1. Building job market analysis dashboard
Welcome to the third and final chapter of this case study!
2. Data analytics pipeline
We've uncovered many important insights during our exploratory analysis and the deeper analysis of the job market for data science roles. It is time to put all of these insights together into a cohesive story for DataSearch. Specifically, we will be focusing this final chapter on building a dashboard for our client.
3. Dashboard focus areas
First; Who is the audience. We need to understand who will be interacting with the dashboard and the user’s relative knowledge in this area.
Second; What do they need? For this, we need to understand the goal of those using our dashboard or more importantly, what they will using the dashboard for.
Finally; How can a dashboard help. The dashboard needs to be more than just exciting visuals; it needs to provide insights relevant to an audience member to help them act in a particular manner.
4. Dashboard focus areas
Let's dive into the who, what, and how for this dashboard.
The recruiters at DataSearch are the Who. They are very familiar with this field, so it is okay to assume that they will understand all of the previous metrics we have utilized and uncovered.
For the “What”, the recruiter’s goal is to connect those looking for roles with employers that match. The easier we can identify potential opportune areas for qualified candidates, the easier it will be for a recruiter to accomplish their job.
Finally, the “How”. We need to transform the insights of this data into a useable form for the recruiters. This will be the primary focus area as we build out this dashboard.
5. Dashboard components to include
When designing our dashboard, it’s essential to think of three major questions when creating the overall layout for a dashboard.
First, what significant visualizations do we want to include on this dashboard? We don’t want to have too many as this would be distracting; instead, we only wish to use the most valuable visuals.
Next, we need to ensure the most intuitive visuals are used for these visuals. If we are using a more complex visual, does our audience understand this visual, or do we have to take the time to explain it to them.
Finally, we need to use sizing, positioning, & coloring to draw our users attention to key insights that will help solve their problem.
6. Designing a dashboard
When diving into the design of a dashboard, it’s essential to think of aspects such as:
- Using the least amount of visuals to avoid overwhelming your audience.
- Giving context behind whether a number is good or bad by providing reference values.
- Using labels, via axes and titles, to avoid confusion about visuals provided.
- Finally, making the dashboard interactive so users can explore the data.
7. Our final deliverable
Based on our previous research, it makes sense to break up the dashboard into three separate areas: Job, Skills, and Company. The dashboard will need to be designed in a way that recruiters at DataSearch can dive deeper into one of these topic areas based on their needs.
For all the dashboards we’ll be designing it in a consistent manner, placing corresponding key metrics at the top of the dashboard, along with slicers on the left-hand side. For the visuals in the center of the dashboards, we will be taking use of the previously designed visuals that we have made.
8. Our final deliverable
When we are done, we’ll make a home page for the dashboard that has click-able icons for users to navigate to the area they would like to investigate further.
9. Let's practice!
Alright, let's dive in with building these dashboards!