Comments on: Dashboards

By: Andreas Lipphardt

Andreas Lipphardt — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:07:05 +0000

BonaVista Systems announced today a
Excel
Dashboard Competition running from April – May 2008. Participants stand a

chance to win an iPhone, a workshop hosted by Stephen Few and a copy of Few’s
books

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:42:41 +0000

Attin – One of the first rules is “Don’t use Excel’s formatting defaults.” Once you get past that you’ll see an instant improvement.

By: Attin

Attin — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:40:41 +0000

Thanks this report!
Many people — accustomed to standard Excel reports — doubt that Excel can generate great looking reports. These sample Excel dashboards might change your mind.

By: Sandy Cavalaris

Sandy Cavalaris — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:20:19 +0000

Thanks for the mention, Jon. Much appreciated.

My dashboard reporting series will continue very soon as it will detail the work I’ll be presenting in the 50 minutes guest speakers have each been allocated at the upcoming Datawatch user conference in May. It’s tough to pack in all of the how-to details along with the live demo in that short time, so the blog will fill those gaps.

Also, to reinforce your points above, having recently read both of Mr. Few’s aforemention books, I’ve begun the process of updating and optimizing my production work following his teachings, with great responses from our national management team at my day job.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:10:24 +0000

B3ta currently has a charting challenge. Beware that B3ta posts can be crude and childish as well as clever and insightful. Your mileage may vary. Don’t visit if easily offended: http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/graphs/popular/

By: Jorge Camoes

Jorge Camoes — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:46:18 +0000

Hi Jon, thanks for your words. Let me add that I’ll publish a new version of my demographic dashboard during next week, so stay tuned…

I don’t really write about sparklines as much as I would like, but they are also a good tool for dashboard design. Bonavista Systems is one of the companies that implemented an Excel version. Take a look at their demo reports:
microcharts
Not everyone will like this approach, but it is every efficient and totally compliant with Few’s advices.

I believe that how people design dashboards tells us a lot about their information management skills.