Poorly Designed Dashboard
Comment on what does not work well in this dashboard
There is no common variable across the reports for comparison
The title of the dashboard is incomplete. Name of company, department, unit etc. needs
to be mentioned
There is no logical flow to the reports. It starts with shipping information followed by only
sales in multiple reports
The alignment of the charts and sizing has not been done. The Z-Layout concept etc.
has not been used.
The color combinations used are also not consistent.
Sales forecast within a performance chart do not relate with each other.
Some of the charts are not relevant to performance. Giving the right title to show the
purpose of the chart is very important.
The dashboard is very busy. Too many charts embedded without proper formatting and
visualization
The legend for sales per customer by sub category is too long. Alignment is also not
done properly.
Legends for some of the charts are missing. Single variable across all charts will help
reduce this clutter.
The forecast information give very limited insights. Forecast need to have a time
component as well
Cannot analyse the profit and discount chart as the legend is missing
The charts are not connected. Drill down and interactivity is lacking
Comment on how to improve the design of the dashboard
Define the purpose of the dashboard. Is it to look at product / category performance or is
it a revenue / profitability chart
Based on the purpose of the dashboard define key KPIs that have to be visualized. This
could include some common variables or filters across the dashboard to improve drill
down functionality, filtering and interactivity
Follow visual best practices, in cases where more than 4 charts have to be included in
the dashboard ensure to follow the Z concept
Dashboards needs to be customized based on the audience. Ascertain who the
consumers of the dashboard are
It’s always good to have a time component in any forecasting
If it is purely a performance dashboard, forecast information is not relevant. In case of a
current performance dashboard the following charts needs to be included –
This study source was downloaded by 100000795632630 from [Link] on 04-03-2022 00:47:48 GMT -05:00
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o Pie chart to show contribution per department / product
o Tree chart to show breakup of revenue by department / product / geography etc.
o Bar chart to show the sales with cooler coding for profitability and a line chart to
show discount
Comment on choice of charts
Bubble chart– Starting a dashboard with a bubble chart is not advisable. Also there is a
bubble and tree chart in the same dashboard. This might get redundant at times.
Tree chart– The tree chart is too small to convey the message. The impact of the chart
is lost due to the size and the labels that are not clear
Pie chart– The pie chart should be used only at time when that info is used to drill down
further for a specific variable. In this case it does not have any connection to the rest of
the dashboard
Multi line charts– Multi line chart with dual axis will lead to confusion. In case dual axis
is used we need to ensure it’s a mix of different chart types (like bar graph and line etc.).
Labels for such charts are also very important.
Area chart– Area under the chart can be used when there a only a few value to be
shown under the chart. In this case there are too many value leading to unnecessary
complexities.
Comment on ability of this dashboard to communicate a story effectively:
There is no story-boarding done while building this dashboard. The charts do not have a
logical order or connection. There is no real understanding of the company performance
The charts used don’t present a coherent view.
The overall layout of the chart is not user friendly or intuitive. Irrespective of the audience
it’s difficult to understand the information the dashboard is looking to convey
It doesn’t take the viewers through all the aspects of organizations performance.
Sales forecast chart is not appropriate for a performance review also the representation
is not easy to understand.
This looks like a quick and dirty attempt at making a dashboard but done without any
focus or end objective in mind.
Overall the dashboard looks extremely amateurish and does not fit the purpose.
This study source was downloaded by 100000795632630 from [Link] on 04-03-2022 00:47:48 GMT -05:00
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