BEYOND THE COLORS & FONTS

P R E S E N T E D BY A LC H E M Y 5 0

1 5 - M A Y - 2 0 1 4

C R E A T I N G G R E A T D A S H B O A R D S

T O D A Y ’ S S P E A K E R S

Ryan AndersonFounder & Creative Director

Mark LockwoodProduct Marketing Manager

ALCHEMY50

F O U N D E D I N 2 0 1 0

Alchemy50 is an award winning application studio located in NYC.

We are experts in user experience and analytical applications.

A L C H E M Y 5 0 S P E C I A L I Z E S I N :

P R O D U C T S T R AT E GY

CO N C E P T UA L D E S I G N

P R OTOT Y P I N G

U I / U X

W I R E - F R A M I N G

B R A N D I N G

H T M L / C S S

M O B I L E D E V E LO P M E N T

G R A P H I C D E S I G N

DATA V I S UA L I Z AT I O N

C R E A T I N G E F F E C T I V E D A S H B O A R D S

1 . D E F I N E T H E P U R P O S E

What is a dashboard and why create one?

Dashboards are data visualizations meant to answer a

series of questions in a clear, concise manner.

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Why are dashboards important?

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There is too much information to efficiently analyze without visualization

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Dashboards inform your audience with strategic insights to run their

business or organization

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People’s time is precious, if your dashboard is not effective, they’ll

go back to excel :(

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Value - Is it useful? Usability - Is it easy to use?

Adoptability - Is it easy to get started? Desirability - Is it engaging?

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But what if i don’t know the

questions?

Your must engage your audience

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2 . E N G A G E T H E A U D I E N C E

Get your audience involved early on, make sure they understand the task and why it’s important.

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Define each question and the information that will answer those questions.

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Map out the workflow for each view - ensure the right pieces are present to answer the question.

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Create diagrams so that your audience and team can see what you are looking to build, analyze

the flow

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If you make a mistake in the flow, now is the time to change it - gets harder the farther you go

with errors.

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What if you can’t engage your audience?

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Learn as much about them, review similar initiatives, send things past them anyway, speak with similar people

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Continually share the status

and where you’re at with

your thinking

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3 . B E G I N L A Y O U T … O N P A P E R

Once you’ve engaged your audience, understand what they

need, and mapped the information, you can begin

wireframe mockups

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Know the grid.

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The use of a Grid will help visual digestion of information

Form vs. Chaos

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Pick the right grid…based on your audience

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take into account the devices your dashboard will be viewed from

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Don’t worry about the components themselves, focus on the visual

structure your dashboards

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Make sure elements that are needed to answer the question are present

in each view

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Circulate wireframes back to your audience -

!

“A picture is worth a 1,000 words!”

4 . S E L E C T T H E R I G H T C O M P O N E N T S

You can do the first steps correctly and still mess up this part…

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Don’t pick components based on “how cool they look”

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Components have a specific purpose, select the right one

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Follow your brand guidelines for color and limit the number of colors and graphical elements

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The difference between goodand bad dashboards…

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!

• Know why you’re building a dashboard • Engage your audience • Keep your audience involved by iterating through process • Use the grid • Pair up the right components with the data • Leave off unnecessary elements • Make sure your dashboard answers the questions!

I N S U M M A R Y

F O R M O R E I N F O R M A T I O N

salesteam@logianalytics.com

www.logianalytics.com/start-your-free-trial

S I G N - U P F O R F R E E T R I A L

ALCHEMY50

www.alchemy50.com