Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data

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1. 

   Jose Ernesto Passos / October 28, 2010

   Review by Jose Ernesto Passos for Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
   Rating:
   After reading this book I have the following positive points to make:

   .. It is very well designed, it is nice to look at it.

   .. Has some good ideas (but they are not original ones).

   .. In general, following its advice you will be able to do a better design of dashboards and management information systems screens.

   If I counted only this I would give it 5 stars, but, I think this book has some negative points. One of the points makes the author inconsistent with his own recommendations throughout the book.

   The book is about designing dashboards and the major line of thought is:
   
   - keep it simple, clean and objective.
   
   - Use the tools (graphics and tables) in a rational way.
   
   - don’t use all the fancy features that software vendors put in their products for they will make your dashboard less effective.

   But the author when writing it, forgot part of his own teachings and produced a text that is very prolixic, too many words to explain simple concepts and ideas. Lacks objectivity.

   So, if you want to better understand the use of graphs, take a look at Naomi Robbins, “Creating More Effective Graphs”. This book is very objective, simple and fast to read.

   The second flaw is that in the examples to show how to do a well designed dashboard, the author used two types of graphs that are not available in today’s softwares. One type of graph was created by the author while writing this book (bullet graphs) and the other (sparkline) is the creation of Mr.Tufte, which will appear in a future book of his. It would be more useful to see examples with the typical tools available to design a dashboard.

   So, be prepared for a nice experience with pictures and graphs in a sea of words. It is an excellent book that will help design dashboards and the like. (So far is the best book on this topic).

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2. 

   E. Wuehler / October 28, 2010

   Review by E. Wuehler for Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
   Rating:
   I am currently working (as a software developer) on building a platform which incorporates a dashboard, so this book caught my attention. I learned a lot more than I ever really wanted to know about dashboard design aesthetics, visual perception and color theory; but if you’re looking for a one-stop-shop detailing dashboard design, this is the book.

   From the perspective of a software developer, I found the chapter “Thirteen Common Mistakes in Dashboard Design” quite useful. It discusses (obviously) thirteen “no-nos” when designing a dashboard. It has plenty of pictures illustrating the mistakes and describing helpful alternatives. The book is quick to read, the examples and critiques are explained well and easy to follow.

   Not having a design background, I don’t feel qualified to comment on the content other than to say it all made sense to me. I did, however, loan the book to one of our in-house design guys – he said it was “pretty good” and would recommend it.

   If you’re directly involved in building or designing a dashboard, this book is nice because it’s all about dashboards – rather than a design book with just a chapter or two on dashboards.

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3. 

   Thomas Duff / October 28, 2010

   Review by Thomas Duff for Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
   Rating:
   One of the system architecture ideas that has waxed and waned over the years is the concept of an Information Dashboard… a single screen of data that summarizes key data points for quick monitoring by executives. But just throwing a few graphs on the web page isn’t necessarily the right thing to do. Stephen Few covers the subject of dashboard design in his book Information Dashboard Design : The Effective Visual Communication of Data.

   Contents: Clarifying the Vision; Variations in Dashboard Uses and Data; Thirteen Common Mistakes in Dashboard Design; Tapping Into the Power of Visual Perception; Eloquence Through Simplicity; Effective Dashboard Display Media; Designing Dashboards for Usability; Putting it All Together; Appendix; Index

   For someone like me (not a whiz when it comes to graphic design) to really like a book of this nature is saying something. I actually understood everything he was writing, and I didn’t think this was some self-serving “listen to me because I’m an expert” volume. The book is printed on heavy paper stock and full color, so the examples don’t lose any impact in the normal translation to black and white. Lavishly illustrated with examples both good and bad, it’s easy to see why some things work and some don’t. Even designs that I thought “looked” professional had significant drawbacks. For instance, colors should represent the same thing throughout the page. Don’t make a pie chart with a red slice if you want red to represent a danger indicator somewhere else on the screen. Minimize the non-data pixels so the eyes don’t have to work at interpreting data from “fluff” (like graph lines). And when you’re choosing graphing formats, make sure you choose ones which are relevant to the data being displayed. Don’t choose a pie chart when a bar graph makes an easier comparison. He even goes into color choices and how they cause the mind and eye to group things on the page. Normally I’d be reading material like this with a “says you!” attitude, but there wasn’t a single instance where I thought he was pushing his own preferences instead of something that actually made sense and had some research behind it. I actually found myself thinking about some of my own application designs based on the material presented, as well as how I need to change a few things along the way.

   If you’re not a graphically oriented person (like I’m not), this book is a lifesaver for your design and development efforts. It should remain close at hand as you do your web site design on a daily basis. And even if you *do* know what you’re doing, you will likely become a whole lot better at it after reading Information Dashboard Design.

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4. 

   Jo Anne S. Burlison / October 28, 2010

   Review by Jo Anne S. Burlison for Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
   Rating:
   I suppose that comparisons to Tufte’s work are unavoidable, for he is the best known expert in visual information display and his work is undeniably elegant, but “Information Dashboard Display” is an entirely different type of book. While Tufte and Few would probably agree on most points in a discussion of information visualization, Tufte’s focus is wide-ranging and conceptual, while Few focuses on the practical needs of business, and in this book specifically on dashboard design.

   Few pulls together relevant advice from a vast body of research, organizes it, and makes it digestible for people like me who must display large amounts of data in the limited space of a single computer screen in a way that clearly and efficiently communicates. No one else has done this. He exposes the common problems in visual dashboard design and step by step leads the reader through practical instruction in how to do it right. I have a job to do; this book has helped me do it, and do it well.
   

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5. 

   Eric Jain / October 28, 2010

   Review by Eric Jain for Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
   Rating:
   This is one of the most insightful books on data visualization I have read so far. The author is rather critical of existing dashboard products, which he sees as favoring “decorative flourishes” over simplicity and usefulness. Screenshots are used to illustrate his points and to show alternative solutions. This book can be recommended to anyone who is interested in the display of information and usability issues.

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