the art of dashboarding - dapresy.com

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Whatwecallthe‘art’ofdashboardcreationsitsattheintersectionofthesethreedisciplines,andiswhatthisarticleanditssequel(nextmonth)willuncover,byspeakingwiththreeofDapresy’smostexperienceddashboardspecialists:SebastianÖhgren(ClientOperationsManager),FredrikÖsterberg(GeneralManager,Europe),andAlexanderSkorka(ChiefOperatingOfficer).

In part one, we look at the process ofdefining the data dashboard, decidingwhatshouldgo into it,andsomeofthetechniques used to bring it to life.According to Fredrik Österberg,identifyingtheaudienceandthepurposefor which they want to use thedashboardisoneofthemostimportantparts of the dashboard designprocess. He explains: “For example, inanyorganisation,onelargeusergroupisoftenmanagementandtheywillusethedashboard to get a quick overview.”

Fredrik continues: “Another groupcould be the sales team. In this casethey may need something moreexploratory, itmaynotneed tobeasvisually appealing, but it couldprovidesomecompetitor intelligencefrom surveys. Then the marketingdepartment will want to know theoutcomesofcampaignsandthereturnoninvestment.Soevenifthesourceofdataisthesame,therewillbedifferentpeoplethatwillusethedashboardindifferent ways and that is what youhavetodefinefirst.”

Part1:DefiningandDesigningtheDataDashboard

Thereisjustasmuchartassciencethatgoesintocreatingadatadashboard.Awell-constructeddashboardalwayssitsinthecentreofatriangleofcomplementarydisciplines,unitingdatascience,graphicdesignandbusinessconsulting.

TheArtofDataDashboarding

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IdentifyingtheAudience

SebastianÖhgrenadds,“Itmaybethatattheearlystagesyoudon’tnecessarilyknowwhat[theusers’]needswillbe,andevenifyoudo,thatstillmightchangeduringtheprocessofdeveloping the dashboard. If there aredifferent user groups using the same data,weneedtoseeiftheirusesalignandmaybewecanbuildsomethingthatcoversbothsetsof needs, or it may be that they arecompletely different,” and that could resultin different views being provided, or evendifferentdatadashboards.

AnotherusefulstartingpointforSebastianisto look carefully at the questions in thesurvey,andunderstandwhatthepurposeofthesurveywas.Hecontinues:“Itcouldoftenbe that different groups of questions aretheretoservetheneedsofdifferentgroupsofusers.”Sebastianhasworkedwithclientswhohavebeenveryclearaboutwhattheirgoals are, and understood the differentgroups and their use cases from thebeginning.Ontheotherhand,hesays,“someofourclientsjustsaytoustheywouldliketovisualisethispartofasurvey,andyouthenneed to work harder to get thatunderstanding.Butwehavealargelibraryofdashboards already created, and we alsohaveanunderstandingofwhatmightwork,so we can then come up with somesuggestionsandexamplesforthemtosee.”

For Sebastian, it is essential that groups ofusersshouldgettoseeaworkingprototypeearly, as this will then help them tounderstandwhetherthedashboardisgoingtoprovidewhattheywant,orifitneedstoberefined further. He favours this kind ofiterative development where possible,moving from example to a workingprototype,andthenseekingsuggestionsonwhattoimprove.

Again, experiences and timescales indifferentorganisations canvarywidely.Hereports that some complex multi-audiencedashboardshavecycledaroundthisprocessthreeoffourtimesoverasixmonthperiod,whileothersimpleroneshavegonestraightfromwireframe (anoutline designwithoutanystylingapplied)intoproductioninjustafewdays.

Teasing out all of the use cases seems tohappenbestwhenitisaco-creationactivity,and users have the opportunity to makesuggestions both before and after a newversion is provided to them. Ideas oftenevolve,reportsSebastian.“Sometimeshowitendsupcanbeverydifferentfromthewayitwasimaginedfromthestart,”hesays.“Therecould be a series of small changes, butsometimeswecompletelychangedirection.Drasticchangesarerare,butitdoeshappen.”

-SebastianÖhgren

“If there are different user groups using the same

data, we need to see if their uses align and maybe we can build something that

covers both sets…”

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CommonPurposes

Thereareseveraloverallpurposesthatveryoften occur with business dashboards.Thoughmanyorganisationsorteamswithinthem can have very specific purposes inaccessing the data, here are some of thosethataremorewidelyfound:

Overview – To providemanagers, possiblyseniormanagers,withaninstantsnapshotofwhat’shappeninginthecompany.

Comparative – To show currentperformanceagainsttargets,benchmarksorpastperformance.ThiscanresultinaclassicKPI data dashboard, or against data pointsfrom different sources. Dashboards thatshow trends can also be consideredcomparative in their nature, as they arecomparing the current set of data withpreviousperiods.

Exploratory – Some groups of users willwant to explore data in depth, to answerquestions or do research (such as thedashboard of sales prospects Fredrikmentionedearlier).

