

• Highlighting important information ineffectively or not at all

• Clustering the display with visual effects

• Misusing or overusing colour

• Designing an unattractive visual display

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Exceeding the boundaries of a single page

  • Requiring the viewer to scroll

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Exceeding the boundaries of a single page

  • Fragmenting data into separate screen

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Supplying Inadequate Context for the Data

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Supplying Inadequate Context for the Data

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Displaying excessive detail or precision

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Choosing a deficient measure

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Choosing inappropriate display media

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Introducing meaningless variety

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Using poorly designed display media such as 3D

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Encoding quantitative data inaccurately

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Arranging the data poorly

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Highlighting important data ineffectively or not

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Appropriate used of highlighting

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Cluttering the display with useless decoration

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Misusing or overusing colour

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Designing an unattractive visual display

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Design that failed to reveal KPIs effectively

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Design that reveals KPIs effectively

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Design with poor layout and clarity

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Design with good layout and clarity

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Design with poor visual aestheticsness

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Design with good visual aestheticsness

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Best Practices for Dashboard Design

Common mistakes in dashboard design

• Design with good visual aestheticsness

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Right tool for the right job

• Poor choice of visual representation

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Right tool for the right job

• Appropriate choice of visual representation

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Right tool for the right job

• An assortment of typical dashboard gauges

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Bullet Graphs

• Bullet graphs to replace gauges

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Bullet Graphs

• Bullet graph specifications

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Bullet Graphs

• Alternative design

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Bullet Graphs

• Alternative design

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• A sparkline is a very small line chart, typically drawn without axes or coordinates.

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• Unintentional optical clutter

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• Aspect ratio: A graphic's width/height ratio makes a big difference in displaying data.

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• Aspect ratio consideration

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• How should a sparkline aspect ratio be chosen?

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• Enriched with context

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• Use reference line to provide context

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• Use reference region to provide context

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• Sparklines for Excel

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• Microsoft Excel’s Sparklines ribbon

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introduction to Sparklines

• Limitation: featuring patterns and magnitude together

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introducing bandlines

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introducing bandlines

• How to interpret bandlines?

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introducing bandlines

• How to interpret bandlines?

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introducing bandlines

• Bandlines with magnitude information

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

Ideal graphs for information dashboard

Introducing bandlines

• Bandlines use case

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

References

• A Guide to Creating Dashboards People Love to Use (http://static.squarespace.com/static/52f42657e4b0b3416ff6b831/t/5310292ce4b08d35a87c9426/1393568044420/Guide_to_Dashboard_Design.pdf)

• 5 Best Practices for Creating Effective Dashboards (http://www.tableausoftware.com/learn/whitepapers/5-best-practices-for-effective-dashboards)

• The Must Do’s of Marketing Dashboards (http://www.tableau.com/sites/default/files/media/whitepaper_mustdosofmarketingdashboards_eng_3.pdf)

• Making Flow Happen (http://www.tableau.com/learn/webinars/making-flow-happen-dashboards-persuade-inform-and-engage)

• With Dashboards: Formatting and layout Definitely Matter (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/Whitepapers/Formatting_and_Layout_Matter.pdf)

• Dashboard Design for real-Time Situation Awareness (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/Whitepapers/Dashboard_Design.pdf)  

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

References

• Dashboard Design for Rich and Rapid Monitoring (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/dd_for_rapid_monitoring.pdf)
• Pervasive Hurdles to Effective Dashboard Design (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/pervasive_hurdles_to_dd.pdf)
• Why Most Dashboards Fail (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/misc/WhyMostDashboardsFail.pdf)
• Dashboard Confusion (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/ie/dashboard_confusion.pdf)
• Dashboard Confusion Revisited (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/dboard_confusion_revisited.pdf)
• Dashboard Design for at-a-glance monitoring (http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i247/s10/lectures/Few-Dashboards.pdf)  

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 11: Information Dashboard Design

References

• Bullet graph @wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_graph)
• Bullet Graph Design Specification (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/misc/Bullet_Graph_Design_Spec.pdf)
• Sparkline theory and practice (http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001OR)
• Best Practices for Scaling Sparklines in Dashboard (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/best_practices_for_scaling_sparklines.pdf)
• Introducing Bandlines (https://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/introducing_bandlines.pdf)

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence

Lesson 10: Information Dashboard Design

References

Blog

• Dashboard Design @ Perceptual Edge (http://www.perceptualedge.com/discussion.htm)
• ExcelChart (http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/dashboards/)
• Excel Dashboard (http://chandoo.org/wp/excel-dashboards/)
• ExcelUser (http://www.exceluser.com/excel_dashboards/index.htm)