FEATURES
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
GORGEOUS
DASHBOARDS
The range of possible formats for data display can be bewildering. Yet it
need not be. In the following extended review, Jonathan Teller focuses
on a recent book* which gets to the heart of how to present the
maximum information as effectively as possible.
The many tools now available for presenting accounting
and performance data in formats other than tables of
numbers give us multiple dilemmas. We may want to use
graphs, but which graph type is the most appropriate?
How should it be laid out? Should we use colour, 3D etc?
The decisions become even more complex when we
want to create a dashboard - something built for the
purpose of presenting several pieces of information using
different graphs, all on one screen, with possibly
overlapping messages.
Fortunately Stephen Fews book, Information Dashboard
Design Effective Visual Communication of Data, is a
gorgeous but practical guide to producing dashboards
that convey a lot of information as quickly as possible. (The
book follows on from Fews earlier books and from those of
Edward Tuffte, starting with the latters The Visual Display of
Quantitative Information.)
Information Dashboard gives plenty of examples to
illustrate both good and bad practice, with particular
emphasis on the latter: learning from the poor examples
may well be the best way! The illustrations also provide
some really useful ideas on how information can be
presented to maximum effect.
DASHBOARDS DEFINED
So what exactly is an information dashboard? The business
intelligence software industry has used the term to convey
Jonathan Teller is a member of the faculty
committee.
[email protected]FINANCE & MANAGEMENT June 2010
the idea that it is possible to drive an organisation in the
same way that it is possible to drive a car, with key
performance indicators (KPIs) allowing the organisation to
make the constant adjustments needed for a successful
journey.
Stephen Fews own definition is: A visual display of the
most important information needed to achieve one or
more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single
screen so the information can be monitored at a glance.
* Information
Dashboard
Design
Effective Visual
Communication
of Data, by
Stephen Few,
published by
OReilly, ISBN:
0-596-10016-7
THIRTEEN COMMON DASHBOARD DESIGN MISTAKES
One particularly useful part of the books advice is an
exploration of common dashboard design mistakes (many
of which also have a more general relevance to charting).
Some frequent mistakes are as listed below.
1. Exceeding the boundaries of a single screen
The objective of the dashboard is to present data at a
glance: if the display needs either scrolling or switching
between two or more pages then that objective is
compromised. The viewer needs to focus on the
information being provided before reaching for the mouse.
2. Supplying inadequate context for the data
Numbers need a context. For example, the year to date
sales data is much more useful if accompanied by
information about targets, previous year or trends.
3. Displaying excessive detail or precision
Numbers often only need to be shown to the nearest
thousand or million. Displaying a multi-million figure to
two decimal places will just distract the viewer, make the
number harder to absorb, and reduce the time available
for considering the datas implication.
11
4. Choosing a deficient measure
The viewer should not have to carry out calculations to
understand the meaning of the information. The example
used in the book is a graph that compares actual and
budget revenues. The viewer really wants to know the
variance. This can be calculated from the graph but it
could be explicitly shown as, say, the budget as a base line
and actual as a % variance. Thought needs to be given to
the viewers needs.
5. Choosing inappropriate display media
Fews message here is that it is very easy to choose the
wrong format for displaying data. A pie chart might look
impressive but often struggles to present information
accurately and quickly. A bar chart could present the same
data and allow the viewer to understand the data with one
glance. Sometimes a table of text is at least as effective as a
graph. (It is worth noting, here, that Few has written
another book, Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tales and
Graphs to Enlighten, which considers graph types and their
appropriate purpose in more detail.)
6. Introducing meaningless variety
Striving for variety in the types of graph used can be a
mistake. Such variety means the viewer then has to work
hard just to understand the layout of the alternative
designs, when their effort would be better directed at
understanding the data being displayed. Although using
the same graph type for several separate items might
appear boring, the data will be more effectively displayed
as a result.
7. Using poorly designed display media
This builds on the earlier common mistake of choosing
inappropriate display media, ie using the wrong graph
type. That particular fault is often further compounded by
poor design eg poor layout, colours that are too bright,
the needless use of colours that do not convey additional
information, 3D graphs that end up hiding some of the
results, and the unnecessary use of grid lines.All of these
and more are down to our lack of training in design. This is
an issue that the book attempts to correct in subsequent
chapters.
8. Encoding quantitative data inaccurately
The clearest example of this is when the base line for a
chart should be zero but instead starts at a value that is
nearer the lowest value being compared. This can
exaggerate the relative difference between the values
being displayed, giving the wrong impression.
FIGURE 1 AN ILLUSTRATED BULLET GRAPH
Background shades indicate qualitative
ranges like bad, satisfactory and good
Text label
Profit
0%
Performance measure
12
10%
Quantitative scale
9. Arranging data poorly
Important data ought to be prominent. Data that is to be
compared needs to be arranged to encourage comparison.
The most important area on the screen is the top left
hand corner. However this is frequently used for logos and
messages rather than displaying the most important data.
(A later chapter in the book also explains that the eye and
the brain can delineate areas on the screen, so bright
prominent headings are unnecessary and detract from
viewing the actual data.)
