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5 lessons for using dashboard colors appropriately – Part 2
Selecting dashboard colors Last week, I wrote about the role of colors in photographs. A lot of the insights apply to the design of solid management dashboards and reports. Color choice does make a huge difference. So, let’s apply the ideas from the prior post and apply them to your performance dashboards, charts and reports: […]
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Dashboard color – Yes, it does matter! The basics – Part 1
Dashboard color? Have you ever paid much attention to dashboard color and its effect on people? Colors are very powerful but very few of us actively leverage that to create awesome performance dashboards and reports. Just take a look at some examples that are floating around many organizations. Screens often induce headaches and are […]
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Dashboard Design Advice: Avoid eye contact at all cost!!!
Dashboard Design When I watch interviews with international sports stars, I sometimes have to laugh. Every inch of their clothing is plastered with logos from sponsors. It’s usually impossible to see or remember even a single one of them amidst this smorgasbord. We can spot a similar overload problem in many dashboards and reports. Corporate […]
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What my car taught me about designing a successful dashboard
A useful dashboard? The other day, a former colleague sent me several screenshots of a ‘dashboarding solution’ a new team member had proposed to him. What I saw was wild: A set of complex, colorful and overloaded screens. Not just one screen, but a whole book of different pages. There were long tables mixed with […]
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Forecast Analysis – An Effective Dashboard
FORECAST ANALYSIS Last week I argued that a detailed variance report is not very helpful before and during the forecasting and budgeting process. That post continues to be one of the most popular ones recently. But why not take the basic ideas a few steps forward and create a dedicated forecasting dashboard? A dashboard allows […]
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Dashboarding – Insights from Mike Duncan – Part 2
Each indicator must have a strong correlation to your ability to effect change In my last post I laid out 3 practical and compelling questions in developing your dashboarding program: How should my company be using a dashboard(s)? What is the basic process for choosing my KPI’s? What are some common mistakes I should avoid […]
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A few thoughts about gauge charts
Let me start by saying an obvious thing: Gauge charts do deserve some recognition. Actually, they deserve a medal – a medal for being the most controversial chart type in history. When I first saw a gauge chart, I was impressed. They looked pretty cool. Things changed when I got involved with my first BI […]
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Scatter charts – Good for relationships
SCATTER CHARTS – THE BASIC IDEA One of the interesting and really fun things to watch is young kids learning about cause and effect. They pull on a string and music starts playing. They giggle. They push a car and the car begins to roll. And so we learn to be curious at an early […]
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Hands-up! Here comes a bullet chart
Executives often want to have a quick overview of some key metrics to find out what the state of their business is. Questions like: Are my margins on target? Is customer satisfaction within an acceptable range? What is the size of my pipeline? All this information is typically summarized in a dashboard. The easy thing […]
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What photography taught me about dashboards
Photography and dashboards? Huh? Fire and Ice? Photography is a big and important hobby of mine. And it is a tough hobby. There is a lot to learn and the opportunity to make mistakes (read: create photographs that really suck) is huge. It starts with understanding your camera, deciphering basics like Aperture, Shutter Speed and […]