The other day when I was grousing about an enterprise dashboard’s awful abuse of the steering wheel metaphor, I started rooting around my dashboard screenshot collection (the biggest in the world, or so I claim) for Subaru’s branding dashboard. It came to mind as a beautifully designed dashboard with tasteful hints of an actual physical dashboard that is entirely appropriate as Subaru is actually an auto maker. In fact, I drive one myself.

I found the screenshots and posted them today for all to admire. A Dashboard Spy at the auto maker slipped me these dashboards quite a while ago. Seeing them again serves as a reminder that creative agency design can be worth every penny (and believe me, top notch design costs many pennies!).

The focus of these marketing oriented dashboards is advertising effectiveness. There are various KPIs that track consumer awareness and consideration of the brand. Seeing these again, I would say that this is my favorite marketing dashboard.

Here is the reference to the dashboard metaphor. It uses a nice cluster of dials:

This page shows an advertising awareness graph. Note the explanation of the KPI on the lower half of the screen.

This screen really shows how the system serves in a consultative mode. Note the explanations on the top of the page of Ad Awareness & Consideration, Tag/Slogan Recall and Brand Image:

Homework: Lots to study if you want to learn about applying dashboarding techniques to marketing management. Start with the excellent book Marketing by the Dashboard Light, then look at these books on brand management.

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a nice screenshot of a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, please send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s favorite books on business dashboards.

I know its just a pet peeve, but I really don’t want to see any more literal uses of steering wheels in enterprise dashboard design. Long time Dashboard Spy readers will remember my previous anti-steering wheel graphic rant about taking this metaphor too far. This screenshot goes even further. Now we get a night-time view of New York City to boot! Take a look at the slogan: “Dashboards for Driving in the New Economy”. This along with the clunky graphics just makes this sales effort too cheesy. I love a good metaphor, but this one’s way overdone.

Update: A Dashboard Spy says I’m being too negative and that I should provide a tasteful design in this vein for him to follow. OK, here is one that implies the metaphor without showing the actual steering wheel: Virginia DOT Dashboard.

Tags: Dashboard Design, Steering Wheel Metaphor, Designs to Avoid

Homework: If you are a programmer or business user who wants to dabble in the design and layout of your dashboard, be warned that the results may look exactly that way. If you want to try, however, you must read The Elements of Graphic Design: Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type and consult these books on graphic design basics

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s books on enterprise dashboards. His current favorite is Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT, the only book on actually implementing executive dashboards.

Enterprise Dashboard for Real Estate Communications is the topic of this post on dashboards.

This is a management dashboard used to optimize communications in the real estate industry. Specifically, this application allows an apartment community manager to track what is sent via email to a group of sales prospects. The first screenshot shows the dashboard. As you see, it is entirely text-based, yet still very helpful to the apartment manager. It’s a reminder to us that clear layout and simplicity is often all it takes to bring value to the user.

Don’t be put off by the simple graphic style used in the enterprise dashboard UI. It’s actually quite effective. Sometimes a straight-forward simple graphic style is the best way to go. Concentrate on the functionalilty of the enterprise dashboard first.

This is a view of the prospects list:

Here is a screenshot of the page where you can actually preview the email:

Homework: The topic of email marketing is always controversial. Start with these books on email campaigns.

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s books on enterprise dashboards. His current favorite is Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT, the only book on actually implementing executive dashboards.

Many websites use polls and surveys to solicit opinion and feedback. What the heck is the difference between a poll and a survey anyway? Well, on the web at least, a poll usually denotes a quick question that can be answered in a click. Often you will see on a news page or sports site a little poll portlet that asks a question such as “Do you think the Yankees will win the series?”. A survey, on the other hand, is a more involved endeavor on the part of the user. It certainly has many questions, and indeed, often goes multi-screen. There can be conditional logic behind the presentation of the questions as well.

Here we see an enterprise dashboard approach to showing and tracking poll and survey results on a website. The dashboard screenshot below shows a pie chart and detail information on the most recent poll. The bottom of the section shows how many results are coming in for the most recent polls. Following the dashboard screenshot are some detail screens for polls, surveys and reusuable questions. The underlying product is called QPolling.