10. Highlighting important data ineffectively or not at
all
This is a variation on the poor design mistake. Either all
data is displayed with equal prominence so that the most
important value has to be searched for; or peripheral
aspects of the dashboard, such as control buttons, are
given more prominence than the data.
11. Cluttering the display with useless decoration
Logos have already been criticised, for their tendency to
occupy the important top left hand corner of the screen.
Other unnecessary elements include spirals (to make the
screen look like a page in a book), watermarks and other
decorations. The recommendation is to limit the contents
of the screen to items that have direct relevance to the
data being displayed.
12. Misusing or overusing colour
Colour use must be carefully thought through. It needs to
be meaningful (if it is to be used at all), while not
disadvantaging those who are colour-blind.
13. Designing an unattractive visual display
Fundamentally the display needs to be attractive so that it
will encourage the viewer to read it on a regular basis.
SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY
Having highlighted what not to do, Few offers some tips
for successful dashboard design. Principal among these is
to keep things simple. On this score, some of his key
general suggestions for dashboard design include:
aim to minimise everything that is displayed. For
example the use of Gestalt concepts* means that lines
used as borders or separators can often be left out. Keep
non-data pixels to a minimum;
as a rule, summarise data: only present or highlight the
exceptions; and
create dashboards for their specific audience. Viewers
need only to see their relevant data. There is no gain in
using sophisticated tools such as linear correlation
coefficients if they do not understand them.
SPARKLINES AND BULLET GRAPHS
A chapter on effective display media considers the many
elements that can make up a dashboard (including
several graph types) and how they should be used. Two
less well known graph types are sparklines and bullet
graphs.
20%
Comparative measure
* These relate to our innate tendency to simplify
multiple inputs into a whole that is more meaningful
than the sum of its parts.
icaew.com/fmfac
FEATURES
FIGURE 2 SALES DASHBOARD
Key metrics YTD
Metric
Poor
( Actual
Market share
Satisfactory Good )
Actual as % of target
Trend
Actual
Company
Company 1
Revenue
900,000
Profit
190,000
Company 2
Avg order size
5,000
Our Company
On time delivery
90%
Company 4
New customers
1,200
Company 5
Cust satisfaction
4.5/5
Company 6
Market share
20%
Company 7
0%
50%
100%
Revenue YTD
150%
( Actual
Region
0%
Target )
Revenue QTD (
% of
Actual total
Actual vs target
% of total market
5%
10% 15% 20% 25%
Actual Target, pipeline: 90%
75% )
% of
Actual total
Actual vs target
Region 1
240,000
28
47,000
25
Region 2
200,000
24
45,000
24
Region 3
190,000
22
40,000
21
Region 4
120,000
14
32,000
18
Region 5
100,000
12
21,000
12
50
100
150
(1,000s)
Product sales YTD
200
250
( Revenue
Units
(Revenue, in 1,000s)
0
25
50
75
100
Target )
10
20
30 40
(1,000s)
50
60
70
Top 10 customers in the pipeline (revenue)
Revenue
125
Customer
Pipeline
QTD
YTD
Company 1
25,000
33,000
130,000
42,000
150
Product 1
150,000
Company 2
15,000
12,000
Product 2
120,000
Company 3
15,000
10,000
40,000
Product 3
100,000
Company 4
11,000
28,000
120,000
Product 4
60,000
Company 5
10,000
16,000
80,000
Company 6
10,000
9,000
25,000
Company 7
8,000
11,000
38,000
Company 8
6,000
10,000
40,000
Company 9
5,000
22,000
90,000
10
Company 10
4,000
9,000
18,000
Product 5
30,000
0
Denotes the key items for
users to highlight
50
100
150
(Units sold, in 100s)
200
250
Note: this dashboard has been created by F&M, based
on Fews concept.
Sparklines were introduced by Tuffte and are intended to
sit alongside numbers in a table providing trend
information (as in Key metrics YTD in Figure 2, above). In
a spreadsheet they might appear in the cells adjacent to a
column of numbers giving an instant feel for the trends for
each of the numbers.
Bullet graphs are Fews own invention and are intended
to encapsulate a number of pieces of information about a
measure in a neat package that starts as a sophisticated
bar. See Figure 1, opposite.
FINALLY THE GOOD AND THE BAD
In the last chapter Few brings much of the book together
by presenting several examples and critiquing them. One
such example is a sales dashboard designed by him and
similar to the one we have created in Figure 2.
Note the following points about the dashboards design:
minimal use of colour;
most important information shown in the most
prominent area, ie the upper left quadrant;
multiple bullet graphs allow the display of a great deal of
information in a condensed form;
FINANCE & MANAGEMENT June 2010
text in a table is legitimate;
white space used to delineate and group data; and
hardly any unnecessary clutter such as instructions and
descriptions that will not be needed for regular users.
FINANCE & MANAGEMENT FACULTY
This article was first published in Finance &
Management, the monthly magazine of ICAEWs
Finance & Management Faculty. The faculty helps
members in business to perform at their best. For
more information on the benefits of membership
see icaew.com/fmjoin
Copyright ICAEW 2010
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