Your World is not Red or Green Good Practice in Data Display and Dashboard Design
References Tufte, E. R. (2). The visual display of quantitative information (2nd Ed.). Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. Few, S. (22). Show me the numbers: Designing tables and graphs to enlighten (2nd Ed.). Burlingame, CA: Analytics Press. Few, S (29). Now you see it: Simple visualization techniques for quantitative analysis. Oakland, CA: Analytics Press.
Why This Presentation? Many projects in different organizations Many presentations of data Many dashboard designs A lot of ineffective ones Poor visualization No consideration of users perceptions or capacity for understanding A lot of bad use of data Ineffective Misleading Harmful
An Example One indicator, discussed weekly at a meeting of executives and managers at a big telecomm: This Week MTD YTD Target CSM 28. 27.57 27.62 28. This week, we celebrated! This Week MTD YTD Target CSM 27.83 27.55 27.6 28. This week, much wailing and gnashing of teeth
Indicators Gauges v Idiot Lights
Why the Idiot Lights? In 2, a study by EMC Corporation found that the world s information was doubling every two years Estimated that.8 million zetabytes would be created and replicated in 2 2 billion HD movies Fill enough ipads to build the Great ipad Wall of China twice the height of the original; or build a mountain of ipads 25x higher than Mt. Fuji Source: http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2/2628-.htm
Every Minute in 22: 57 new websites were created The Web picked up 27 new users YouTube users uploaded 48 hours of video Email users sent 24,66,667 messages Google received over 2,, search queries Facebook Users shared 684,478 items Flikr& Instagram users added 6,625 new photos Tumblr Bloggers published 27,778 new posts Apple received about 47, app downloads Twitter users sent over, tweets Source: http://www.mashable.com/22/6/22/data-created-every-minute
That was 22! In 23, a study by IBM estimated that 9% of all the data existing in the world had been generated within the past two years! That rate has held; we generate 2.5 quintillion bits of data per day.
We re Up to our Eyeballs in Data!
What s Needed? A way to make sense of the data Data + Analysis = Information Information + Display = Communication Goals: Understanding Better Decisions The purpose of analysis is insight!
Visual Perception Facts We do not attend to everything we see. Visual perception is selective. Our eyes are drawn to familiar patterns. We see what we know and expect. Memory plays an important role in human cognition, but working memory is extremely limited Few, S. (29). Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis. Oakland, CA: 9462-33
Pre-attention Some aspects of the world are perceived pre-attentively; i.e., we don t have to think about them to see them.
Pre-Attentive Attributes For Precision with Quantitative Measures: Longer = Greater Higher or Farther to the Right = Greater Adapted from Few, S. (29). Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis. Oakland, CA
Sales (in Millions) Comparisons Across Categories Sales by Region Category Northeast West Coast Southeast Midwest Southwest Deep South Hawaii-Alaska 9 8 Sales by Region 7 6 5 4 3 2 Region Northeast West Coast Southeast Midwest Southwest Deep South Hawaii-Alaska Sales 84 36 28 22 4 2 4 Percent 42. 8. 4.. 7. 6. 2.
