Effective Communication of Data from “Information Dashboard Design” * by Cory Grenier GSM Lecture series * Few, Stephen . Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data . O’Reilly 2006.

Our Discussion Three Data Scenarios Effective Examples What to Avoid

Three Data Scenarios

Effective Examples

What to Avoid

About Communication More Science than Art Simplicity than dazzle Objective oriented

More Science than Art

Simplicity than dazzle

Objective oriented

Three Data Scenarios Strategic Analytical Operational

Strategic

Strategic Monitor the health and Opportunities of the business

Strategic

Waterfall Charts deliver Clear pictures avoid expanding more than ten variables, and label data!

US Electricity Costs have risen 500%+ since 1973 ( nominal cents pr Kilowatt hour ) Av. Retail Prices of Electricity Time Series provide Rich Context start from

ThinkCentre A62 AMD Aug Nov ThinkCentre M58/M58p Intel Oct Qitian E Atom Timelines don’t have to be Complex

Engage human intelligence Expose business trends or patterns Provide insights and actionable conclusions

Expose business trends or patterns

Provide insights and actionable conclusions

Analytical Proper Context Rich comparisons Extensive history Performance Evaluation

Analytical

Proper Context

Rich comparisons

Extensive history

Performance Evaluation

Tables do display Quantitative Comparisons Items PC 1 PC 2 PC 3 Form Factor USFF Yes Yes No Green Power Manager Yes No No Greenguard certification Yes No No EPEAT Gold with 20 score Yes No No Security Hardware password manageability* yes No No I/O individual disable Yes No No Manageability Software Preloaded Best with TVT Good Good Standard Model vPro Yes $20 premium Yes Lowest cost Manageable Solution with SMC** yes No No Quality 8KV ESD on Front I/O Yes No No Design Toolless design motherboard on SFF Yes** No No USFF 1 PCI + 8 USB on USFF yes No No USFF New Technology DDR3 Yes No No Displayport yes Yes Yes Blu-ray ODD/SSD yes No No Blu-ray

US uses less than 1% of Wind or Solar Energy EIA Report 2008 US Energy Usage by Resource Bar Charts Do display Quantitative Data Well

Help people reason about the decision they should take

Operational Immediate Situation is Clear & Simple Specific and requires drilling for detail Interactive

Operational

Immediate

Situation is Clear & Simple

Specific and requires drilling for detail

Interactive

Consistent Templates Save Time and Energy Weekly BU Financial Snapshot Q4 Wk 50 $14.0 (4) $46.4M -$4M -$4.9M -$15.7M Fcst PTI +3M +1.1M -$11M -1.7% -0.2% India +$7.7M +$0.8M +$0.7M +$2.0M PTI vs Budget S&P 0.0% -0.4% +0.6% -0.5% CA YTY Market Share +$1M -$7M +0.2% EMEA -0.0% Rev YTY 0.0% -0.4% -$12.7M vs Budget PTI -$35M -$2M Service PTI vs Budget -$0.4M +$1.6M +$1M Initiative USA China WW Fcst PTI vs. Budget -$3 M Fcst PTI vs. Budget - 23.6%

‘ Drill Down’ into the Data Add a Hyperlink to slides with more detail

Single-screen snapshot enables people to see inter-relations of the business. Understandable at a Glance “ Simultaneity of vision” – Stephen Few

US Energy Imports/exports ‘73–‘07 EIA Report 2008 Snapshot U.S. Oil Prices Million Barrels of Oil per Day (US) Av. Retail Electricity Price ( nominal cents pr Kilowatt hour )

US Power Pool Sub-Regions Show and Encode Data on a single Screen

Relationships between people, organizations and ideas Data Visualization tool

Avoid Legends Order slices, bars, and colors in a logical way Do not use three dimensional bars (occlusion) Encoding must add Meaning

Avoid Legends

Order slices, bars, and colors in a logical way

Do not use three dimensional bars (occlusion)

Data is not always a Metric Top 12 Green Companies with Power Partnerships List

Design for Memory Access We don’t see with eyes , but with our brains Short-term memory holds nine ‘chunks’ of information

Price Band Analysis 0-4,000RMB RMB 5999 MKT size growing quickly, tripling in last 3 months & will be bigger by 2009 Source: GFK Sep Research Too many Data chunks confuse the audience

In $K Pie Charts don’t display Quantitative Data Well Avoid Legends

Brand Oriented Entertainment Business SMB Consumer Large Enterprise Customer Segment Avoid using Circles to represent Quantitative Data

Our share Market share Circles require Real numeric# Values for accurate comparison ? ? ?

3D Charts don’t display Data Well

We often say ‘ I see’ 我看 NOT ‘I hear’ when we understand

We often say

www.presentationinnovation.blogspot.com

www.presentationinnovation.blogspot.com

REFERENCES Few, Stephen . Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data . O’Reilly 2006. http://thomas-fletcher.com/friendwheel / Copyright 2007 Thomas Fletcher

REFERENCES http:// www.touchgraph.com/navigator.html Energy Information Administration. Oil, Electric and Energy Cost Charts. http://www.eia.doe.gov/

IMAGE CREDITS “ Pick up the Pace!” by miragebym Upload Jan. 6, 2008 © Flickr El Rey, La Reina y sus Subditos By Mynth, upload Oct 8, 2008 Flickr CC “ Leica DM4000” by Dark Mark © Upload on July 5, 2006 Flickr ‘ The Connoisseur’ by Norman Rockwell The Saturday Evening Post, January 13, 1962 Flickr “ 20060508 – Carolyn’s MRI – Image 8 of 15 – Detailed Carolyn brain” by ClintJCL, upload on August 26, 2006 © Flickr “ ThinkCentre!” by Lenovo Group Upload Nov, 2008 © www.lenovo.com

IMAGE CREDITS “ Brain collage” by J.T.R. Upload Jan. 6, 2007 Flickr “ Oh Night” by Simon Pais-Thomas © Upload on Nov. 2, 2005 Flickr “ Which way to go?” by Simon Pais-Thomas Upload Nov. 2, 2005 © Flickr “ drill baby drill” by S.J. Alexander Upload Jan. 23, 2008 Flickr “ 4 GB … RIP” by DulceM, Upload Oct. 19, 2008 © Flickr