We are living in incredible time, Google give us glasses that can read our email, Apple put an andro-humanoid in our phones, Facebook tag, retag and re re tag everything that moves, tweeter has pretty much eradicated the journalism from the surface of the earth…
The real question is … what are we going to do with all this data… is it enough, too much, why who and when do we need it.. you probably now have 6 to 10 variation of mean of communication with someone…. do you need that many, do you risk to be confused by the flow of information, the abundant means of communication available to you!
This is also a key to good dashboarding solution, and something that good designer need to always keep in mind… LESS is MORE. It’s easy to overload a dashboard with data, it’s easy to provide 15 levels of drill down, well let’s get back to earth, showing information in a concise way that fits most of your audience still remain a challenging task requiring some of your brain power.
As a classic little procedure, I personally make sure I follow the next three steps:
1) Initial thoughts
Don’t limit yourself, put on a paper anything you want to do on your dashboard, and even more. Get ideas from the web, book or any source of inspiration. The aim is to have a good idea on the paper of where you want to get to… you need a goal, something to measure. To achieve this call pill up as many ideas as you want.
Few criteria to define your data: what unit you are collecting ($, count, exceptions, volume in ‘000), what time frame (hourly, daily, monthly, weekly..), do you require any calculation (%, +, -, x…), do you require RAG status, threshold, follow any SOW/SLA (statement of work, service level agreement)…
2) All you can eat …
We are looking at data collection … I always found this quite hard, as the exact data that you need is pretty much never available. That’s where most of your energy will be spent. You need to collate as much as possible and then look for what fit your needs.
During this process of collection, be critical about the data collected and compare different sources… I guarantee that you will have discrepancy. A good choice of source at the start of your project will prevent any rework/re design and waste of energy in the future, it will make your dashboards/reports more sustainable.
Your data need to be available for your required timeframe, up to date, require the least number of adjustment/mapping. If you can’t find this kind of data, start again and adapt your reporting. By focusing on “causes” or “consequences” you can find metrics that are a proxy of what you require.
3) Time for a diet!
This step is when you need to be critical with your own piece of work, and try to think outside the bubble of your own mind … everyone has a colleague that is a bit critical … use their point of view, or try to explain your piece of work to someone totally foreign to your analysis.
- Limit the amount of data you are showing,
- Limit the number of metrics,
- Focus on the most pertinent,
- Think about any duplication,
- Can your dashboard/reports works without some of the metrics you are showing?
The idea of this post is really to make you think … and try to rationalise as much as possible … obviously taking into account your stakeholder requirements.
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