Information + Science

2/1/2018
The Definition of a Dashboard

What’s music? What’s artwork? What’s an vehicle? There’s a time and place for rigorously drafted definitions. For instance, when drafting authorized contracts it is vitally essential to have outlined phrases so that every one events to the contract have a transparent understanding and keep away from confusion.

Within the opening pages of The Big Book of Dashboards, we outlined the time period dashboard:

“A dashboard is a visible show of information used to observe situations and/or facilitate understanding.”

We spent an excellent little bit of time debating this definition. All of us acknowledge it is a broad definition, however we got here to the conclusion that enterprise dashboards, their makes use of, and designs, are so broad that it’s not doable to create a slender definition.

Stephen Few just lately wrote a weblog publish “There’s Nothing Mere About Semantics” the place he criticizes me and my fellow authors for what he feels is an overly-broad definition.

The aim of visualizing information is to realize insights. Previously 20+ years, I’ve by no means as soon as been in a gathering the place somebody has requested, “What’s a dashboard?” or mentioned, “I actually like that faceted analytical show.” These phrases are meaningless to folks within the enterprise world.

However, since Mr. Few determined to jot down his publish, I needed to handle some factors about this definition.

Let’s look at Few’s definition of a dashboard. In each his 2004 and 2013 editions of Info Dashboard Design, his definition is:

“A dashboard is a visible show of an important data wanted to realize a number of goals that has been consolidated on a single pc display so it may be monitored at a look.”

My co-authors and I’ve large issue together with his definition. My largest downside together with his definition is the second half, “consolidated on a single pc display so it may be monitored at a look.”

Why does a dashboard need to be consolidated to a single display? He claims that that is essential as a result of we have to see the whole lot at a look with the intention to monitor it. Definitely there are situations the place a consolidated view is important, however that’s not at all times the case. If a dashboard is optimized for a cellular gadget and requires some scrolling, why would that make it any much less of a dashboard? Given the advances in expertise, we are able to now swipe and scroll with ease, or navigate with a push of a button. In reality, folks count on to scroll on a pill or sensible cellphone.

Why does it need to be monitored at a look? We dwell in a society of instantaneous gratification, so I get that we would like solutions rapidly, however not each query can, or ought to, be answered at a look. The truth that a dashboard takes greater than a look shouldn’t invalidate it as a dashboard.

Perhaps Few modified his thoughts on these factors. His most up-to-date definition of a dashboard that he makes use of in his workshops is totally different:

“A dashboard is a predominantly visible data show that folks use to quickly monitor present situations that require a well timed response to satisfy a selected function.”

Mr. Few makes use of many qualifiers which result in a really particular definition. Nonetheless, a few of these qualifiers are, at greatest, simply litter, and worse, result in an overly-specific definition creating exception after exception. A dashboard is:

predominately visible – How a lot is sufficient or too little?
that folks use – versus chimpanzees? This isn’t wanted.
quickly monitor – this modified from « at a look » within the earlier definition. How does « at a look » differ from « quickly »?
present situations – what’s the definition of present?
well timed response – what’s the definition of well timed?
particular function – what is particular concerning the function?

Why cease there? If this have been a authorized contract, every qualifier would additionally have to be an outlined time period. Or we are able to write it out intimately.

“A dashboard is a predominantly visible data show, proven on a pc display, that people who find themselves predominately 18 to 65 years outdated, use for round 1 minute, to observe situations, which can be typically fast however not more than 3 months previous, as a result of the monitored situation requires a response that’s usually between fast and 24 hours, however no multiple week, to satisfy a selected function that have to be outlined by a enterprise goal.”

Whereas Mr. Few strives for readability in his definitions, he contradicts himself. He states in his most up-to-date weblog publish that we as authors of The Large Ebook of Dashboards have “added to the confusion that exists about dashboards and dashboard design”, however let’s look at how Few himself has contributed to this confusion through the years.

Within the first version of Info Dashboard Design, Few categorizes dashboards into three roles; Strategic, Analytical and Operational (web page 40-41).

Right here’s what he wrote about Strategic dashboards: “Given the long-term strategic course, somewhat than fast reactions to fast-paced adjustments, these dashboards don’t require real-time information.”

His second class of dashboards are Analytical dashboards, or dashboards that assist information evaluation. Few writes, “Analytical dashboards ought to assist interactions with the info, corresponding to drilling down into the underlying particulars, to allow the exploration wanted to make sense of it.”

This isn’t the one class that Few outlined. He outlined a desk of variables and values to construction a taxonomy of dashboards. Along with the three roles above, he additionally lists quantitative vs. non-quantitative, static show vs. interactive show, primarily graphical vs. primarily textual content, portal performance vs. no portal performance and balanced scorecard (for instance KPIs) vs. non-performance.

Distinction this to the second version of Info Dashboard Design beneath (web page 30).

A dashboard is NOT any of the next: [emphasis added]

• A show that’s used for information exploration and evaluation
  [Once its own category of dashboards as defined by Few is no longer considered a dashboard.]
• A portal
• A scorecard
• A report that folks use to lookup particular info

These contradictions aren’t merely a results of a brand new version of his e book. Within the second version (web page 226) he incorporates a Advertising Evaluation Dashboard, serving a lot of the identical objective because the Web Analytics dashboard in Chapter 13 of The Big Book of Dashboards – monitoring issues like guests and pageviews. Few writes, “Like all dashboards, it’s used to observe the knowledge wanted to do a job, however on this case that job occurs to primarily contain evaluation.” [emphasis added] Most of the dashboards in The Large Ebook of Dashboards do precisely that, monitor data that includes evaluation.

