Comments on: Xcelsius Present Dashboards Bashed

By: mr tom

mr tom — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:37:03 +0000

P.S. Moronic might be a little harsh (perhaps idiotic?) but Stephen doesn’t generally pull his punches and he IS facing an uphill battle.

By: mr tom

mr tom — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:31:39 +0000

The US Dept of Labour dashboard is hilarious.

The pie chart has no volumes or proportions shows, so you have to guess, but that’s nowhere near as big a crime as the dials - nowhere does it say what the numbers are.

Are we to assume that in the whole of the us, there are only 4.7 unemployed people? Or is this 4.7 million, or is it 4.7% of the overall population, or 4.7% of the working age population and so on…

What’s more, there is nothing to tell us whether only having 4.7 unemployed people in the whole of the USA is a good thing or a bad thing, but I imagine it’s good.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:43:30 +0000

I stand corrected. Thanks Jon - I meant to say the “designed-by-a-professional-graphic-artist look”.

Dashboard Spy

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:17:13 +0000

“Business users and executive sponsors typically love the professional look and wow factor.”

Why do you use the word “professional”? A better word might be “polished”, and I’d be apt to use “glitzy”. But being covered with reflections does not make something “professional”.

Diehard Xcelsius users should not “hide their eyes” from Stephen’s review, either. Users of any tool should read about this tool, in order to learn its strengths and weaknesses, learn to use it more effectively, and learn what alternatives are worth trying.

By: Robert A.

Robert A. — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:15:13 +0000

I’m not a big fan of the “glossy” pie charts, but Peltier’s addition of the non-related legend makes this particular graphic look even worse than it really is, at first glance.

When I first looked at it, I assumed the legend was generated by the software, and was supposed to somehow relate to the colors of the pie slices - only after reading the text did I find out Peltier arbitrarily added the (unrelated) legend.