Information Visualization is becoming an increasingly important strategy to provide dashboard consumers insights into their information deluge. It is important for practitioners to learn how to design dashboards in the most effective ways.

1. A short presentation on BI visual analysis.
by
Paul Hansford, MS
Senior Consultant
Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.8/23/2013 – TechnologyFirst BI SIG

2. Source: www.infovis-wiki.net

3. • Introduction
• Terms to think about
• Types of visualization/levels of maturity
• 13 Don’t’s and some do’s
• Resources
• Discussion
Data Rich, Information Poor (D.R.I.P.)

4. Get The Information In Front Of
The Right Group

5. Challenges
• Saving time from manual report building processes to near real-
time dashboards (business intelligence)
• Saving labor (IT) from manual report building to dashboards
• Moving from data collection to insights (analyze)
• Moving from insights to decisions (decide)
• Moving from decisions to actions (act)
Bottom line: Insight deficit, trustworthy data, time
delays, decision-making, and speed in taking action.
So, how do we build dashboards to enable the above?

6. Collect
Analyze
Decide
Act

7. Collect
Analyze
Decide
Act Review Collaborate
Collaborate
Workflow
Collaborate

8. LOB System
TechnologyStack
Dashboards
Interactive
filtering
Improved Decision
Outcome
You are here!
Information Visualization

9. • Optimize business processes
• Greater visibility into the business
• Identify potential training opportunities
• Enable better decision-making
• Measure and record performance, KPI’s and
SLA’s
What other outcomes are we looking for?

10. Effective
execution
of key
process
Intelligent
resource
deployment
and utilization
MEASURABLE
RESULTS
Bottom line: More value

11. Get more work done with fewer resources in
the office, at home, or on the road.
Improve
Business Insight
Reduce Costs
and Risks
Gain better insight into business drivers to
make more informed decisions about
improving competitive position.
Find customers more cost-effectively, close
deals faster, and gain better insight into
customer preferences to improve customer
service, satisfaction, and loyalty.
Reduce cost and complexity by deploying
high-value, easy-to-manage technology
products.
Top Priorities
Save Time and
Get Organized
Find and Retain
Customers

12. Source: http://www.fractalanalytics.com/industry-practices/data-driven-decisions.html

14. Purpose of Dashboard
“A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to
achieve one or more objectives, consolidated and arranged on a single screen
so the information can be monitored at a glance.”
- Visual information
- Achieve objectives
- Single screen
- Quickly monitored
Source: Intelligent Enterprise, March 2004, “Dashboard Confusion.” , Stephen Few
“a picture is worth a thousand words”

15. • Visualization
• Glyph icon
• Dashboards
• KPI
• Scorecard
• Metrics
• Chart junk
• SLA
• Gauge
• Filter
• UX
• ERSI
• BAM
• EPM
Homework assignments!

16. Role
• Strategic
• Tactical (Analytical)
• Operational
Types of Data
• Quantitative
• Non-quantitative
Can you give me some quick examples?

17. Thirteen Don’ts from author Stephen Few
• Exceeding the boundaries of a single screen
• Supplying inadequate context for the data
• Displaying excessive detail or precision
• Choosing inappropriate display media
• Introducing meaningless variety
• Using poorly designed display media
• Encoding quantitative data inaccurately

18. • Arranging the data poorly
• Highlighting important data ineffectively or not at all
• Cluttering the display with useless decoration
• Misusing or overusing color
• Designing an unattractive visual display
• Consider your audience
• Simplify, simplify, simplify!
• Use MAD model (Monitor, Analyze, Drill-down) principles

19. Books:
• Information Dashboard Design, Stephen Few (other books as well)
• Performance Dashboards, Wayne Eckerson
• Effective Dashboard Design, Gail La Grouw
• Beautiful Evidence, Edward R. Tufte
• Information Visualization: Perception for Design, Colin Ware
• Business Dashboards: A Visual Catalog for Design and Deployment, Nils H.
Rasmussen, Manish Bansal
Any books by Tom Davenport or Vivek Ranadive
Websites:
www.perceptualedge.com
www.infovis-wiki.net
http://practicalanalytics.wordpress.com
http://www.ciodashboard.com/cio-guides/cio-dashboard-guide/
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/index

20. Magazines:
Analytics-magazine.com, INFORMS
IBMDATmag.com, IBM Data magazine
Teradatamagazine.com, Teradata magazine online
Certifications:
CAP (Certified Analytics Professional)
TDWI’s CBIP (Certified Business Intelligence Professional)
Numerous vendor certifications

21. Examples
Good, the bad, and the ugly
http://www.perceptualedge.com/examples.php
Information Visualization in Motion
http://www.gapminder.org/