Explanatory – As an extension to theoverview or performance dashboard, it isoften not enough to simply knowwhat hashappened,buttotrytounderstandwhy.Thiscan be provided by organizing the data sousers can drill down to see moreobservationsaroundwhatishappeningandwhat may be influencing or causing anyrecentchanges.

However, these are not discrete categories,and one dashboard may include elementsthat meet more than one purpose, or areorganised in such a way that differentregionsofthedashboardmovetheobserverfrom one purpose (e.g. an overview) toanother(e.g.explanatory).

DevelopingtheRightVisualLanguage

HegivestheexampleofaclassicBusinessIntelligence (BI) dashboard that maypresenta lot of charts sideby side. “ABIdashboard [Figure 1] can be veryinformative,” he says, “but to findout thereason why you are below target thatmonth, you have to go through all thecharts and really understand how thedifferentmetricsaffect each other. Inourversion [Figure 2] of this we use visualindicatorstomakeitverycleartotheuserwhat the problem is and then provide aclear visual path to the root cause of theproblem. This also makes it easier forpersonsthatarenotusedtoworkingwithdata to understand what actions theyshouldtaketomakeanimprovement.”

”Asacompany,weareallaboutvisualdesign,”says

Fredrik.“Definitely,onepurposeofusinggraphicsistomake[presentingdata]more

engagingandfun.Wehaveoftenseenthiswhendashboardsgetusedmorebecausetheyare

visuallyappealing.”Forhim,theotherpurposeisthat“youcanpresentthedatasoitisclearer

totheuser.”- FredrikÖsterberg

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Figure2:ThesameinformationpresentedinaDapresystorytellingdashboardusingvisualelementstoleadtheviewerthroughfromunderstandingtotakingaction

For Sebastian, the starting place in decidinghowtovisualise the data isworkingout theprioritiesfortheuser.Heexplains:“IfthereisaKPIthatismoreimportantthantheothers,thenthatshoulddrawyourattentionmore.

“Checkifthereisanylearnedvisualcommunicationalreadyinplaceintheorganization.Don’treinventthewheelifyoucanusethevisualvocabularythetargetgrouphasalreadylearnedandis

familiarwith.”

Thatneedstogoatthetop,inthemiddle.Ifit’saverybusypage,thenwhat’simportantneedstobevisuallybigger.”AlexanderSkorkasays thatdoingsomeresearchintowhattargetusersarealreadyfamiliarwithcanpaydividends.

Figure1:AtraditionalBusinessIntelligenceDashboardshowingacollectionofseparatecharts.

- AlexanderSkorka

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Startoutwiththefamiliar

This can apply to choosing the chart: “bar,column and pie charts are still the mostpowerfulvisualizationsbecausetheyarewellknown and easy for most people tounderstand,” Alexander notes. Using anappropriatevisualvocabularycanalsoapplytothechoiceofcoloursandshapes.Hecautions:“use learned colour schemes, e.g. red fornegative,green forpositive,anddonotmakeyourvisualstoocolorful.Trytohelptheusertoorient him- or herself by applying colourcautiously.”

He also stresses the need for keepingvisualisation simple and purposeful.“Visualisation is about comparing things likerank, frequency, structure, correlation or theeffectoftime.Choosewhatthemostrelevantcomparison to show is and do not try tovisualise several dimensions in one visual.People will struggle with complex visuallanguage, so keep it simple. Choose anappropriate chart type and focus on thatpreferredcomparison.”

Alexanderalsospeaksoftheneedtoestablishan information hierarchy and identify therelativeimportanceofdifferent itemsofdata,astheywillappeartotheenduser.Heobservesthat many people in research start with thepremisethattheyneedtopresenteverything.He explains: “Instead, try to find the rightbalance between comprehensiveness andcompellingvisualisation.Letgooftheideathatyoumustshowallthefigures,andinsteadtrytofocusonthemostrelevantinformation.Itisalways possible to provide more detailsthrough drill-down, or even self-servicecomponentsaccessedfromthedashboardsuchasacross-tabulationtool.”Sebastian Öhgren considers that the visuallanguageadoptedbythedashboardmustalsoreflect the culture of the organisation andsometimes the local culture of the countrywheretheorganisationoperates.

What’sComingNext?Inparttwo,wewillhearwhatourexpertsdotoensurethatthedashboardgetsused,anddeliversonitspromisetodrivechangeandactionacrosstheorganisationadoptingit.Wewillalsolookintohowtomakedashboardsworkjustassuccessfullyforadhocorone-offprojects.

“Theportalneedstolookasifitistheorganization’sownthing.

Theymaynothaveinfographicalelementsontheircorporatewebsite,butyoucanstillusethecoloursandapplysomeofthegraphicsinthe

background…Thebestthingistogetdesignguidelinesfromtheclientandtrytomakeit

similartotheirownbranding.”