The Dashboard Spy

Dashboard design is often focused on the visual aspects of the project - lots of attention is paid to the selection of graphics and charts, the right colors for the KPI indicator lights, what style the portlets should be, etc. We’ve all been consumed with getting the right level of eye candy correct.

Countless arguments between the business intelligence experts and the graphic artists have occured as to how to style charts for maximum understanding, while satisfying the need for some dashboarding bells and whistles.

Today we focus on a more fundamental challenge of business dashboard design - what do the dashboard users want out of the system?

While digging through my countless links to dashboard whitepapers I came across a chart discussing the questions dashboard users ask:

That graphic is from the pureshare whitepaper on Designing Effective Management Metrics Dashboards. Download the pdf and read through it. It is quite good.

It explains the thinking behind the questions listed above. Let’s quickly summarize:

(note: this is my quick take on the list of dashboard user questions. Read the pdf for their reasoning as well as illustrutive examples)

What am I looking at?  Must use clear labeling to describe the contents of the dashboard.

Is this good or bad?  On the dashboard, you must use standard symbols that clearly indicate if a metric is good news or bad news.

Are things getting better or worse?  You must show trends and comparisons to place the KPIs and metrics in context.

What is being measured and what are the units of measure? Don’t take it for granted. Include all units and label charts and gauges clearly.

What is the target or norm?  Indicate progress towards or away from these goals visually. 

How recent is the data? Timestamp your metrics and summaries.

How can I get more detail? Include “more” links and drill downs to additional data views.

How can I get a broader view? Allow for traversal up the data chain. Pay attention to roll ups and executive level dashboard views.

What do I do with this information? Make the information actionable. Provide links to update or edit screens.

When should I check for an update? Include information about when to expect new data. Allow users to refresh the data.

How do I get metrics that are not on the dashboard? Governance and a release schedule must be part of your planning.

Tags: Dashboard Design, Dashboard Project Planning, User requirements for dashboards, user objectives