Comments on: Do-It-Yourself-Dashboards-Alive-and-Well http://www.enterprise-dashboard.com/2008/03/10/do-it-yourself-dashboards-alive-and-well/ Dashboard Examples and Business Intelligence Best Practices Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:31:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Jon Peltier http://www.enterprise-dashboard.com/2008/03/10/do-it-yourself-dashboards-alive-and-well/#comment-20209 Jon Peltier Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:16:24 +0000 http://www.enterprise-dashboard.com/2008/03/10/do-it-yourself-dashboards-alive-and-well/#comment-20209 What strikes me about this dashboard is a heavy reliance on inefficient practices. The bottom right 10% of the screen is dedicated to displaying three values using dials. The thermometers in the top right also show only three values, though in less space than the dials. Perhaps both the dials and the thermometers could be replaced with line charts, so not only the latest value but also the previous week or month can be viewed. There is more highlighting with brignt colors than it should have: all that bright yellow in the bottom right should be white or light gray if it just means "so-so". Also the REPT() chart in the cells in the right of the middle row of the screen suffers from an unbounded axis scale, with the displayed data spilling outside the bounds of the region set aside for the chart. It might be a good start, but I'd give it a B- and suggest there's plenty of room for improvement. What strikes me about this dashboard is a heavy reliance on inefficient practices. The bottom right 10% of the screen is dedicated to displaying three values using dials. The thermometers in the top right also show only three values, though in less space than the dials. Perhaps both the dials and the thermometers could be replaced with line charts, so not only the latest value but also the previous week or month can be viewed.

There is more highlighting with brignt colors than it should have: all that bright yellow in the bottom right should be white or light gray if it just means “so-so”. Also the REPT() chart in the cells in the right of the middle row of the screen suffers from an unbounded axis scale, with the displayed data spilling outside the bounds of the region set aside for the chart.

It might be a good start, but I’d give it a B- and suggest there’s plenty of room for improvement.

]]>