Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data 1st Edition

by Stephen Few (Author)

163 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0596100162

ISBN-10: 0596100167

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Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-Glance Monitoring
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Dashboards have become popular in recent years as uniquely powerful tools for communicating important information at a glance. Although dashboards are potentially powerful, this potential is rarely realized. The greatest display technology in the world won't solve this if you fail to use effective visual design. And if a dashboard fails to tell you precisely what you need to know in an instant, you'll never use it, even if it's filled with cute gauges, meters, and traffic lights. Don't let your investment in dashboard technology go to waste.

This book will teach you the visual design skills you need to create dashboards that communicate clearly, rapidly, and compellingly. Information Dashboard Design will explain how to:

Avoid the thirteen mistakes common to dashboard design
Provide viewers with the information they need quickly and clearly
Apply what we now know about visual perception to the visual presentation of information
Minimize distractions, cliches, and unnecessary embellishments that create confusion
Organize business information to support meaning and usability
Create an aesthetically pleasing viewing experience
Maintain consistency of design to provide accurate interpretation
Optimize the power of dashboard technology by pairing it with visual effectiveness

Stephen Few has over 20 years of experience as an IT innovator, consultant, and educator. As Principal of the consultancy Perceptual Edge, Stephen focuses on data visualization for analyzing and communicating quantitative business information. He provides consulting and training services, speaks frequently at conferences, and teaches in the MBA program at the University of California in Berkeley. He is also the author of Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Few is the author of Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten (2004), Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data (2006), and Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis (2009). Stephen is recognized as a world leader in the field of data visualization and he has worked for more than 25 years as an information technology innovator, educator, and consultant. As the principal of the consultancy Perceptual Edge, he focuses on practical uses of data visualization to explore, analyze, and present quantitative information. He also teaches in the MBA program at the University of California, Berkeley.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (January 1, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0596100167
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0596100162
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.67 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.56 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #269,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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163 ratings

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3 star		6%
2 star		3%
1 star		9%

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Top reviews from the United States

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José Vera Campello

BI presentation is all about Simplicity and Logic

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2011

Verified Purchase

I bought this book a few weeks ago, and I know of the previous work about the matter by Dr. Stephen Few. I am a great fan of him because of Bullet Graph conception. He also drives and manages a blog, Perceptual Edge, that teaches you tons of examples about how to do and how-not-to do everything involved in BI Dashboard creation.

I have to say this book is a good resource in case you are to design and develop a BI Dashboard.

There are many books out there related to design and to Data Visualization. This book is not about Data Visualization ONLY. I am saying this because I've read some reviews that state this book has somehow too many pages for such a small topic. I personally don't think so. Designing a BI Dashboard is not the same as designing a web board or simply a common dashboard. The topic is deep enough to deserve a whole book, maybe more. And this one is all about the BI Dashboard Interface.

If you plan to develop such a dashboard, you cannot rely only on this book, but you sure will need it to learn how to deal to the basic and more intrincate secrets about how to visualize BI information. You will need to know about how to choose KPIs, how to choose between many visualizations regarding KPIs, and so forth. But you will also need this book.

The book is wonderfully designed. The fonts, the background colors, everything on it makes you think about how much care you can take when editing a book. Highly recommended, but only if you have to deal with BI information, not ANY information that you need to visualize.

4 people found this helpful

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Dallas Marks

Changed how I design dashboards

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2010

Verified Purchase

You can, as the adage goes, judge a book by its cover. Take, for example, the spartan cover of Stephen Few's Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data. Designed by the author himself, it sets the tone for a book dedicated not to a specific tool or performance management methodology, but instead improving how dashboards can most effectively present information.

Dashboards are currently the "in" thing to have. You're simply uncool if your organization doesn't have one. But let's face it. Dashboards are often designed and built by IT geeks (of which I am one). And like the wagon wheel coffee table in When Harry Met Sally... (Collector's Edition) , many of our dashboard designs should be hauled out to the curb.

"Above all else, this is a book about communication", writes the author. And Stephen Few delivers, taking the reader on a journey through an unlucky "thirteen common mistakes in dashboard design" (see Chapter 3). Based on research on how humans process visual information (see Chapter 4: Tapping Into the Power of Visual Perception), he lays down principles that shun the "bling" features that look cool in software vendor demos but fall short in actual use. Who knew that sometimes the best way to present numbers is in a, sigh, table instead of a bunch of space hogging speedometers (see Chapter 6: Effective Dashboard Display Media).