Another Pie Chart
Bad Bar Better Chart Bar Chart
Time Series We analyze time series is to discover trends, or behavior over time The purpose: to try to predict, based on past behavior, what might happen in the future As with everything else, there are effective ways to gain this insight, and ineffective ways Remember: Working memory can only hold so much
Total Volume One Way Sales Volume, 29-2 4 Year 2 29 3 2 Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Another Way
A Little Cleaner
Cleaner Yet
What About Tables? Op 8.2 8.4 4.3 9 8.4 2. 4.7 2.2 4. 2.8. 4.8 2. 9.6 4. 2.9 3.9.2 8.9 6.3 Op 2 6 5.3 8.2 5.8 5.5 3.4 6.2 4.7 4.6 5.7 7. 6.5 3.6 2 4.5 2.3 4 4.4 4.5 2 Op 3 5.2.8 3.9 5.3 5.5 2.2 2. 6..4 5.6 4. 6.2 5.6 6.7 7.8 3.8 4.6 7.6 2.6.5 Op 4 9.8 7.2 6.4 23. 9.2 9.9 2.5 4.7 7.9 2.3 5.2 6.4 7.4 4.4 7.3 6 7.2 8.9 9. 2.7
Data Line Graph Op, Op 2 2 Variable Op Op 2 8 6 4 2 8 2 4 6 8 2 4 6 8 2 Hour
Cycle Time More Operators Cycle Time: Op, Op 2, Op 3, Op 4 25 2 Variable Op Op 2 Op 3 Op 4 5 2 4 6 8 2 4 6 8 2 Hour
Cycle Time No Help Cycle Time by Operator 25 2 Operator Op Op 2 Op 3 Op 4 5 5 Hour 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2
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Cycle Time A Different View Cycle Time by Operator 25 2 Operator Op Op 2 Op 3 Op 4 5 8 6 4 2 2 8 6 4 2 2 Hour
Cycle Time With Color Cycle Time by Operator 25 2 Operator Op Op 2 Op 3 Op 4 5 8 6 24 32 4 48 56 64 72 8 Index
Cycle Time No Help Cycle Time by Operator 25 2 Operator Op Op 2 Op 3 Op 4 5 5 Hour 23456789 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 9 23456789 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 9 23456789 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 9 23456789 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 9 Operator Op Op 2 Op 3 Op 4
Cycle Time Clearer Cycle Time by Operator 25 2 Operator Op Op 2 Op 3 Op 4 5 8 6 24 32 4 48 56 64 72 8 Index
Clearer Still
Back to Tables for a Minute Table 5: Quarterly Sales Volumes, Fourth Quarter, Year Five Region Sales Volumes Percent Change from Last Quarter Percent Change from Same Quarter Last Year Performance Index Region A 48 7.6% very good 2.6% very good ++++ Region C 337.7% good.8% very good +++ Region B 86 7.2% very good -8.2% bad + Region F 72-5.5% bad 4.7% good Region D 78-3.2% bad -2.6% bad -- -- Region E 359-9.7% very bad -22.3% very bad -- -- -- -- 2, SPC Press. Used by Permission
Region D Summary Last Quarter Last Year Now 2, SPC Press. Used by Permission
W&P 49 Quarterly Sales for Region D 85 539 558 59 556 54 59 66 643 657 62 596 64 69 723 7 82 749 762 87 78 8 75 7 65 6 55 5 2, SPC Press. Used by Permission
Region D, Trended Limits 9 85 8 75 7 65 6 55 5 45 4 588.2+/-93.5 725.2+/-93.5 Trend: +3.7 Units/Quarter 2, SPC Press. Used by Permission W&P 5
Red-Green Again This Week MTD YTD Target CSM 28. 27.57 27.62 28.
Moving Range Individual Value The Real Story Weekly Score 35 3 25 UCL=36.29 _ X=26.78 2 5 LCL=7.27 /4/2 3/ 5/2 5/24/2 8/2/2 / /2 2/2/2 2/28/2 5/9/2 7/ 8/2 9/26/2 2/5/2 Week of. 7.5 5. 2.5. UCL=.68 MR=3.58 LCL= /4/2 3/ 5/2 5/24/2 8/2/2 / /2 2/2/2 2/28/2 5/9/2 7/ 8/2 9/26/2 2/5/2 Week of
The Real Story We can confidently predict much wailing and gnashing of teeth, without significant management action
The Real Story For two years, the system had been stable They had top weekly net promoter scores from 7.3% to 36.3% of their customers (closer to 26.8% than farther away) Without action, they would continue to see about 65 weeks out of with a Red indicator So how useful is this? This Week MTD YTD Target CSM 28. 27.57 27.62 28.
Can They Be Useful? YES!