Google Data Studio Dashboard, Remixed

When Najmah Salam at Notion demonstrated how to build a Google Data Studio dashboard to show email campaign data, I had to create the Juicebox version. This dashboard is a common use case for many marketers who want to see how their email efforts are performing and identify what is working.

I appreciate that Najmah used a tool they were comfortable with. Here’s how their dashboard came out:

https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/c03801dd-e707-4ca6-a1fe-11daad8d390c/page/FthGC

Data Studio is eager to fit all the content on one page in the traditional “collage of data visualizations” style.

Juicebox offers a different approach, more reminiscent of scrollable websites and data journalism. Here’s what I put together:

This exercise helps highlight a few things our design team cares about. We want to make presenting data…

1. Easier than a HelloFresh meal kit. We are dead-set on making it dead-simple, whether you are calculating measures, adding visualizations, or laying out your app.

2. More collaborative than Among Us. Google Data Studio shows the data in a largely static view. We want to enable discussions through interaction and exploration. Good data visualization will raise more questions than it answers. Interactivity lets you answer the next level of questions…like Who’s the imposter?!?

3. Better looking than a Telsa Cybertruck. No offense Cybertruck. We want to make it easy to deliver an attractive, balanced, modern web app, not something from a ‘90s Paul Verhoeven film.

4. As portable as an iPhone. What if I could fit 1000 data points in my pocket…or a million. A modern visualization tool should be responsive for viewing on mobile devices. Data Studio is still working on that.

Email Report Dashboard

To sum up: Juicebox is like HelloFresh prepared in a Ford F150 Lightning while playing Among Us on your phone.

Interview with SourceForge: Bringing Data-driven Decisions to a Broad Audience

I recently spoke with the team at SourceForge, a leading platform for the distribution and discovery of software solutions. The interview ended up summarizing our journey as a company to transform how people communicate with data. Here’s the transcript:

SourceForge: You have said that the challenges faced by the analytics industry are more social than technical. What did you mean by that?

We’ve been in the analytics space for nearly two decades. The technology has advanced, particularly in advanced analytics, but the same problems persist. There is still a lack of engagement with data by many people in organizations. People have discomfort with using data to drive everyday decisions. That stuff doesn’t get solved through more features. And for many leaders, there is a feeling of frustration for all the money they have spent on data projects. Where is the payback? How long are they going to have to wait? We can’t climb our way out of these problems by always betting on the machines to do more.

For all the advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, it seems to me that the people-side of analytics continues to be neglected. When I say people-side, I mean: what skills do everyday information workers need to be successful? How does the culture of an organization need to change to embrace using data? How do we meet people where they are to help them become more data fluent?

SourceForge: Given that, why have you focused your company on building yet another tool?

Fair point. It is because creating change in the workplace is often the intersection of new behavior and new, easier ways to enable those behaviors.

Take Slack and how they transformed workplace communication. Our email inboxes were exploding, and adding more features to email clients wasn’t solving the problem. Slack came along and re-thought how to make it easier for people to collaborate in teams.

That’s how we think about Juicebox. There needs to be a fresh approach to how people take spreadsheets of data and turn it into something useful. The new approach needs to put people first, not by making it more complex or feature bloated.

SourceForge: But there are a lot of tools for visualizing data. Why did you feel like the world needed another one?

The world certainly doesn’t need another dashboard-creating tool, that’s for sure. Nor do we need something to try to replace the visual analytics behemoths Tableau and PowerBI. Those tools are essentially Excel on steroids. More capable. More visual. And more complicated.

What these tools don’t focus on is how do we make sure the data gets communicated effectively. That’s the missing link. We sometimes call it the last mile of analytics. What has been missing is a solution that provides an easy, accessible bridge between people who work with data and the minds of the decision-makers who should understand that data.

With Juicebox, we created a solution that is lightweight and accessible to everyone. It is easy to learn, easy to get started. The everyday information worker doesn’t want to have to get an advanced certification to be able to visualize, present, and share data in their organization. They need something radically simpler. But also something radically more powerful than the Excel and PowerPoint that they are currently using to present data.

That’s where Juicebox fits in. We experienced first-hand the frustration people feel. We set out to deliver a better mousetrap for communicating data.

SourceForge: Let’s talk about those people. What have they struggled with, and how does Juicebox help them?

ZG: I believe there is a silent majority of people in the workplace who want to do more with data but don’t yet have the skills or tools.

Think of it like all the want-to-be cooks who admire recipes online but find it too much effort to gather all the ingredients and learn to make the meal. For these people, meal prep solutions came along, like Blue Apron and HelloFresh. Suddenly anyone could whip up a darn good at-home meal. What did it take? It took some guidance, some simplifying of the recipes, and more convenience.

It’s exactly the same for data in the workplace. Sure people have Excel, and maybe access to a powerful analytics BI platform…but that doesn’t make it easy. With Juicebox, we want to make it easy for these people to whip up something delicious with their data.

