In our two previous tips we showed you how important knowing what you want to say is and how valuable setting clear goals can be. This time we are highlighting the importance of story telling.

3. Make Sure Your Visuals Clearly Tell Your Story

The dashboard tools out there today make creating flashy eye candy a snap, and it’s easy to become enamored with the technology. Whether it’s dashboards, applications, or websites, bling for its own sake rarely has staying power. Rather, use the considerable tools at your disposal to hammer your message home. Simplicity drives the most powerful messages. Yet achieving simplicity is often quite difficult. Don’t let the technology distract you.

Choosing the Proper Visual

In the following example, there are two charts created from an identical set of data:

Each report shows the sales performance of the top five sales reps. Clearly, the report on the left “stands out” because of its bright colors and unusual shape. However, the drawback of this chart is that it is difficult to derive the true meaning of the chart. The gaping hole in the center provides no added value, and the relative size of the slices are not differentiated enough to be noteworthy.

In the chart on the right, we see a simple bar chart. While this may lack the pizzazz of the former chart, the information contained in this report is much more easily digested than the donut. Relative performance is seen instantly, and viewers grasp the intended meaning of the chart with no ambiguity. In this case, less is most certainly more.

Examine Your Layout with a Critical Eye

In this next example, two charts are placed side by side, suggesting a relationship between the two:

Both of these charts show business performance in blue, against a company target overlaid in green. After a quick glance, it’s easy to assume that performance in the chart on the left is slightly higher than the report on the right, based solely on the position of the KPI target line and the number of points above it.

Closer inspection, however, shows an entirely different picture. In the chart on the left, the y-axis begins with 0% and climbs to 32%, while in the second picture, the scale is from 10% to 90%. The target line in the left picture stands at 20% while it is 60% on right. Clearly, the magnitude presented in the second chart is significantly higher, but this meaning is weakened simply due to the layout.

Tables, Charts and Text

People consume information in a variety of different ways. Often, a clear picture can say a thousand words. But are these words the same as the ones you hope to inspire with your picture? Will every viewer have the appropriate context to draw the intended conclusions from your visuals? Often, a little bit of text annotation in a dashboard can go a long way to grounding the viewer in the appropriate frame of reference.

In this sample, the author uses clear chart titles as well as a brief description of each dashboard element. The text is non-intrusive; well-versed viewers can ignore the text without detracting from the dashboard experience. However, others who may be viewing this information for the first time can quickly read the description and gain an appropriate context for interpreting the pictures.

Summary of tips for dashboard layout and design:

• Use technology to enhance your message, not for its own sake.
• If related elements are closely positioned, make sure one item does not detract from the intended meaning of the other (i.e., conflicting scales).
• Use appropriate combinations of tables, charts and text to reinforce your message.