Juice Analytics

Dashboards can be dull. Four or six charts laid out in a grid. All data, no explanation or logical flow. In our white paper on dashboard design (PDF), I got a little perturbed at this model because it offers so little guidance to the reader.

In hopes of sparking some new thinking, here are a half-dozen dashboards that demonstrate innovative designs and features.

1. ThinkUp: Dashboard as News Feed

This clever social media dashboard focuses on the changes and news-worth data updates. Each timeline element that flows down the page can be expanded to show details that supports the headlines.

2. SumAll: Trends, annotations, and goals

SumAll’s recently released tool for trended business data is beautiful in its execution. The interface puts multiple metrics on the same chart to make it easy to see how trends correlate to each other (even though they are on different scale). SumAll does a nice job with allowing user-created comments, setting goals, and anticipating how users will want to read the data. If you design dashboards, it is worth signing up to absorb some of the nice design touches.

3. AppFirst DevOps Dashboard: Key metric trends and thresholds

This dashboard is a more traditional real-time operations dashboard. It shows all the key metrics together along with trends relative to goals.  AppFirst has some nice features that you can see in the video including 1) dropping metrics one on top of another to see correlated trends and, 2) “smart thresholds” to highlight points in the historical trends when the metric fell out of an acceptable range.

4. Analysis-One: Creative layout for easy comprehension

Many stoplight-style dashboards can be jarring to look at. This radial approach provides the high-level performance warnings in a subtle and pleasing way.

5. Square: Filtering

Mike Bostock of D3.js fame is the brains behind this dashboard for Square’s retail sales. He used his Crossfilter approach for super simple and fluid filtering.

6. Tweetping and Tron, the Movie show us dashboards of the future.

If you want to build a dashboard with a style that will still work 20 years from now, check out the dark backgrounds, tiny fonts, and animation in these dashboards.

Tweetping

Tron Dashboard

If you’re interested in more well-designed dashboards, Quora has a good discussion on the topic here.

Is the Score or the Rainbow More Memorable?

A cool afternoon rain was the only thing damper than the spirits of the 12-year-olds who shuffled off the field. With the score still lit up on the wooden scoreboard, the coaches yelled to the boys as they struggled to lift their heads so they might catch a glimpse of a rainbow as it rose from the fence in front of them.

The players of both the winning and losing teams stood there on the wet, steamy grass, frozen in place, in awe of the sight of a rainbow that mystically appeared as if painted on the sky just for them to see. For them, it was an atta boy, pat on the back, a perfect way to wrap up a hard fought double header in which the score had not quite represented the effort that the losing team had given, where the stats failed to tell the tale that brought these two teams together on the hallowed Cooperstown soil.

That’s the thing about numbers. When left to their own devices, they can feel as cold as digits on a lonely scoreboard. They say nothing of the teams who trained for months, played together game after game, relinquished their Saturdays and played nearly perfect seasons just to get to the tournament.

Numbers alone tell us nothing of context. When we have something particularly meaningful to say, images help us share it best. Dashboards and data visualizations bring to life presentations in which we can engage in two-way conversations with our audience making the story around our data more memorable, impactful and effective than any spreadsheet or table of numbers we can put in front of them.

What will your audience remember? The numbers, the final score? Share visually, and they will remember the rainbow and the sunshine that most certainly will follow.

Special thanks to Peter Bielan, my significant other, for inspiring this blog by sharing this photo that he shot during his son’s baseball team pilgrimage to Cooperstown, NY this week.  

Most dashboards just talk and don’t listen. Have you ever been in a “conversation” with someone and they talk 90% of the time. They ask you a question and while you’re 15 seconds into answering they interrupt and starting offloading their mountains of insight. It’s mostly about them. And their consideration for you? Not so much.

That is what most dashboards do. Blah, blah, blah. What if…

What if the information presentations we interacted with actually acknowledged who they’re talking to, listened more, and talked less? What if we were to replace the focus on data with a conversation and a way of working out the complexities of data between two or more people.