SourceForge: You are also the author of a book called ‘Data Fluency’ in which you present a path toward more effective use of data in organizations. How does your product fit into this framework?

We wrote that book because it was clear that many organizations were struggling to really unlock the power of their data. I’m not talking about hiring more data scientists or applying machine learning models. They just want to know what is most important, define key metrics, see trends, and find insights they could act on. It is the world of small data that still has so much untapped potential. We saw that the issues were about mindset and skillset, not technology.

In our book, we propose four pillars that an organization needs to build to become data fluent. The pillars are: data consumers that are data literate; data authors that know how to communicate effectively; an organizational data-driven culture; and an ecosystem for designing and sharing what we call data products.

Juicebox is a key that can help unlock some of these challenges. It gives data authors the most user-friendly solution for communicating, and it serves as an integral part of a data product ecosystem. More than ever, we believe that we need to make data a medium for communication. Juicebox is one piece of the puzzle.

Old School Reporting is Out; Juicebox Is In.

Does the world need another reporting solution? You bet it does!

The giant time-suck of creating Excel and PowerPoint reports needs to end. The static presentations that don’t allow for data discussions — we can do better. Enough with the ugly, complex data visualizations and dashboards that discourage people from even starting to engage with your data.

It is scary to consider all the time, energy, and resources that goes into gathering and analyzing all this data. And all of it comes to a screeching, wasteful end when nobody opens that Excel attachment.

Juicebox is designed to make beautiful, people-first reporting easy.

Here are just three of the ways that Juicebox is going to help pry us out of the world of lousy, ineffectual reports.

Static reports are out. Interactive, guided reports are in.

Boring text reports

Juicebox

Designing like a developer is out. Simple, beautiful design choices are in.

Here are phrases that you don’t want to hear when you are trying to create a beautiful report:

Open the _Shared report under Reports (which includes the JavaScript Includes and CSS files Includes) to update the code.

First, go to Web Inspector in your web browser of choice:

Juicebox makes it easy to create professionally-designed web-based reports. Don’t worry about CSS. Papyrus is not a font-option. Looks matter and we’ve got you covered.

Complex visualizations

Juicebox leaderboard

Complexity visualizations are out. Simple, intuitive visualizations are in.

There are places for animated bar charts, treemaps, and network diagrams. But when you are want to get your point across, simpler is better. At Juice, we’ve learned the hard way about fancy visualizations: “If you are explaining, you are losing.”

Those are three pieces that make Juicebox special. I haven’t even touched on how we diligently track and save your selections, the simple, fun model for authoring data stories, our powerful and flexible measure calculations, or our many sweet design touches with icons and colors.

Best of all, Juice isn't just a way to share a one-off visualization. It is a grown-up platform for connecting to live data sources, managing user permissions, and delivering the best customer or internal reporting and presentations you’ve ever seen.

Seven Essential Features for a Data Storytelling Solution

Traditional dashboards are good at showing a full-status picture all at once. Visual analytics tools are great for flexible exploration. But neither of those solutions were designed to tell stories with data. Data storytelling is a new model for communicating information to an audience using narrative flow, text, and visuals to engage, educate, and move people to action. 

In this new era where the audience needs to come first, the priorities are different. Here are seven essential features necessary to deliver compelling data story applications.

1. Human-friendly visualizations

Your audience should be able to easily understand your data presentation the first time they see it. Using common language and clear images is key to achieving this effect.

2. Integration of text and visuals

There are lots of tools for creating graphs and charts, but data stories are a combination of data visuals flowing together with thoughtful prose and carefully-constructed explanations. It's important to first set the stage for what you're presenting, then give context and add detail to your data story.

3. Narrative flow

The text and visuals should carry your audience from a starting point (often the big picture of a situation) to the insights or outcomes that will influence decisions. Every user selection helps craft a relevant story.

4. Connected stories

In many cases, it takes more than one data story to tell the whole story. Think of exploring your data as a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' book, in which the audience can pick a path at the end of each section to follow their interests.

5. Saving your place

The bigger and more flexible a data story becomes, the more important it is to let the audience save the point they’ve arrived at in their exploration journey. In this way, they can come back to the analysis over time and share it with colleagues.

6. Sharing and collaboration

Data stories are often a social exercise with many people in an organization trying to find the source of a problem and what they should do about it. Therefore it is critical to give users an easy way to share their insights, discuss what they’ve found, and decide on actions together.

7. Easy authoring

Last, and possibly most important, everyday citizen analysts need to be able to create their own data stories. A data storytelling platform can’t be constrained by the typical back-and-forth between technical and non-technical people that is common with many analytics tools. It needs to be as easy as creating a presentation.

Juice has built the world’s most complete solution for creating interactive data stories. Interested in learning more? Give it a try.

