Dashboards

Dashboard Template

By Dashboard Spy · Comments (0)

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

This Dashboard Spy business dashboard template is created in HTML and is offered for you to use in your business intelligence software application.

Portlets on Business Dashboard

Note the extensive use of the portlet layout. Some portlets can be scrolled vertically to show rows of data, while others are fixed in size.

The dashboard software developers on your business intelligence project will save weeks of development time by leveraging the html and css behind this template.

The dashboard template is contained in a zip file. You should be download the file to your hard drive and extract it. Browse the folder and you will see some html files and some folders. Click on the html file and you will be able to view the dashboard in your browser.

Note: This is an HTML template. You will need to connect your datasources to the dashboard. You’ll also want to leverage a graphing component or reporting engine to supply the charts. Seek the help of your developer to estimate the integration time for this business dashboard front end.

Enter your name and email address in the form below to receive the template. You will also be placed on The Dashboard Spy email list to get updates and more business intelligence dashboard assets.

Categories : Dashboard

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Use of Colors on Business Intelligence Dashboards

By Dashboard Spy · Comments (0)

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Business Intelligence Dashboard Design – Use of Colors for Data Visualization

Colors can help you interpret the meaning of the metrics on your business intelligence dashboards. There are actually quite a few things to keep in mind when designing your business dashboards. Let’s take a look at using color.

A truly effective dashboard makes good use of color to display information in an easily understood manner. Color theory and the cognitive effects of color are subjects close to the hearts of visual artists, but seldom appreciated by creators of dashboards and other user interfaces. Be careful as the poor or careless use of color can mangle the real message of the data.

No discussion of color would be complete without a quick word on some fundamental warnings about the use of color in your dashboard projects.

It is estimated that up to 8 to 12 percent of the male population suffers from some form of color blindness.
Take a look at this series of graphics that show how the colors of the rainbow appear to people with various forms of color blindness:

Note how similar Yellow and Green can be to some color blind people and also how similar Red and Green can be to other color blind people. Now isn’t that eye-opening?

The other classic warning about colors has to do with black and white versus color printers. It is still uncommon at many offices to find a color printer. Many users send their dashboards to the office printer so that they can study the hardcopy later. Most of those copies will be in gray scale.

So, what do we do about these basic color challenges? Do these limitation mean we should not use color on our dashboards? Of course not. It does mean, however, that we must always use color in conjunction with text labels.

By that I mean explicitly including the relevant label right on or next to the graphic. For example, if you are showing a red/green/yellow status indicator graphic, put the text value right next to the graphic.
With that basic warning out of the way, let’s look at some critical rules to follow concerning the use of color in your dashboards.

Be aware of the background color of tables and graphs. Use a background color that contrasts sufficiently with the foreground objects. Also, use background color to group and unify different objects.

Components of graphs and tables that are “non-data”, that is, structural elements, should not call attention to themselves. Conversely, the data-centric elements of charts should be highlighted with color.

When displaying a sequential or related group of metrics, use a small set of related hues and vary the intensity to correlate with the increasing data values if possible.

Try to make the color usage meaningful. Use different colors to show different meanings.

Use color consciously – check with yourself that each color (or the particular usage of colors) is meaningful.
Note that the above guidelines refer to the sections of your dashboards that contain data. The rest of the dashboard (page background, navigation elements, branding areas, headers and footers may be designed to accommodate your usual graphic look and feel.

Tags: Business Intelligence Dashboard Design – Use of Color for Data Visualization

Categories : Dashboard

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Technology vs Strategic Intent

By Dashboard Crafter · Comments (2)

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

One of my customers is a large company that generate a few hundred reports on a daily basis, many of them unwanted, unused or unrepresentative of the business. The business is largely driven by the technology that provides financial services to a unique sector. The business understand the challenges, but being a technology-driven company, is heavily reliant on the Information Technology department to deliver the goods.

I’ve been trying to slowly push the concept of implementing a Business Intelligence platform and finally managed to get the ear of the CIO, who told me “Well, I like your idea. Tell you what, provide a quick demo and if I like it I’ll take it to the Business people.” I was excited, and immediately began probing to see which processes would be the best to map for a proof-of-concept demo.

I came away feeling that what will really seal the deal would be a whizz-bang demo showing a hierarchy of dashboards, each boasting fancy graphs of many colours, with hover and click effects, and perhaps soothing music playing in the background. “Make it look nice, and add our logo to the page, ” I was reminded.

This got me to wonder to what extent dashboards needs to be technology focused. In this fast changing technological environment, dashboards have to be – technologically speaking – responsive, relevant and multi-leveled and a good dose of technology is required to provide that. However, at some point, the dashboard has to stop being a technological gimmick and start being reflective of the business environment. At this point, responsiveness, relevance and multi-levelness must be about the business processes, and the technology used to present the information starts to become less and less relevant, as the data presented is probed to deeper levels.

Building a dashboard therefore requires a good balance between the technology used and the information it provides. Far too often, a dashboard project is embarked on largely because of the eye-candy it provides (normally compared to current solutions). Over time, the new bells and whistles become old-hat, and the business is no further from where it was prior to the project. So we wait for the next big technological wave…and the cycle continues.

