Dashboard design – displaying data for at-a-glance monitoring

Salesforce.com Finland User Group meetingSept 24, 2014

Host: If Vahinkovakuutusyhtiö Oyj

Robert Nykopp

Business Analyst

Metso Minerals

robert.nykopp@metso.com / robert.nykopp@gmail.com

+358 40 7254542

© Metso© Metso

• We are a leading process

performance provider, with

customers in the mining,

construction, and oil & gas

industries

• Our focus is on the continuous

development of intelligent

solutions that improve

sustainability and profitability

• We employ around 16,000

professionals in 50 countries

• Our shares are listed on the

NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd

51%Services business’ share of

2013 net sales

This is Metso

20%

Mining and

Construction

80%

Automation

2013 Net Sales EUR 3.9 bn

© Metso© Metso

Table of contents

1. What is a dashboard

• Dashboards support the performance monitoring process

• Dashboard design principles applied to SFDC

2. Limitations of working memory and perception

• Effective graphical means of showing data

• Ineffective graphical means of showing data

• Effective Salesforce components

3. Further resources

© Metso© Metso Source: Stephen Few material, Edward Tufte

It is not the following: displays that are used for data exploration and

analysis, portals, or reports used to look up specific facts – but it can

link to them.

We can think of a dashboard as an information display that’s

designed to help people maintain situation awareness (SA).

The terms was originally applied to military pilots whose

missions required an especially high level of awareness of

the details unfolding around them.

What is a dashboard

The purpose of a dashboard is to monitor what is going on

”Basically, situation awareness (SA) is being aware of what is happening

around you and understanding what that information means to you now and

in the future. This awareness is usually defined in terms of what information

is important for a particular job or goal. The concept of SA is usually applied

to operational situations, where people must have SA for a specified reason,

for example in order to drive a car, treat a patient, or separate traffic as an air

traffic controller. Therefore, SA is normally defined as it related to the goals

and objectives of a specific job or function.”

© Metso© Metso

Monitoring information to manage performance involves four stages:

1. Update high-level situation awareness

2. Identify and focus on particular items that need attention

a. Update awareness of this item in greater detail

b. Determine whether action is required.

3. If action is required, access additional information that is needed,

if any, to determine an appropriate response.

4. Respond.

Dashboards support this performance management process.

Information that cannot support action to maintain or improve performance does not belong

on a dashboard.

An information display that does not support this process is not an effective dashboard.

Dashboards support the performance monitoring process

Source: Perceptual Edge

Dashboard

Explore /

drill down to

reports

SFDCAction

© Metso© Metso

Dashboard design principles applied to SFDC

Keep the number of components to a

minimum per dashboard, choose function

over visual flourish, and favor effective means

of showing information(tables, bars, lines).

A dashboard is a visual display

of

the most important information needed

to achieve one or more objectives

that has been

consolidated on a single computer screen

so it can be

monitored at a glance

If it doesn’t support action to maintain or

improve performance, scrap it

Ideally, the viewer does not need to scroll

around to see the information. Have the most

important information readily available

A dashboard provides an overview. It must be

able to quickly point out something that

deserves attention and might require action. It

needn’t provide all the details necessary to

take action, but it should make getting to that

information as easy and seamless as

possible (use SFDC drill down capabilities)

SFDC / dashboard design implicationDashboard definition

© Metso© Metso

Limitations of working memory and perception

Three types of memory:

1. Iconic - like graphics buffer of a computer

It briefly stores what the eyes see until it is moved into short-term memory for conscious

processing or discarded as nonessential

2. Short-term (aka working) memory - like RAM

Readily accessible for high-speed processing but limited in capacity. Takes in

information from senses and also combines new info with long-term memory information

3. Long-term memory- like hard drive

Info that’s deemed worthwhile for later use is moved from short-term to long-term

memory where its stored and indexed

Date Author Title Source: Perceptual Edge7

Let’s not overload short term memory

© Metso© Metso Date Author Title Source: Perceptual Edge

Example: graph that exceeds the limits of short-term memory

Short-term memory is where sensemaking happens

Nine separate data sets can’t be concurrently held in short-term

memory

If you want someone to make sense of a graph as a whole, limit

data that encode distinct meanings to seven at most or to be

safe, no more than five

Limitations of working memory and perceptionLet’s not overload short term memory

8

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Jan Feb Mar Apr May June

Fictional sports store revenueBikes

Footballs

Running shoes

Hiking shoes

Supplements

Underwear

Gym

Ice skates

Hockey sticks

kEUR

© Metso© Metso

Limitations of working memory and perceptionWhat do you see here?

