Good dashboard, graph and chart design is critical to getting the most out of your Business Intelligence software investment.
Good visual communication of data enhances insights and provides rapid communication of information to decision makers.
We have below an example of a poorly designed chart, followed by an analysis of the problems and our proposed alternative solution.
The chart below forms part of a dashboard which formed part of a BPM application presentation we attended.
Our analysis of the problems with this chart:
- The background visual effect is distracting and adds no value.
- With Pie Charts it can be difficult to visually compare the sizes of pie slices. In this case, the reflective water droplet at the centre of the pie is flashy, but makes it even harder to make this visual comparison.
- The legend uses a lot of display space and does not intuitively match back to the pie slices.
Our Proposed Solution:
Note, there is nothing fancy about our solution, but it is simple and communicates clearly and effectively.
- Our use of horizontal bars solves a few problems. Firstly, the legend becomes the Y axis text labels which are now directly associated with their respective bars (this would not have been as convenient with vertical bars, especially with long text labels.)
- Secondly, the values can be sequenced by size, from large to small or vice versa. Ranking adds significant visual value here.
- As a general rule, involve a graphic designer in the development of visual effects (eg a corporate template for reports and dashboards), but when in doubt, remove any background images and visual effects which are not adding any value.
- We did not use many different colours in our solution and as always, we took into consideration what our chart would look if it was photocopied or printed in black and white.