A dashboard should be one of the deliverable of the strategic intent of the organisation to provide the business with meaningful information. It should be guided by a information management strategy, which should covers all aspects of delivering information to the business. An analysis must be undertaken to understand what is being presented, to whom, and how that information is used by the business. Skipping this portion of the project will bring the whiz-bang, but will run out of flavour as soon as the ooh-aahs subside.

Before embarking on your next dashboard project, ask whether the strategic intent is balanced well with the technology you are presenting.

Categories : Dashboard

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World Cup Dashboards and Visualizations

By Dashboard Spy · Comments (3)

Friday, June 18th, 2010

The 2010 World Cup is being monitored by fans not only on television and the web, but also through some very interesting dashboards and data visualizations.

iDashboards has their 2010 World Cup Tournament Dashboard.

idashboards world cup dashboard

From their press release:

These dashboards monitor the matches played by each team, match scores and points earned by each team in easy-to-view charts and graphs which are updated after each game. Teams compete to make it past the Group Stage and be among the top 16 teams. From the Round of 16, users can view at-a-glance information on team standings and follow who wins the title. There is also an interactive customized map of South Africa where users can roll-over a stadium to see the matches being played there.

Here’s a look at the stadium dashboard:

idashboards stadium dashboard

The NY Times has the following interactive data visualization: NY Times World Cup Match Tracker

Check out the wonderful navigation of this Calendar World Cup:

calendar world cup

The FIFA World Cup Live Tracker even has crowd noises and other sound effects.

And the UK newspaper The Guardian has this World Cup 2010 Twitter replay:

world cup twitter replay

Categories : Dashboard

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Obama Visits NYPD Dashboards

By Dashboard Spy · Comments (0)

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Dashboard user Barack Obama, shown here using the Federal I.T. Spending Dashboard, recently visited the NYPD Command Center, known for a stunningly sophisticated dashboard system.

Obama Federal Dashboard

The NYPD Anti-terror Command Center houses “The Big Board”, an operational dashboard that serves as the center’s focal point for managing security incidents and events.

Here is Obama thanking the staff for their work with the recent Times Square bombing attempt.

obama nypd command center

The NYPD Command Center controls a ring of security in lower Manhattan. It processes data from over 1,000 cameras located below 30th Street. Input from license plate readers, face recognition systems and radiation detectors are processed in real time and results from the “video analytics” are presented on “the big board” aka the NYPD operational dashboard.

nypd command center dashboard

The NYPD operational dashboard is not just a “read-only” system – it can be used to initiate security measures. It has the ability to initiate roadblocks and even start an evacuation of lower Manhattan.

nypd anti-terror dashboard

As with all business intelligence systems, the effectiveness of the dashboard is only as good as the data it receives as input. While Obama was visiting the NYPD dashboard in regards to the terror incident in Times Square, that area is actually outside of the NYPD dashboards “ring”. There are plans to increase the area of coverage, but that’s a funding issue – and we all know the challenges in securing funding for dashboard enhancements.

Take a tour of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative Hub

Categories : Dashboard

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IPAD DATA VISUALIZATION?

By DashOfInsight · Comments (0)

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/numbers.html

Categories : Dashboard

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Business Dashboard Experts

By Dashboard Spy · Comments (0)

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

If dashboards are your passion, we want your opinion! You are invited to join DASHBOARDS.ORG as a blogger.

Your experience with business dashboard design, implementation, use, metrics, KPIs - whatever your involvement with business intelligence dashboard projects – is extremely valuable. Add to the growing body of knowledge about enterprise dashboards by contributing dashboard screenshots, dashboard project experience, links, resources and whatever you can think of to help your fellow dashboard project members.

Join Hubert Lee, The Dashboard Spy and many other business intelligence dashboard enthusiasts in this joint blogging adventure.

You will be granted blog author status in this exciting community of executive dashboard experts.

If you are interested in blogging about your enterprise dashboard projects, send leave a comment below or send Hubert Lee an email at this email:

take out the spaces (trying to hide my email from the spammers!)

i n f o

d a sh bo ar dspy

dot

c o m

Categories : Dashboard

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Klipfolio Dashboard Charts

By Dashboard Spy · Comments (0)

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Topic: Dashboards.

The variety and visual appeal of the charts in Klipfolio Dashboard are simpy amazing. The ease of use and novel “Desktop Widget” approach of Klipfolio will expand your mind as a dashboard designer. Download and install the trial and you’ll see what I mean.

The most recent version of Klipfolio is 5.4. Take a look at the press release at this link: Klipfolio Dashboard 5.4. Here is a look at some of the available charts:

Tags: Klipfolio Dashboard Chart Types

Categories : Dashboard

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Dashboards for Social Media Monitoring

By toddlane · Comments (0)

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

My favorite commercials from the Winter Olympics were for the film, How to Train Your Dragon, and for Jay Leno’s return to The Tonight Show. Watch the animated vignettes for How to Train Your Dragon, specially created for the Olympics and showing the “Viking origins” of several Winter Olympics events, here. Watch The Tonight Show commercial here.

