DashboardingChris Sietsema
March 1, 2010
What We Will Discuss
• Visual Design
• Technology
• Maintaining & Delivering Value
Why Use Dashboards?
• Organize Important Information…for speedy interpretation
• Make Decisions Easier
• Maintain / Increase Client Confidence
A Common Issue
• Are you satisfied with your current approach to measurement?
ISITE Design 2010 Web Strategy ReportSurvey of 268 Organizations
Not More Data.Rather, The Right Data.
Three Elements
1. Visual Display
Three Elements
2. Single Page / Screen
Three Elements
3. Most Important Info
Dashboards Can Also Be…
• Bi-Directional
• Alert Generating
• Always On & Online
Common Problems
Too Much
Poor DisplayPoor Display
Poor or Confusing Math
The Human Brain
Short Term Memory
• One Screen, No Scrolling
7 ± 2
Visual Encoding
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS
Visual Encoding
HOW MANY
F’S
Visual Encoding
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS
Visual Encoding
Careful Balance
PrettyINFORMATIVE
The Dashboard is a Utility,Not a Piece of Art.
Placement & Orientation
1 .1 .2 ^
2 ^
2 2
3 311
Creating Your Dashboard
What’s the Goal?
• Corporate– What is the business objective?– “We Need to Accomplish X”
• Personal– How is your primary contact measured?– “If we do Y, I get a bonus!”
Beware of HiPPOsBeware of HiPPOs
“Highest Paid Person’s Opinion”
Avinash Kaushik – Occam’s Razor
Select Metrics Carefully
Transactions
Traffic
Bounce Rate
Clickthrough Rate
Sentiment
Revenue per Recipient
AOV
Sales Revenue
Cost Per Lead
Market Share
Top 10 Products
Most Productive Keywords
Focus on The Finish Line
Assign the Appropriate Display
Bar Graphs
• Multiple measure comparison• Allows for clear visual comparison of data• Nominal, Ordinal & Interval comparisons
Bar Graphs
• Stacked bars allow for contrast between parts of a whole
• Requires less real estate than pie charts• Example above is an ordinal comparison
Line Graphs
• Show historical data• Greater detail than bar graph for timelines• Displays movement of data
Bullet Graphs
• Actual vs. Target Measurements
• Key measures can be compared
• Saves space while conveying the point
• Many prefer to gauges
• http://bit.ly/bulletgraph
Scatter Plots
• Defines correlations between data sets• Helps answer the question, “is there a
relationship between these values?”
Choose Your ToolChoose Your Tool
Tools
• Google Analytics Custom Reports
Tools
• Off the Shelf Tools
Tools
• Off the Shelf Tools
Tools
You don’t have to be a
Tools
• Google Charts (requires developer)
Final Steps
1. Create
2. Maintain
3. Get Feedback
4. Continuously Improve
Questions?
• Chris Sietsema
• @sietsema• linkedin.com/in/sietsema• 480.389.5435
Slide-ography
• 6 | Owl - EraPhernalia Vintage on flickr Creative Commons• 5 | Television – dailyinvention on flickr Creative Commons• 8 | Important Bench – Valerie Everett on flickr Creative Commons• 10 | Sample Dashboard from Information Dashboard Design by Stephen Few• 11 | Pm5d mixing board from Yamaha Audio• 12 | Crayon Drawing – mpclemens on flickr Creative Commons• 13 | Sequent calculus for classical linear logic on Wikimedia Commons• 14 | Brain – perpetualplum on flickr Creative Commons• 20 | Scale of Justice on Wikimedia Commons• 23 | VW Dashboard – jepoirrier on flickr Creative Commons• 25 | Hippo – Giles Douglas on flickr Creative Commons• 27 | Checkered Flag – tharrin on flickr Creative Commons• 34 | Tools – denise carbonell on flickr Creative Commons• 36 | Olympic Dashboard – iDashboards• 37 | Product Tour Dashboards – Tableau Software• 40 | Sample Dashboard from GilliganOnData.com