1. Less is more
Previously, we focused on adding content. Now we will bring needed balance by removing unnecessary content.
2. Keys to good visual design
There are three questions to ask before adding anything to a dashboard.
First, does this contribute to the story?
Second, is this the right visual element?
Finally, is it necessary? Let's talk about each in turn.
3. Promoting the story
Think about this cluttered dashboard as you answer the following questions.
What story am I trying to tell? We have data for a particular product category, total COGS by channel for all years, and total sales amount grouped by quarters. This is at least three stories.
If I add a new visual, will it align with the story? In this case, the follow-up question is, "Which story?" And that's a bad sign.
Keep in mind that the user has ultimate authority. We may think something fits perfectly but if your users don't see it that way, tailor it to their needs using your expertise.
4. Story-telling in a world of choices
If you're delivering a presentation, you control the story entirely.
But with dashboards, you probably have some filters and slicers, which gives users flexibility.
This flexibility limits your control and ability to design explicitly for a dataset.
Even so, understand what the user needs and the types of stories they are likely to see. In practice, this means you won't have a lot of static text on a report because you don't know if that text will make sense given the user's selections.
5. Choosing the right visual element
We know that line charts are great for showing trends in data over time.
6. Choosing the right visual element
But for most category comparisons, line charts fail because they imply data movement along the X-axis, something few categorical datasets have.
7. Choosing the right visual element
For categorical data, we might use a bar chart instead. Choosing the right visual element applies not only to the choice of visual, but also to choices within the visual for emphasis, such as color.
8. Color as an emphasis
Color is what we call a pre-attentive attribute.
On this chart, your eyes automatically focus on one particular bar. This focus happens before you can pay attention, making this pre-attentive.
Take advantage of this by using neutral colors for bars.
Then, you can emphasize something using one color, without using words.
Think of color as a garnish: a small amount is great, but you don't want to dominate your meal.
9. The importance of negative space
We don't know where to look if a report has too much going on. Negative space, or places without any information or visual effect, helps us differentiate sections much more easily.
10. De-cluttering a dashboard
Looking at this again, we know that we have multiple stories, so let's focus on one: sales information by products in 2018. For each visual, we can ask three questions: does this contribute to our story, is this the right visual, and do we need the element?
11. De-cluttering a dashboard
If we follow the prompts for each element, we'll want to remove superfluous images, shapes, and backgrounds, focus on the information related to 2018, and include product relevant information.
12. A Less Cluttered Dashboard
Our dashboard is now much less cluttered. The story focuses on the sales information for the year 2018. We've retained key information while tightening the story. It's not perfect, but it's much clearer.
13. Thinking of our audience
In the following exercises we will continue helping our CCO answer certain key business questions and provide more information they can share with the rest of the executives.
First, we will look at two ways to break down which sizes are selling and to whom.
Second, we will look at ways to see if the company is on track to meet certain expectations.
14. Let's practice!
Armed with this knowledge, let's go!