What's in a Juicebox: Connected Visuals

The ability of an excel novice (i.e. me) to use a pivot table is basically naught. My ability to manipulate data does not exist, and yet I work for one of the most forward-thinking data presentation companies! Nevermind why I was hired, I quickly learned how to use a Juicebox application because Juicebox is designed with the everyday end user in mind. We have tackled the problem of data delivery to both analytical and non-analytical groups. In this post, I want to chat about one of the features that make that possible: connected slices. What is a slice? A slice is a Juice term for a data visualization within a section of Juicebox application.

I have mentioned before that Narrative Flow is important to Juicebox. Our applications are web-based and users expect to move and navigate from top to bottom, like when interacting with a webpage. Part of that movement from top to bottom in Juicebox means that as the user is making selections within the application, those selections should not only carry down the page but that they should also inform the visuals that follow.

We strive to be the world's best platform for telling data stories and because of that connecting our visuals together is vital. When someone makes a selection in the topmost slice, it places a filter on the data and the selection they make. This filter helps the user narrow down their selection and drill into the data.

Much of the problems with static reports and dashboards is that they only give the user a top-level view of his or her data. Traditional solutions do not provide the ability to drill further to discover what factors could be driving the data. In essence, today's charts, dashboards, reports, and BI solutions give the user a snapshot and not the whole story. 

Curious to see what else is included in Juicebox? Check out some of these posts highlighting other unique features:

• What's in a Juicebox: Narrative Flow
• What's in a Juicebox: Discussions

What's in a Juicebox: Narrative Flow

Do you remember when Facebook first launched its News Feed? I do. I can recall complaining with friends that it was "too stalker-ish" (we were right) and that "no one was going to use it" (we were wrong).

Today it's hard to imagine Facebook without its signature News Feed, but for a long time I did not care for it at all. That's because once people get used to a certain way that things operate on the web, they don't like it when those practices are changed. Not only do they dislike change, but they come to expect certain design practices online. Take for example the horizontal navigation bar found across the tops of web pages: around 88% of websites have its main navigation panel there on every page. Nine times out of 10, that's the first place a user will look when attempting to navigate through a website.

Another piece of design experience that all users expect is vertical narrative flow. Web pages flow from top to bottom and as you want to learn more about a company, product, piece of news, etc. you scroll down.

Juicebox is not unique among BI solution to offer a design layout that flows from top to bottom. Infographics and web pages have taught us that people want to read data the way the same way that they read text. However, Juicebox has a special ability to seamlessly connect the narrative flow, dynamic textual content, and complex filters to give users an effortless experience while navigating data.

Narrative flow is essential to the experience of Juicebox and our user-centered design. As a user interacts with a Juicebox application, they are continually making decisions about what they would like to see in the data, what relationships are most important to them between segments and tables, and what details they need to make informed decisions. All of these complex interactions are done behind the scenes as Juicebox provides that infographic-type feel in a web-based format.

Can you think of a situation where you need to deliver data to an audience of users? Maybe it is customer reporting or a data model that needs a user interface for people who are not data savvy. In recent months we have made it even more easy for you to get started with Juicebox. Through our Guided Design Process you can see your data in Juicebox and give access to 10 users so that they can experience the ease of navigating through your data in a narrative flow. To learn more about Juice's Guided Design Process, check out our resources page.

You Don't Need a Slide Factory

You might be surprised to learn that one of our most popular blog posts of all time is Automated PowerPoint Generation, or Making a “Slide Factory.” Even though this post was published almost nine years ago, month after month we continue to see it rise to the top of our most visited pages. 

Whenever someone reaches out to us asking if we have a ‘Slide Factory’ solution, we tell them two things:

1. Sorry, we do not.

2. You don’t actually need a slide factory.

In fact, the need for automated presentation delivery is the genesis of our data storytelling solution, Juicebox. We are intimately familiar with the need to deliver data to customers, co-workers, stakeholders, etc., in a consistent, structured manner that communicates a message while providing each person with the data that is most relevant to him or her. Instead of attaching a 50-slide PowerPoint deck, Juicebox does that same job with an interactive reporting application. Users benefit from a guided analytical story, ability to capture insights, and features to collaborate with others.

Not only do your users benefit, but you no longer have to deal with report production and ad hoc headaches! Juicebox was designed with the data consumer in mind, meaning that the need to spoon feed your audience data and information through long-drawn-out PowerPoint slide decks is no more. 

In recent months, we have made it more affordable and simpler than ever to get started with Juicebox. Through our Guided Design Process, customers are seeing what their data looks like in a Juicebox application within days not months. We give you four weeks and ten user accounts to test Juicebox with your data, you have plenty of time to get user feedback and build a business case for using Juicebox. Pricing starts at only $6 per user (with a 50 user minimum). With tiered discounts for more than 500 users, Juicebox is a competitive option for any budget!

If you would like to test drive your data in Juicebox, fill out our Get Started form and we will be in touch ASAP.

Check out some of our Juicebox apps in action:

• Nashville Arts Grant

• Virginia Economic Development