 |
| CLICK TO VIEW DASHBOARDS |
Steve Wexler http://www.datarevelations.com/hey-your-tableau-public-viz-sucks-revisited.html
Peter Gilks http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/blog/2013/10/peter-gilks-skyscrapers-new-york-2162
Ryan Sleeper http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/blog/2013/10/leveraging-color-improve-your-data-visualization-2174
Jewel Loree http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/blog/2013/10/choosing-colors-accessibility-2180
Ryan Robilite http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/blog/2013/10/communicating-ideas-if-content-king-then-context-god-2198
Anya A'Hearn http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/blog/2013/10/design-your-data-viz-product-designer-2195
Designers in the wild http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/blog/2013/10/your-tableau-design-tips-2200
Ben Jones (2012) http://dataremixed.com/2012/05/data-visualization-clarity-or-aesthetics/
Below is a copy of an original post that I did for Tableau's Design Month.
Dashboard Layout & Design
You've connected to your data – analyzed the heck out of it
- made 67 charts – now what? How do you
get all that information into a dashboard?
Making a dashboard in Tableau can be so technically easy (just drag and
drop), but then you discover that it can also be very difficult to make a meaningful dashboard. Tableau’s ease of use does a lot of the work
for you, but there are many interconnected pieces and decisions that go into a
well-designed dashboard.
To begin with, the layout of your dashboard is dependent on
what its purpose is, who will be using it and how they will be using it. This
basic table illustrates just a few of the possible combinations of factors that
need to be considered when building your dashboard. JuiceAnalytics provides a great guide for dashboard design that details
requirements for interactive dashboards.
Type
|
Purpose
|
Role
|
Mode
|
Use
|
Skill level
|
Business
|
Strategic
|
Sr Executive
|
Laptop/pc
|
Web
|
Advanced
|
(private)
|
Operational
|
Management
|
Tablet
|
Server
|
Intermediate
|
Analytic/Investigative
|
Front Line
|
Phone
|
Desktop
|
Beginner
|
|
Web
|
Exploratory
|
Analysts
|
Reader
|
No access
|
|
(public)
|
Explanatory
|
Public
|
Pdf
|
||
Slides
|
|||||
Excel
|
Bad dashboards are cases where good information is being
ignored because the user is being confused or abused. This is where beauty comes in. Not pretty, not cool, but beautiful. Beauty is meaningful design. There’s a lot of debate out there regarding
beauty over substance, but for me, a dashboard isn't beautiful because it’s
cool looking or colorful; it’s beautiful if it is designed in a way that
optimizes the users ability to take in the information. Are there hard fast rules to follow? Do this, then this, then this…? Not really.
It’s a combination of best practices and creativity, of laying out your
story and managing the interplay between simplicity, clarity and efficiency.
Simplicity
When the user is presented with the dashboard it should be easily
understood at a glance and not
overwhelm. Think of the first time you
were presented with a Rubik’s Cube. Its
simple design is not off putting even though it is a complex puzzle. Each piece should have a good reason for
being on the dashboard. This dashboard has a lot of information (16 views) on
it and yet it doesn't overwhelm.
The
grid or columnar layout is particularly useful for exploratory and scorecard
dashboards that display a lot of measures and provide the user with many filter
options. To maintain simplicity there is
only one font type (Arial), a limited color palette, no data labels or mark
shapes, and the filters are arranged in a column. The detailed information is available to the
user in the tool-tip.
 |
| Dashboard Grid |
Clarity
Our
minds seek harmony and balance. A dashboard should be laid out in a balanced
way. For example, the upper left corner
is where our minds think ‘this is important’ or ‘start here’. The most important items should have
prominence. The order, sizing and grouping of elements goes from overview (big
picture) to detail.
While grid or columnar presentations are most logical and
easy to balance, freeform dashboards can be much better for storytelling. The golden ratio is most helpful in achieving
balance on this kind of dashboard. Use
it as a general guide. You don’t need to
rigidly calculate the size of each view or place them exactly according the
dimensions of the golden ratio.
This freeform dashboard presents much more detailed information at a glance, but the large map lets users know where to start and the detailed information is clutter free and not overwhelming.
 |
| Dashboard Freeform |
Efficiency
No one gets excited when presented with a page of numbers in
a meeting. Usually it’s met with dread
or fear. We've all experienced the
feeling of ‘this means work, I’m going to need caffeine, lots and lots of
caffeine’. The same reaction can happen
with an overwhelming dashboard. And
while it might be possible to walk a team through the dashboard in a meeting,
it’s pretty likely that very few will open it or use it on their own if they
think it’s going to require work or intense concentration. Aim for minimal complexity and maximum ease
of use. I particularly like the hover
filter action in Tableau. It’s kind of trick. People are likely to accidentally filter or
filter without having to make a decision while they are getting the hang of the
dashboard.
This dashboard has a fairly busy looking rank chart as the
prominent piece of information. To make
it easier to use, there is only one hover filter and two columns of
information. The second column displays
the text results from the chart making it easy for the user to instantly read
the information. The
bubble chart presents at a glance results through the use of color and
size. Further down, the reader can see
more detailed information, which also uses color to highlight negative values.
 |
| Dashboard Column |
Balancing simplicity, clarity and efficiency when building a
dashboard is not an easy task and often requires many iterations. Take a look at the NYT design process at Chartsn Things. This is where an editor is
invaluable. I have a few that will
review for me, but one that I can count on to attack my dashboards. She tries to break them and she lets me know
what isn't working or what didn't make sense. And yes, sometimes I do things for design that
are not necessarily best practices for displays of analysis. I have added a green chart for no good reason
other than it provided balance to the other colors on the dashboard.
The web is full of bad dashboards. Google "dashboard"
images. Now, don’t ever do that
again. I would estimate that 99.9% of
those pictures are from vendors selling bad design or other people creating
dashboards based on vendor’s bad design.
If you want to learn about dashboard design I’d recommend starting with
the writings of StephenFew and Alberto Cairo. Stephen and
Alberto have taught me to pay attention to not only the analysis, but the
principles of perception and storytelling. Tableau Public authors (too many to
mention here) and Web designers are
also a great source inspiration, particularly for dashboard design and interactivity.
Here are a few helpful don'ts from Mr. Few on dashboard layout:
- Positioning content in places that don’t fit its importance
- Positioning content in places that fail to support its use
- Including items that serve no useful purpose
- Sizing content larger than it deserves
- Separating content excessively
- Visually featuring content and other items more than they deserve
- Failing to visually link contents and other items that are related
- Visually suggesting links between contents that are not related
- Enforcing a rigid symmetrical grid
My last bit of advice for designing beautiful
dashboards? Do something creative. Organize your books by color, take an online drawing class, doodle, sing, or
daydream. Allow yourself to be playful
and even a little goofy. Cheers!