Homework: There is quite a bit of nuance to soliciting opinion. Start with these books on conducting polls and surveys.

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s books on enterprise dashboards. His current favorite is Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT, the only book on actually implementing executive dashboards.

Enterprise dashboards now factor heavily into the mix of tools used in tracking the effectiveness of corporate public relations campaigns. Here is a little screenshot of a PR analytics dashboard used for several years now to monitor KPIs such as Company Mention Momentum, News by DMA, News by Category, Product Mentions, etc. Brand managers at the company use this page to monitor the mentions in the media. While there is attention paid to the momentum of the mentions (i.e. Are the number of mentions growing or shrinking?), there is no differentiation between positive mentions and negative mentions. For example, there is big news today of Dell issuing a laptop battery recall. This swells the mentions in the media, but obviously in a very bad way. BTW, I’m glad this battery issue has finally been recognized. I had this problem a while back, but no one believed me. Ah, well, the vision of the Dashboard Spy is often ignored.

Homework: PR people must read Evaluating Public Relations : A Best Practice Guide to Public Relations Planning, Research & Evaluation. And if you are on an enterprise dashboard project, do yourself a favor and take a look at Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT, the only book on actually implementing enterprise dashboards.

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a nice screenshot of a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, please send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s favorite books on business dashboards.

Monitoring an automated task control management system is best done using a dashboard style interface. When you have lots of information to present and the need to allow for many possible drilldowns to detail levels, it’s hard not to use the dashboard approach. This enterprise dashboard allows the set up, execution and monitoring of IT related tasks such as scripts, batch jobs, database queries, etc. The tasks can be grouped according to system functions or business processes. The dashboard is a nice mix of machine level information such as utilization levels and business functions such as the business process flow diagram.

Note: Hey, Dashboard Spies!: Do you know how smart you are getting by reading The Dashboard Spy? From pig production to airplane crew size optimization to monitoring presidential campaigns, we’ve examined enterprise dashboards from all aspects of business. I’ll do my share to keep snooping around for those elusive dashboard screenshots that keep this dashboard screenshot collection interesting.

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a nice screenshot of a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, please send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s favorite books on business dashboards.

PS: If you find yourself part of an enterprise dashboard effort, you must study Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT, the only book on actually implementing enterprise dashboards.

Did you know that the July 2006 heatwave-related electrical outages in parts of New York City lasted over 10 days? First there was the outage, then there was outrage from the community. The main area affected was the Sunnyside/Woodside/Astoria section of Queens, a predominantly working class area with a large immigrant population. The outrage came mainly from the management of the issue. First, the city did not officially recognize the problem until four days into the situation. Con Edison, the electrical utility in New York City, also severely understated the number of people affected. They said that 2,500 people were affected when the number was actually 100,000. Needless to say, as the days without electrical service mounted, the situation turned into a political mess with charges that the city’s poorer residents were left to suffer – the implication being that if this had occurred in a tonier part of town, much more attention would have been alloted to the issue. In retrospect, everyone agrees that more resources should have been applied earlier.

The point of all this is to introduce this enterprise dashboard that serves as a utility service company’s operations dashboard. It is used to track asset outages. There are portlets that sync up with a mapping program. The overlays indicate outage areas. Close attention is paid to the weather as it is the main influence on when repairs can be started. I will do some research on how Con Edison tracks their outages. Do they have a similar dashboard? If so, there was absolutely no excuse as to what happened. Let me try to recruit some Dashboard Spies from Con Ed.

Homework: If you want some background on the utility industry, check these books on electric utilities.

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s books on enterprise dashboards. His current favorite is Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT, the only book on actually implementing executive dashboards.

Thanks to a Dashboard Spy with an interest in marine terminal mechanization, we have this marine terminal operations dashboard to examine. The point of this enterprise dashboard is to allow the marine terminal management to monitor yard operations in real time and to alert them of conditions outside of normal boundaries. Marine terminal operations fall into three main areas of focus in terms of production management: crane operations from/to vessel and train/truck, yard production of container stacks, container parking and rail cars, and gate operations involving entry and departure into the terminal. I am reminded of the mess in our ports with lines of trucks awaiting access to terminals in the aftermath of 9/11 and the increased port security.

