Import choices in developing dashboards
In a dashboard (performance management) solution the available space per screen is limited in relation to the information you want to display. How do you make the available information facilitate the analysis process of users?
In my opinion there are a couple of area's that play a crucial role:
- Selection and combination of information
- Layers built into the solution
- Layout of the screens and structure of the solution
- Use of objects
- Screen formatting
Making the right choices for these areas leads to a solution that provides the desired insight to the users in a meaningful way. A balance between the different areas must always be found. There is no fixed formula for this balance. This blog discusses the use of objects. In future blogs I will discuss the other success factors for building a dashboard.
Use of objects
The use of objects is the first area I want to discuss. In this area there are two elements that can be distinguished:
- The type of objects being used
- Deployment of used objects
Formatting of objects is also an important element. This element will be addressed as a part of the area screen formatting.
Type of objects being used
Most software packages have a large number of objects that can be used in the development of dashboard solutions. Graphs, tables, pie charts and traffic lights are just some examples of the objects that are available. When choosing objects one should always contemplate which object is best for displaying the information. In relation to this it's also important to determine if the added value of displaying the information through this object justifies the space the object uses on the screen compared to other objects.
When looking at traffic lights for example (Fig. 1) most people will agree that they look nice. But what is the actual added value of this object compared to a single ball (Fig. 2) or a colored cell in a table? A traffic light consists of three balls of which only one is in use at any time. Besides this the shape of a traffic light takes up a lot of space compared to a single ball or cell.
Deployment of used objects
Beside the choice in objects that will be used it is also important to think about how these objects are deployed. Often a screen has a number of objects that basically show the same thing but for example do this for different accounts. If the goal of a screen is to compare these accounts then this is practical. However this is not always the case. When looking at the deployment of objects one should contemplate if it is necessary that the information is displayed in a separate object. This should of course, always be done in relation to the available space and the weight of the other information that needs to be displayed on the screen.
Take a screen for example that has a (main) table that shows the P&L and a number of tables with detail information of P&L accounts. If a separate table is used to display the detailed information for each P&L account you will quickly run out of space on that screen. A solution can be found in making the screen scrollable or only making the detailed information available for a limited number of P&L accounts. The consequence of choosing a solution like this is that the analytical capabilities of a screen are diminished. By adding a selection mechanism for the P&L accounts to the screen the analytical capabilities are not diminished and a clear overview is maintained. This selection mechanism determines for which P&L account the details are displayed and only one table is needed to display this information. This selection mechanism can be a dropdown box or is triggered by clicking on a P&L account.
In my next blog of this series I will discuss: Layers built into the solution.
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