Date Author Title Source: Stephen Few, coolbubble.com9

© Metso© Metso

Limitations of working memory and perception

Did you see the dolphin?

Date Author Title10

© Metso© Metso

Limitations of working memory and perceptionCan you spot the dolphin now?

Date Author Title Source: Stephen Few, coolbubble.com11

. . . There are certain limits to memory and perception, so let’s

design dashboards in a way that plays to the mind’s strengths

© Metso© Metso Date Author Title Source: Stephen Few’s material, Salesforce

Line length

(example: bars in bar graph)

2-D position

Points

Effective graphical means of showing dataMost powerful attributes of

visual perception for show-

ing quantitative values

12

Visual attributes not included:

color, shape or size

Thus, four types of objects

work best for encoding

quantitative data

Lines

Bars

Boxes

Implications for choosing

Salesforce dashboard

components

Effective SFDC components

Graphical:

Non-graphical:

Less effective SFDC components

© Metso© Metso

1 ?

Date Author Title Source: Stephen Few

You can tell that second circle is

bigger, but how much bigger is it?

Ineffective graphical means of showing data2-D area

13

It’s exactly 16 times the 2-D area of

the smaller circle. You might have

guessed a different amount. Our

ability to compare 2-D areas is not

well-developed

© Metso© Metso

Ineffective graphical means of showing data2-D area: Pie/donut chart example

Date Author Title14

At a glance, you can tell that ”Other

fixed income” is the biggest, and that a

% share of a total is being described,

but beyond that it is difficult to make

meaningful sense of the data (because

sensemaking of graphical data

happens through comparisons)

For example, how much bigger/smaller

is Money market than Equities?

It’s hard to tell that money market is

16% of the total, i.e. 2% smaller than

Money market but 5% bigger than

Equities, and 16x bigger than Other

(1%)

A donut chart is only a pie chart with the center cut out

Other fixedincomePublic sector

Money market

Equities

Other

Investment allocation of a fictional insurance company

Other fixed income

Public sector

Money market

Equities

Other

Note: a donut chart is simply a pie chart with the center cut out

© Metso© Metso

Ineffective graphical means of showing data2-D area: Pie/donut chart example. Column/bar supports comparison

and making sense of data better

Date Author Title15

Column chart: more effective

1%

11%16%18%

55%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

OtherEquitiesMoney

market

Other

fixed

income

Public

sector

Less flashy, but you can immediately see each data

point’s relative ranking and approximate size

Pie/donut chart: less effective

Investment allocation of a fictional insurance company

Other fixed income, 55%

Public sector, 18%

Money market, 16%

Equities, 11%

Other, 1%

Investment allocation of a fictional

insurance company

© Metso© Metso

Tables are often useful when you want to see exact data or look up

individual values / leads / opportunities / accounts etc

Effective Salesforce components: tablesTables are useful when you need exact data or have few data points

16

5. Losses - last 60 days

Opportunity

Name Win/Loss Reason

Sum of

Forecast

Value (EUR)

Lost

opportunity 1

Price xxxM

Lost

opportunity 2

Delivery terms xxM

Lost

opportunity 3

Price; Technical

Solution

xxM

Lost

opportunity 4

Technical Solution xM

Total EUR xxxM

Max. 10 values displayed, click to access full report

-How to concatenate (combine) fields so you can show more in table

Tips:

-How to show up to four columns in table

© Metso© Metso Date Author Title

Note that when you have very few data points, graphs usually waste

space and don’t showcase meaningful patterns; tables are often a better

choice then

Effective Salesforce components: graphsGraphs work best when the message resides in the shape of the

data (patterns, trends, exceptions)

17

© Metso© Metso

Effective Salesforce components: special note on scatter plot graphYou can use it to display correlationA scatterplot does one thing, and it does it well: display correlations

We can see whether or not, in what direction, and to what degree two

paired sets of quantitative values are correlated

In this fictional example,

we can see that higher

temperature tends to

lead to higher ice cream

sales

Date Author Title18

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

0 5 10 15 20 25

Temperature (C)

Ice cream sales (EUR)

© Metso© Metso

Further resources: dashboard design checklist

19

© Metso© Metso

Further resources: books

I borrowed from Stephen Few’s and Edward Tufte’s books for this

presentation

20

More

philosophical

- changes the

way you look at

showing data

More practical

- helpful as a

reference of do’s

and don’ts

Date Author Title21