In my role of consultant, I am frequently handed a cocktail napkin (less frequently a requirements document) that already lays out the design. So my job is more about following directions, not offering constructive guidance. However, this book has strongly influenced how I approach my work. Though not specifically about Xcelsius (although it is mentioned), I recommend this book and Xcelsius 2008 Dashboard Best Practices to all of my students. I believe its insights will change how you too can improve your dashboards by striving for the effective visual communication of data.

3 people found this helpful

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Deron Dilger

Clear, concise, and cleanly designed and presented.

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2008

Verified Purchase

This is a good book for those who need a better understanding of what constitutes a quality (visual) information dashboard. It doesn't get bogged down in useless details, focusing instead on the primary design factors (e.g. use of grapics, layout and space, text typeface and emphasis) which will help you to create a USEFUL and used info dashboard. The book itself is well designed (as one would expect) and the author's tone is casual and concise. Ample illustrations and images provide examples of the Dos and Don'ts so you can readily understand the design guidelines the author advocates.

Most of the book focuses on the visual aspects of info presentation with some useful forays into areas such as proper requirements/measurements gathering and different user types. Little of the book is on the "back-end" or deep business needs/uses of informational dashboards.

I think the book is well written, wise, and should be required reading for any developer who finds themselves working on an information dashboard or other data presentation project. Readers looking for more business case background or data-wrestling info will need other books but should consider reading this one to make sure all their hardwork doesn't result in a turd of a final presentation/project deliverable.

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Stacey Barr

Save millions of dollars by reading this book first...

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

Over my many years as a performance measurement specialist, I've worked with quite a few organisations who built performance dashboards that cost them many hundreds of thousands of dollars to design, tailor, populate and launch, and got very little value from the investment.

The very first performance dashboard I saw cost $2million, and heartbreakingly was decommissioned two weeks after its launch. Why? Because it contained irrelevant information that was difficult to interpret and use.

Most of the dashboards I've seen since have focused too much on spangly technology (gauges, dials, animations, 3D effects, etc...) and continued to leave relevance, usability and interpretation validity by the wayside.

If you want a peformance dashboard that helps you truly manage performance (and not just pretend to), read this book first. Then buy a copy for your dashboard developer, or hire a developer that already practices its principles.

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Top reviews from other countries

Stuart Walker

This will improve your presentation totally

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2011

Verified Purchase

This book is a superb summary of the latest thinking in dashboard design.

You probably know a lot of it - that is the beauty of this book. It organises thoughts and experience into a practical 'how to' for dashboard design.

This is the theoretical work of design and presentation, please don't buy thinking that it will tell you how to use excel or SAP. The whole point is to help you tell people what they need to know in a way they can clearly see it.

If you are a consultant then buy the book. I read it in a day then got a contract to produce a board reporting pack for a company, they liked it so much they asked me to do the same for a subsidiary. The recommendations alone made me 100 times the cost of the book.

but beware, you have to have a brain and you have to be prepared to work to change your behaviour. A book is only as good as the person reading it and if you expect to buy this and have it design and execute a report for you without you doing anything then you will be disappointed.

Mr. Alexander Watt

Great book - a must for designing dashboards

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2007

Verified Purchase

I agree with the two other reviews that I read prior to posting. This is a great book that is well written. The example screen shots really show you the difference that can be made by using good design principles as suggested. If you are doing any dashboard design you need to read this book. Also what was really good was at the end there was just one page acknowledgeing other major authors in the area and suggesting their texts as well. This was really useful as rather than wade through all the references it gave you a snapshot of who Mr. Few thought were the best in his field. Brilliant. Can't recommend it enough.

4 people found this helpful

Renato

Great insights

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2008

Verified Purchase

This is an excellent book and will change the way you look at how data is presented. I have struggled in the past trying to understand reports presented to me because of their poor design. The author offers a good mix of theory and practical examples, giving examples of poorly designed reports, pointing out their deficiencies and suggesting a better way of doing it. Overall it is a quick to read book that provides valuable insight.

6 people found this helpful

StephenMB

Your antidote to 'flash and dazzle'

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

Excellent book which should be read by every manager of whatever discipline. Worth the price just to learn about Bullet Graphs!

Mr. Christopher J. Hopkinson

lovely

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2013

Verified Purchase

a lovely read with some plenty of visual examples. Anyone who is designing dashboards should spend some time digesting this material. Even if you disagree with Sephen's arguments, the fact that you consider them will make you better at designing dashboards and presenting information in general.