Secrets to Defeat the Clutter Enemy
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When Luke Skywalker saw the target on his X-wing fighter dashboard – something he’d visualized before – he knew his shot would land right where he’d planned. Everyone in the Rebellion forces knew the goal (destruction of the Death Star), and they understood their part in making it happen. Freedom in the galaxy was at hand.
Like an X-Wing pilot, decision makers need to keep their eyes on what’s happening right now. But what about your own corporate dashboard?
Let’s face it: executives judge your entire data strategy based on what they see on that one small screen, regardless of how well you’ve built the overall data solution. Everyone follows their lead; whatever data the CEO uses for decisions suddenly matters to everyone else in the company. The better your dashboard, the easier it is to get everyone in the company on the same page, literally.
Does your dashboard help your leaders clearly visualize their goals? Does it inspire the actions needed to get there? Does it help everyone get on the same page?
Tell A Better Story
Cole Knaflic, in her bestselling bookStorytelling With Data, says that when it comes to sharing data visually, many presentations look like numbers and charts scattered aimlessly on a page. Just like the noise of the battle threatened to distract Luke from his target, Knaflic wants you to eliminate the “cognitive load” from your dashboard.
She suggests you can learn how to do this from writers (like me!).
“If you find yourself facing a spaghetti graph, don’t stop there. Think about what information you want to most convey, what story you want to tell, and what changes to the visual could help you accomplish that effectively,”—Cole Knaflic, from Storytelling with Data
Here are a few things Knaflic wants you to do:
Start with a good problem statement.
- Know the question that your dashboard should answer.
- Focus your audience’s attention by highlighting the important stuff and eliminating distractions. Clutter is your enemy.
- Keep it simple, edit ruthlessly, and communicate with your colleagues. The story is not for you, it’s for them.
I’ve found three questions that can help you assess your dashboard. Ask if it reflects these qualities:
Is it newsy?
If your dashboard isn’t showing something new most days, it isn’t guiding daily decision-making. People will tune out really fast. Some common design mistakes cause this:
- Showing too much history on dashboards. Historical data doesn’t – and shouldn’t – change. A good dashboard should show only enough history to provide context for today’s decisions.
- Showing too much or too little granularity. A sales dashboard might show every order taken yesterday (too much detail) or just the quarter total (too little detail). You must find the right balance of granularity to drive both the executive summary and the operator’s action.
Think of your dashboard like your favorite online newspaper, and keep your daily readers in mind.
Is it actionable?
A good dashboard gives people receiving the data a clear understanding of what it measures and how to improve it. Theorists (me again!) call this connection “lineage,” the process of understanding how data flows from the source to the metric.
The key metric at my first job, Disneyland, was theme park attendance. My boss had a little box on his desk with red LED numbers that constantly rolled over, like a slot machine. Whenever someone walked through a turnstile, the number increased. Time to send out more churro carts!
It seemed like pure magic. It wasn’t magic; it was good data lineage.
Is it visual?
Unlike plain numbers, visuals communicate value – red is bad, bigger is more, trending up is good. Always consider how you can combine these elements to tell a better story.
Have you seen dashboards with random color choices and no obvious focus? Simply following a standard color palette and reviewing the story flow (left-to-right, top-to-bottom) on your dashboard can help. Visualization delivers a much more effective message by combining color, size, shape, and visual focus with numbers.
Less is More
Don’t forget the lessons of good editing: focus on the essentials. Your message usually gets clearer when you remove unnecessary data, lines, and labels. You don’t have to be an artist to do this; just use visuals to communicate more information with less clutter.
Maybe your dashboard isn’t going to help your company destroy the Death Star, but your dashboard still matters. You can still have fun with it. Be an X-Wing pilot, not just a disposable TIE fighter; an artist and a storyteller, not just a data dispenser.
To remind you of this week’s data concept, enjoy Major Tom by Peter Schilling, from the Frictionless Data Spotify playlist.
For the full story about making data flow faster and better, check out Frictionless Data on Amazon.
