Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data |  | Author: Stephen Few
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Category: Book
List Price: $34.99
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Rating:  64 reviews
Sales Rank: 9749
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 8.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0596100167
Dewey Decimal Number: 005
EAN: 9780596100162
ASIN: 0596100167
Publication Date: January 1, 2006
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 64
 Beautiful book with plenty of design insight (and examples)... April 17, 2006
Thomas Duff (Portland, OR United States)
34 out of 35 found this review helpful
One of the system architecture ideas that has waxed and waned over the years is the concept of an Information Dashboard... a single screen of data that summarizes key data points for quick monitoring by executives. But just throwing a few graphs on the web page isn't necessarily the right thing to do. Stephen Few covers the subject of dashboard design in his book Information Dashboard Design : The Effective Visual Communication of Data.
Contents: Clarifying the Vision; Variations in Dashboard Uses and Data; Thirteen Common Mistakes in Dashboard Design; Tapping Into the Power of Visual Perception; Eloquence Through Simplicity; Effective Dashboard Display Media; Designing Dashboards for Usability; Putting it All Together; Appendix; Index
For someone like me (not a whiz when it comes to graphic design) to really like a book of this nature is saying something. I actually understood everything he was writing, and I didn't think this was some self-serving "listen to me because I'm an expert" volume. The book is printed on heavy paper stock and full color, so the examples don't lose any impact in the normal translation to black and white. Lavishly illustrated with examples both good and bad, it's easy to see why some things work and some don't. Even designs that I thought "looked" professional had significant drawbacks. For instance, colors should represent the same thing throughout the page. Don't make a pie chart with a red slice if you want red to represent a danger indicator somewhere else on the screen. Minimize the non-data pixels so the eyes don't have to work at interpreting data from "fluff" (like graph lines). And when you're choosing graphing formats, make sure you choose ones which are relevant to the data being displayed. Don't choose a pie chart when a bar graph makes an easier comparison. He even goes into color choices and how they cause the mind and eye to group things on the page. Normally I'd be reading material like this with a "says you!" attitude, but there wasn't a single instance where I thought he was pushing his own preferences instead of something that actually made sense and had some research behind it. I actually found myself thinking about some of my own application designs based on the material presented, as well as how I need to change a few things along the way.
If you're not a graphically oriented person (like I'm not), this book is a lifesaver for your design and development efforts. It should remain close at hand as you do your web site design on a daily basis. And even if you *do* know what you're doing, you will likely become a whole lot better at it after reading Information Dashboard Design.
Practical advice that works March 2, 2006
Jo Anne S. Burlison (Berkeley, CA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
I suppose that comparisons to Tufte's work are unavoidable, for he is the best known expert in visual information display and his work is undeniably elegant, but "Information Dashboard Display" is an entirely different type of book. While Tufte and Few would probably agree on most points in a discussion of information visualization, Tufte's focus is wide-ranging and conceptual, while Few focuses on the practical needs of business, and in this book specifically on dashboard design.
Few pulls together relevant advice from a vast body of research, organizes it, and makes it digestible for people like me who must display large amounts of data in the limited space of a single computer screen in a way that clearly and efficiently communicates. No one else has done this. He exposes the common problems in visual dashboard design and step by step leads the reader through practical instruction in how to do it right. I have a job to do; this book has helped me do it, and do it well.
Insightful January 2, 2006
Eric Jain (Seattle, WA USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is one of the most insightful books on data visualization I have read so far. The author is rather critical of existing dashboard products, which he sees as favoring "decorative flourishes" over simplicity and usefulness. Screenshots are used to illustrate his points and to show alternative solutions. This book can be recommended to anyone who is interested in the display of information and usability issues.
Information Dashboard Design August 14, 2006
Halifax Creative User Group (Halifax NS)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book primarily deals with what the title says. Dashboards. I was not aware ofthe complexity and breadth of this type of interface, but since it is not a forte I usually provide to clients, the book was an interesting read.
Way back when I got into digital work, I first learnt as a programmer and put together simple applications. Even then, it was really the program that allowed the interface to be built and dictated what and how things were displayed. Today, one can customize an interface for dashboard software, be it tied through a network, RIA, or some other data stream. There are simple rules to follow and key learnings that this book can translate to other design realms.
Had a client choose your worst mock? Been there - done that. This books best advice is simple. Choose the best design that fits the needs of your clients and present that. The rest of the advice and as to why, you should find out for yourself.
Well worth the money. Suitable for all designers to get a different perspective on interfaces and a couch jumper for those who are managing reporting systems for clients (inhouse or not).
Appeal to software architects, interface designers and other designers such as web, RIA, DVD or interested parties. Not relevant to the print crowd too much.
A Should read November 5, 2006
Andreas Schneider
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
A should read for all dashboard designers as well as software engineers, who are programming all those new flashy features into their dashboard tools.
Forget all the speedometers, pie charts, and 3-d charts and focus on conveying the message in a clear & concise format instead.
Focus on the message and not colorful, but distracting dashboards.
This book covers a lot of design fundamentals with a lot of examples. It does not cover how to select the KPIs to be displayed, but how to display KPIs, once they are chosen.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 64
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