To do this properly, think about what a “good conversation” is. Here are a few characteristics we came up with:

• The people have similar experience around a topic; so they know what they’re talking about, but because every person is unique, they’ve gathered unique insight that can be shared. The varying, educated perspective keeps the conversation interesting.
• The one doesn’t overly interrupt the other. Sure there may be reasons to interrupt here and there, but, if interruption is the norm, it quickly gets as annoying (and rude) as your cable news political analyst.
• There is a sense of genuine care for what the other person is saying because, well… there is a genuine sense for what the other person is saying. Too often people get caught up in the “tricks” of networking and small talk and “the hook.” What if people actually respond to what’s genuine?
• Distractions are minimal. One person isn’t constantly checking their phone or entertaining other interests. People are very adept at sensing interest. They do this by reading you: body language, eyes, word usage, how you breathe, pace of speech, and inflection to name a few. If you are actually interested in hearing what another else has to say, they will know.
• You trust the other person. There is an assumed authenticity about each other. This is slow to build and easy to break.

So there’s a few qualities of good conversation, but why? People don’t often stop to think about why they enjoy good conversation. Let’s look at the benefits:

• Your perspective is sharpened. You don’t have to live through the same experience the other person did in order to benefit from their insight. That is, if you trust what they are saying. This is a big time saver! Imagine if no one acted on anything but personally experienced information. You may know some people like that. They flounder, spending more time re-discovering rather than benefiting.
• Your momentum is accelerated. Good conversations with trustworthy friends or experts is one of the biggest ways we overcome obstacles and keep momentum in life.
• A dependable relationship is formed. You know if you ever want to talk about “x” topic again, where to turn. As the trust is built in that conversation, you are also setting this person as someone you can turn for solid footing when future steps are required.
• Great conversations lighten your burden. Joking isn’t trivial, in fact, some the most serious conversations benefit from humor. It promotes an open mind and releases misplaced pressure over circumstances.

Now, why is a designer at a visualization, dashboarding, software company talking about all these warm fuzzies?! Presenting information is about people. We’re adamant about that at Juice. We’ve been focusing on what people actually want out of their data for a long time. Why? Because it’s a hole in the market and it’s fundamental to knowing what people both need and want to see out of “information experiences” they encounter. Until we appreciate the qualities and benefits of good conversations, we don’t have a firm foundation for sharing and communicating data.

You’re saying, “Well, that’s all fine and good, but how in the world does this play out in an application or dashboard?.” I’m glad you asked. This concept is something of deep interest at Juice and the thoughts here represent the tip of the iceberg. As we actively work through these concepts, we’ll look to provide practical examples in the coming months.

Questions
What are some of the qualities of an enjoyable conversation you’ve had this week?
How did it affect your day?
In what ways could you imagine your dashboard just talking and not listening?

Dig Deeper
This talk by John Cleese (of Monty Python’s Flying Circus) is one of the best on creativity I’ve ever seen, and it speaks to the seriousness of humor, for the jokesters among you.

Evaluate and apply some related design principles to your application: Make it conversational, Use common language, Consider data comfort and expertise.

Spring is a great time to spruce things up.  While you’re at it, consider adding a little shine to you and your skills.

We’ve made it easy for you by adding five more videos to our resources page that will help sharpen your saw, as Stephen Covey might say, in this important area of your life.  From graphing to table design, color to typography best practices, you’ll find these video tutorials full of tips, tricks and tidbits that you’ll be using long after the pollen rinses away and your antihistamine goes back in the drawer.

And, just in case you’ve been fogged over, we launched a new page on our site a few weeks ago, Design Principles. If designing from the human perspective interests you, you’ll find this a valued extension to your knowledgebase.  

Achoo! (That is, here’s to you!)

[Insert witty opening here].

You see? In principle, when writing a blog post, I know it draws you (the reader) in to continue reading by starting with a story or something smart or a joke. Don’t overwhelm people right from the get-go. Start with metaphor or phrase that relates to the article.

