Dashboard

If you are new to Microsoft SharePoint, the fastest way to see what can be done using the product is to actually try out different applications created using SharePoint. Live sites of any sore are difficult to find, nevermind dashboard or scorecard apps. Here is a demo of a business scorecard done in SharePoint. You’ll need to enter “visitor” as the username and password. Navigate to the Business Scorecard section by clicking on the tab. The links are interactive and bring up various charts. The overall scorecard is divided into sections such as Sales, Production, Finance, Human Resources Management and Quality Assurance. Each indicator is a red/yellow/green or chart graphic. Here is the dashboard screenshot:

Homework: For tips on using dashboards to measure performance, please see the book Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business. 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.

A Dashboard Spy reader wrote me to ask for a greater focus on KPIs. He says that while the visual aspects are important, it’s the KPI metrics that make or break a dashboard application. I agree. So to start off the more intense study of KPIs and metrics, here is a posting with plenty of metrics to chew on for marketing types.

RADAR is an enterprise dashboard product from hillandknowlton.ca that automatically tracks over 8000 media sources looking for mentions of your company. Their enterprise dashboard then displays to you various metrics to let you know how your media visibility is. The company helpfully has provided a list of metric types. These media coverage metrics fall into the two types of Quantitative metrics and Qualitative metrics. The quantitative metrics include Share of Voice, Newswire, CEO, Publication, Financials and Internal/External Communications. Qualitative dashboard metrics include Favorability, Issues, Surveillance and Analysis. Keep in mind that like other similar services, the automated processes have to be smart enough to distinguish between positive and negative tones.

Homework: Study up on the lucrative field of brand marketing and management. This is a field ripe for dashboarding. As you can see, the technology has become quite impressive. Start with 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 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.

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.