Here is the screenshot of the dashboard. You’ll find lots of marine terminal KPIs such as Container Gate Moves, Average Turn Time, Yard Inventory of Containers, Outbound Trucks Still on Terminal Over 1 Hour, etc. The main point, obviously, is that time equals money.

Homework: Check out these books on marine terminal operations

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a nice screenshot of a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, please send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s favorite books on business dashboards.

PS: If you find yourself part of an enterprise dashboard effort, you must study Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT, the only book on actually implementing enterprise dashboards.

We’ve been looking at some heavy duty business dashboards so let’s have a little fun today and examine this Golf Swing Distance Optimization Dashboard. It’s available for you to try out so feel free to twiddle the interactive dials. I had to click on the “How to Use this Tool” link because the input controls are not intuitive. The upper left box with the 3 gauges is where you change the ball speed, launch angle and spin rate. These are depicted as dial gauges when in fact they should be knob controls. As you know, dial gauges are for reading values and knob controls are for changing inputs.

Homework: There are 2 areas of follow up for you enterprise dashboard project members. First, if you are not familiar with Xcelsius as a dashboarding product, start with the Crystal Xcelsius for Dummies book. It’s quite a good introduction to this visually exciting dashboard technology. I’m reading it myself. In a nut shell, Xcelsius lets you present Excel data in a flash-based presentation. It is geared toward business users and lets them create a polished interface. The power of the flash components is that you can interact with them. You can literally turn dials and read the effects of your what-if changes on the guages. The second area of study is the need to understand the issue of usablity as illustrated by this wrong usage in this example of gauges versus knobs. Usabilty is key when presenting to the end user through a dashboard. Study up on the discipline of usability. Start with these usability books.

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a nice screenshot of a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, please send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s favorite books on business dashboards.

PS: If you find yourself part of an enterprise dashboard effort, you must study Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT, the only book on actually implementing enterprise dashboards.

Tags: CPK Process Capability Index. You Six Sigma blackbelts out there know all about the KPIs associated with manufacturing quality process improvement, but the rest of us need the pretty pictures to see what you mean. What better way to learn than off of a series of enterprise dashboards? Here are some screenshots of Manufacturing Dashboards that focus on part quality metrics such CPK (Process Capability Index). The dashboards are from a demo that you can try out from satit.com.

This first screenshot shows the monitoring of the CPK and CP index numbers:

Basically, here is a quick definition of CP and CPK:

Cp = Process Capability. A simple and straightforward indicator of process capability.
Cpk = Process Capability Index. Adjustment of Cp for the effect of non-centered distribution.

This from isixsigma.com:

“If you hunt or shoot targets with bow, darts, or gun, try this analogy. If your shots are falling in the same spot forming a good group this is a high cP, and when the sighting is adjusted so this tight group of shots is landing on the bullseye, you now have a high cpK.”

Here is an enterprise dashboard screenshot showing plantwide quality monitoring:

If you drill down on the red alert indicator shown for Line 3, you see this:

Drilling down gives you the equipment statistics summary:

Another section of the Dashboard allows you to monitor many plants at once with this multi-facility view:

The following KPIs are available for each plant. They fall into the areas of Production, Financial ROI, Supplier/Customer and Quality Metrics.

Drilling down into a particular part gives you this detail page screenshot:

Tags: Six Sigma Dashboard, CPK Dashboard, Process Capability Index

Homework: Sig Sigma and the pursuit of quality is an arcane science of mythic porportions. Start your study with this six sigma for dummies list.

So what or who is The Dashboard Spy? As his about page states, The Dashboard Spy is just a guy interested in the design of enterprise dashboards. He could not find any executive dashboard design source books (or even screenshots of real business dashboards) and so set about creating his own. Finally convinced to post his extensive collection of dashboard screenshots online, he was amazed to find how popular it has become. If you have a nice screenshot of a digital dashboard, balanced scorecard, or any business intelligence graphic to share, please send an email to info _at_ dashboardspy.com. Also check out The Dashboard Spy’s favorite books on business dashboards.

PS: If you find yourself part of an enterprise dashboard effort, you must study Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT, the only book on actually implementing enterprise dashboards.