That introduction relates to what I’m really interested in talking about: principles. We’re launching an exciting new resource today, and it has to do with principles, design principles that is. These resource will remind you to do things like use gradients appropriately or provide instruction. Their goal is to direct your design towards information presentation that focuses on the human element.

Engineers start with technology. MBAs start with funding. Designers start with people. The trick is to get interdisciplinary teams to raise their collective I.Q. by working in the overlap of those three areas. That’s where innovation flourishes.Moggridge

At Juice, we start with people and great consideration for that overlap. Therefore, we’re not only about what information to show but also how to show it. And behind those two basic ideas is an awful lot of thinking > developing > learning > and iteration. Through that process we’ve gathered a (rather long) list of principles that inform our decisions, and we hope it can help you with yours too. Rather than trying to be sure your application supports all principles, approach it more like a stack of flash cards and pull out the relevant ones. With experience, you’ll realize you’re doing these things naturally and understanding the drivers of design thinking is invaluable to introduce objectivity into application design.

There are two parts to this:

1. View the list and explore the content on our Design Principles page.
2. Engage in discussion on our Quora Design Principles Board.

This list will likely grow and shrink over time through the refinement process. The descriptions of each principle definitely will. Our goal is not to be exhaustive, but helpful.

There is a slight catch. So far, we’ve only fully a few of the many principles, which means we have a long way to go. We’re going to embrace process on this one with what might appear to be a (very intentional) turtle’s pace. Still, we’ve made the titles as concretely informative as we could before filling out all their content. Feel free to to run (err walk) right along side us or check in every now and then to evaluate your projects against the list. If you find these helpful or would like to share your experience or opinion on any of them we invite you to engage in the discussion, vote up and down the principles you find more or less useful. Share your insights why. Let us know which one you’d like to see next. Keep us honest, and the visualization community successful. Happy designing.

Clear bright white and nostalgic colored string lights adorn otherwise commonplace trees and shrubbery on nearly every block this time of year. Neighborhoods and shopping centers look like beautiful storybook villages as we pass, enjoying our commutes a little bit more in spite of the holiday traffic.

On my drive home last night, the thought occurred to me that data is a lot like holiday lights. When organized in an attractive and appealing dashboard design, the power of data is enhanced and can be even more powerful and meaningful. Data, when displayed in a striking new way can be more intriguing to us, and as a result, we’re more likely to engage with it. Perhaps we would have missed the very same data had it been organized and presented in a less pleasing fashion.

By presenting data in a way in which our psyche is predisposed to receive it, we allow our audience to see and hear the story that we have to share, and then help them gain clarity and understanding around the data. It is then that we have their attention and the opportunity to make a point, deliver a pitch, close a sale or ask them to make a decision.

Sharing information in a context in which people are open and most receptive to receiving it is intuitive. It’s human nature to appreciate attractive things, especially pretty lights, to give and receive beautifully and thoughtfully wrapped packages and to look forward to the promise of a brand new year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Juice Team!

Slice Reporting Software

Contact us to get a demo of Slice, our innovative solution for creating and sharing beautiful reports and dashboards.

Tis the season of indulgence. Sometimes it is indulgence without any semblance of restraint. Case in point, the “Cherpumple” — a combination pumpkin, apple, and cherry pie framed in icing.

When it comes to business dashboards, the gauge chart is often a case of indulgence without restraint. It can be equal parts waste of valuable pixels, low information, and visually deceptive. It would be a lot smarter to use a bullet chart — but who wants to pick the the fruit plate for desert?

Gauges have undeniable appeal to dashboard designers everywhere. Perhaps it is the “skeuomorphism” of a gauge chart. That is, it borrows from the look of something we are familiar with as a way to make us feel comfortable or understand its purpose.

In the past, I’ve fought the good fight against these charts. Now I’m resigned to the fact that eradication is impossible. If that’s true, can we at least find some ways to make them better through design? Tone down the brilliant sheen and high-contrast colors; turn up the information conveyed.