I was impressed by DreamWorks’ effort to create humorous vignettes just for the Olympics, and I think The Tonight Show commercial was a quick, humorous way to promote Jay Leno’s return, playing on Jay Leno’s car collection.

Although I haven’t found advertising pricing information for the 2010 games, this news release from January 2010 indicates that the average price of a 30-second commercial for the 2006 Winter Olympics was $224,600. For at least that amount this year, advertisers must be keen to get as much feedback as possible on their impact. Nielsen Ratings showing the number of viewers of the Winter Olympics were great, but what about consumer sentiment?

Dashboard showing topic track and awareness reports for How to Train Your Dragon

I used social media monitoring product Biz360 to create two dashboards that monitor social-media activity for How to Train Your Dragon and The Tonight Show in the last 30 days. How to Train Your Dragon was mentioned 3,879 times in social media outlets. The topic track and other reports include comments in addition to original posts. Its high point before the Olympics was 93 mentions on one day; during the Olympics, its coverage steadily climbed, reaching a peak of 231 mentions on one day. Following the Olympics, coverage remained steadily over 100 mentions per day. Sentiment was 59.4 percent positive; 35.4 percent neutral; 2.7 percent negative; and 2.4 percent mixed. I can see all outlets where it was mentioned, the measure of sentiment for each outlet, the number of mentions per day, and I can even drill down to each individual mention.


Dashboard showing The Tonight Show trend and sentiment reports

The Tonight Show was mentioned 19,596 times in social media outlets over the last 30 days. Coverage rose from a low point of 245 mentions on one day before the Olympics to 1,035 mentions on one day during the Olympics to 3,289 mentions on March 2, the day after Jay Leno returned to the show. Sentiment was 57.4 percent positive; 25.1 percent neutral; 11.7 percent negative; and 5.8 percent mixed. The top outlet was Digg, with 712 items.

My dashboards show that both How to Train Your Dragon and The Tonight Show are doing well in social media outlets. How to Train Your Dragon will likely receive many more mentions after it is released on March 26th, just like The Tonight Show did after Jay Leno’s return.

Categories : Dashboard

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The Night Panel

By DashboardWire · Comments (1)

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

In my prior post, I discussed the fact that my car has a tach but an automatic transmission and the relative uselessness of the tach. But my car, a Saab, does have a redeeming feature that is a GREAT dashboard example! The Night Panel button. This does not exist on any other car manufactured and is derived from the history of Saab making aircraft.

The Night Panel

While driving in the dark, all the instruments glow brightly unless you turn down the dash lights. But that sometimes dims the information you need to see so it is somewhat of an all or nothing proposition. Enter Saab with the Night Panel button. When you push the night panel button all the dash and control lights are dimmed enough so you can see where they are and what they are, or they are turned off completely. What you end up with is just the speedometer lit and nothing else. That pesky tach is turned off, the gas gauge, turbo boost gauge, and the temperature gauge. The info display showing date, time, radio controls, heater controls are all turned off completely. Now you see just what you NEED to see RIGHT NOW. Not the nice to know information, just the critical needed information. So the speedometer is lit up, but only partially. What, partially? It only lights to about 90 mph. Probably not going to be going over 90 in the dark so it is turned off. However, if you go over about 83 mph, then the rest of the speedometer lights up so you see it.

What Happens Next Will Amaze You!

So what happens next? What if I need to see something else? Good question. If you are getting low on fuel, then the fuel light comes on just below a quarter tank. Now you are informed about something that you need to know when you need to know it. You didn’t care before, but now you do and the dash lets you know right away. It gives you adequate time to find more fuel BEFORE the car runs out of gas. How about all the other controls, what happens with them? If you change the radio station, the controls light up for several seconds to show the new selection and then dim again. Same with the heater controls. So you make an adjustment and it shows your actions. If all systems are still good within parameters, then the lights dim again. Now that is a great example of a dashboard! Brilliantly simple.

How Can I Apply It To My Dashboards?

Keep it simple (have we heard that before somewhere?). Put a review date on your entire dashboard AND all the individual components. You might need to track something for a few months then the conditions change so you don’t need to follow it anymore. Let it go. Maybe even document somewhere the dashboard layouts and why they exist. Track changes and document why it changed. Let new hires look at the dashboard and change document for insight into how your company lives and breathes. Having worked my way up thru the various levels of accounting and finance at different companies, it is still amazing to see what reports are still being generated with no real reason for their existence anymore. It was relevant, but not anymore. Let it go. Be disciplined in your review of the dashboard. It forces you to do a review of what is really important NOW in your company.

Paul

Categories : Dashboard

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Dashboard Template

Use of Colors on Business Intelligence Dashboards

Technology vs Strategic Intent

World Cup Dashboards and Visualizations

Obama Visits NYPD Dashboards

IPAD DATA VISUALIZATION?

Business Dashboard Experts

Klipfolio Dashboard Charts

The Night Panel

Welcome to DASHBOARDS.ORG

Dashboard Vendor Ads

Dashboards By Example

The Dashboard Spy

Cool Infographics