One other instance is the ultimate dashboard proven in Info Dashboard Design (2013, 2nd version). Cited for example of an excellent dashboard, he incorporates a “World Inhabitants Dashboard” designed by Jorge Camoes (web page 232-233). In describing it, Few writes, “this isn’t a real efficiency monitoring dashboard…however is a variation that’s designed for most people to entry and examine on the net.”

Few himself, so dedicated to his definition, included this World Inhabitants dashboard in his second version of Info Dashboard Design in 2013. How does this instance match his definition “speedy monitoring of present situations that require a well timed response to satisfy a selected function”? What’s the well timed response for the reader? Go have extra children? If it’s not a “true efficiency monitoring dashboard” then what’s it?

Do you see the issue? Few labels this as a dashboard in his personal e book, however then calls out others as “including confusion.”
This World Inhabitants Dashboard serves the identical objective as quite a lot of the dashboards in our e book, for instance, the Large Mac Index designed by The Economist, or The Monetary Occasions dashboard exhibiting the financial system at a look.

Few ends his weblog publish by exclaiming that in The Large Ebook of Dashboards “solely 2 of the 28 examples of shows that seem within the e book qualify as rapid-monitoring shows”. By no means thoughts the truth that we don’t use the phrase “speedy”, we imagine that almost all of the dashboards in The Large Ebook of Dashboards are the truth is designed to observe situations to realize an goal. Moreover, even when they don’t, there’s actually a associated situation listed in many of the chapters the place the design components might be used to take action. This is a vital distinction, as a result of that was the entire objective of the e book.

Few’s Info Dashboard Design has over 50 poorly designed dashboards and detailed explanations about why they don’t work. Open the second version and see how far you get into the e book earlier than you discover an instance of an excellent dashboard. I feel you’ll uncover the primary one on web page 153, and it’s the dashboard featured on the entrance cowl (additionally, similar to the design and performance of the dashboard in Chapter 10 of The Big Book of Dashboards). In distinction to his e book, we tried to search out examples of excellent design and clarify why we expect they work for his or her meant objective. This isn’t to say that presenting dangerous examples with commentary isn’t useful within the studying course of, however we needed our e book to have extra examples to emulate. We selected the 28 eventualities to exhibit real-world enterprise issues and provide potential options for them, discussing why we expect they work (and we additionally embody what we’d enhance). It’s our hope that our readers will take inspiration from our e book after they encounter related conditions of their work.

Again in 2007, a well known creator within the subject of information visualization wrote:

« I need to deal with the insights that emerge when software program allows us to view a set of information from a number of views on the similar time. I name a display that accommodates a number of concurrent views of a standard information set in order that comparisons will be made a ‘faceted analytical show.’ Don’t fear concerning the title, nonetheless. No matter you select to name it’s high-quality. What
issues is that you’ve the means to broaden your analytical attain by viewing information on this manner.«  [emphasis added]

Who wrote these sensible phrases? Properly, this was truly written by Stephen Few in his whitepaper entitled « Three Blind Men ». It is value repeating these final two sentences. « Dont’ fear concerning the title, nonetheless. No matter you select to name it’s high-quality. »

Okay, I select to name these shows Dashboards. As do many different information analysts working within the subject each day. As do the key software program distributors enabling an unprecedented explosion of information analytics within the real-world every day. We used the time period « dashboard » as a result of that is what the world of information analytics calls them, and we needed to assist these folks make their dashboards higher.

Later in that very same article, Few writes once more, « Right here’s an instance that I rapidly threw collectively utilizing the brand new multi-chart performance that Tableau calls a dashboard, however I desire to name a faceted analytical show to tell apart a show like this that’s used for interactive information explorations and evaluation from one that’s used to observe what’s happening. »

That is one other instance of confusion and contradiction. On this 2007 whitepaper, he « prefers » to make use of the time period faceted analytical show for « interactive information exploration and evaluation », however simply 4 years previous to that, he outlined this similar factor as an « Analytical Dashboard » in his dashboard categorization and taxonomy (Info Dashboard Design, first version, pages 40-41).

If our aim is to assist folks visualize their information in a significant manner, then I do not assume our effort and time are greatest spent arguing for a tightly-scoped definition of a widely-used time period. This supplies no worth in serving to folks visualize their information in a significant manner. Within the opening sentence of The Large Ebook of Dashboards, we acknowledge Stephen Few, “whose books have made a profound and lasting impression on us.” We have been impressed by and realized from these books, even if we disagreed together with his definition of a dashboard or discovered contradictions in his writing, or that we wished for extra good examples of dashboards. Few’s first three books helped pave the best way for us. Sadly, as a substitute of continuous this nice work, he has determined as a substitute to deal with policing phrases like “huge information” and “information science”, and consistently criticizing advertising and marketing departments and enterprise intelligence software program distributors.

It’s exhausting to search out the sign in all the noise. This debate is the noise, and it is serving to distract from the sign: find out how to visualize information in a manner that helps all of us perceive the world we dwell in. In the long run, that is what we realized, partly from Stephen Few, and that is what we hope to do with our e book.

Jeffrey A. Shaffer
Comply with on Twitter @HighVizAbility