First we can start by making them look better. Web designer Christian Annyas shared a beautiful gallery of Chevrolet speedometer designs across the years. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Christian even offers a decent argument for gauges over simply showing a value:

“It’s easy for a driver to get used to a needle that rises and passes numbers that are located on fixed positions. A quick glance is all it takes to see and understand the value it represents.”

Let’s take one of those designs, overlay a few necessary data elements, and see if we can create something worth looking at.

1. Start with an classy Chevrolet design that lays out so as not to take up too much valuable vertical space
2. Add subtle indicator of good and bad zones with green and red dots
3. Show the current value with a bold label
4. Display distribution of recent history to communicate how the value has changed

While this chart is still far from efficient in its data-to-ink ratio, at least it communicates the small amount of information effectively. Any ideas for how to make it better?

Using proper dashboard design techniques is a topic that struck a chord when we released our white paper series
“A Guide to Creating Dashboards People Love to Use” a few years ago, and still seems to resonate as people regularly download the content from the Juice Analytics website, and we receive ongoing requests to speak around these key principles.

Since we can all use a little calibration every once in a while to stay in tune, we thought we’d post it again, with a reminder that you can access this oldie but goody, along with other materials on the Juice Analytics resources page anytime — and that all of these materials are available to you gratis.

Should you have a friend, colleague or know someone who could benefit from a little dashboard design “religion”, feel free to let them know where you found yours.

Slice Reporting Software

Contact us to get a demo of Slice, our innovative solution for creating and sharing beautiful reports and dashboards.

Do you have your child’s drawing on the wall of your cube, office or maybe at home on the fridge? Can you remember visualizing the world that simply?  When was the last time you looked at anything quite that way? What if you did?

Well, we did just that. And, our effort resulted in a video to share with people about what we do here at Juice.  We hope you like it.

(P.S. Thank your kid for the artwork covering that stain on your wall — and for the great analogy.)

Juice’s own Ken Hilburn brings it home at the Strata conference. He sits down with Mac Slocum of O’Reilly for a few data softballs. Here’s a second-by-second account.

[0:03] Q: What are the most common visualization mistakes that people are making?

[0:03] A: The bottom line is usability. Stay focused on your purpose, making decisions, taking action. Stay simple, if you have to explain you’re failing.

[0:15] Brett Favre endorses Wranglers, but Ken wears Data Wanglers [not shown].

[0:59] Dropping names, and twisting the knife on usability.

[1:25]? What better time to confront a little gap in your knowledge than when you’re being filmed? It’s Antoine de Saint Exupéry.

[1:48] Q: Do we need different tools to create simple visualizations?

[2:05] Plentiful shout outs to friends in the industry. Even Business Objects gets a friendly mention, is Ken getting soft?

[2:53] A difficult point to cover in a short time. We speak of data journalism and telling stories with data, but there are really no great tools that allow this in an everyday business environment. There is a lot of attention, not much progress.

[3:15] Q: What makes a great dashboard?

[3:25] A: Zach and Ken just delivered a 3 hour tutorial on the subject earlier in the week. Can Ken cover it in 30 seconds? Attention, context, and data drilling are keys but there’s precious little time to do more than mention big concepts.

[4:20] Q: Are dashboards too complicated?

[4:22] A major softball to close the session. Cheshire cat grin from Ken.

[4:54] “Getting your brain around it.” What Ken isn’t saying is that we know today’s businessfolk aren’t just looking at one dashboard, they have to look at many. They have to integrate info from lots of disparate systems into a picture of how their business is doing. If your info is harder, more complex, presents a bigger cognitive load, or is slower to load, then it’s going to be less valuable.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know Ken, stay tuned. We’ll be doing more Viva Visualization events in ’11 with more detailed prescriptions for great dashboards and there’s no better way to spend your morning than eating a nice warm bagel and listening to Ken.