Welcome to the Quick Intelligence blog - a space where I post my thoughts on all things QlikView and related topics. One of the things QlikView is great at is dashboards. In fact the word Document and Dashboard seem to have become interchangeable when talking about QlikView files – even when the content is in no way a dashboard. Why is this?
First up, let’s define a dashboard. To my mind it is a display of data on a single page to convey as much pertinent information as possible in that physical space. I am sure there are many other definitions, but that will do me.
Given that, as soon as you add any ‘dive to detail’ you have made your QlikView document surpass the constraints of a dashboard. On the other hand there are many QlikView documents that fail to deliver the punch of a dashboard on the front page. For example; Sales by Month is something that changes slowly and management should already know the history of it – so all this chart adds is a slight movement in the last point of the line each time it is viewed – yet it often appears on pages designed as dashboards. Think carefully what you want to see or deliver on this first page.
The term dashboard comes from the console on a car. These generally show very few measures – but they are all you need to get to where you are going safely and without incident. You do not need to know miles travelled per month for the last year – but a single red light for low oil is essential. Bear this in mind when creating your dashboard – stick to the essentials.
The car analogy is helpful – but it has spawned one of the biggest design crimes out there – the over use of the dial gauge. These look good, but are major space hogs for the amount of information they convey. Typically displaying a percentage of some kind, the same information can be displayed simply in plain text. The colour the needle sits in is a useful indicator (us humans read a lot into colour) but that colour can be displayed in the colour the percentage text is written in or it’s background. Before filling your document with gauges consider if it is actually the best display object for what you want to show.
My final thought on dashboards in QlikView is around whether they should be static or dynamic. I have been requested to build a number of scorecards that ignore any selections made (thank you {1}). However, doesn’t this deny one of QlikView’s biggest advantages? Well, I always steer people toward using selections, cycle groups and variables to maximize re-use of components and to get the most information packed into a small space. The customer is always right though and a static display may be exactly what they need. It certainly allows a conclusion to be drawn from a five second glance – one of the things a dashboard should always deliver.
At the end of the day the most important thing is that the document delivers on the business need it is designed to meet. Encourage a good deal of thought to go into the first couple of tabs and always listen to the needs of the key users.
Whether you call you QlikView document a dashboard, scorecard, business analysis tool, on-line board pack or multi dimensional insight engine – is then entirely up to you.
The dial gauge conveys more information than the text box; namely, the green, orange, and red zones tell the user if action is required or recommended. Colored text does not have this information since there’s no indication of why it’s colored. The mis-use of the gauge often happens when there is no action associated with the status. In your example, if there no action required for the user if the storage reaches 75% then the gauge does not add any useful information. However, if files need to be deleted or boxes moved then the gauge is entirely appropriate.
Steve,
Good article, this is a message that is worth repeating. I like your definition of a dashboard.
Regarding static dashboards, I mostly see those requests coming from users that are so used to static reports that it makes it very hard for them to think outside that box. It reminds me of the famous Henry Ford quote:
“If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse’”
Like you, I also try to steer people towards dynamic, flexible dashboards as this is where QlikView really shines. Realistically though, the customer is king, so if they want a static dashboard, they get a static dashboard.
Van, if you need the extra information that a gauge conveys, you may want to consider a bullet graph (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_graph) as an alternative. This contains the same information in a format that requires much less screen space.
Cheers,
Barry
I agree that the gauge adds the dimension of showing if you are just into the red or well into it – which the colour of the text does not show. However, the person consuming the information should know exactly when they need to carry out actions.
The big advantage of the text over the gauge is that you can fit about six text values into the same space as a gauge. Perhaps allowing you to show the measure for a number of warehouses individually.
If space is not at a premium then a well specified gauge can deliver the insight required, but designers do need to be aware of the alternatives.
Steve,
Nice summary of a dashboard.
Regards,
Unilyzer
Be sure to check out alternate states in QV11 and you can say good bye to {1} in your dashboards
With regard to the gauge and taking action. You could always add another number next to this that shows how far above or below the action point you are, saves space, is precise and saves users time doing the math in their head.
As a footnote to the ‘Document’ / ‘Dashboard’ tag given to a .qvw file; at the Business Discovery event in London the new term was ‘App’ – invoking thoughts of mobile phone applications. I personally think that this suits quite well – as it conveys the fact that what you create is dynamic and delivers some kind of functionality, rather than just static data.
Most gauges and graphs allows you to add texts and expressions in the Presentation tab.
I always combine the gauge with a read-out of the actual figure as well, so that you have the best of both worlds. It took me a while to figure out how to accurately place the text in the gauge though and if someone has not figured it out already, you hold down Shift + Control at the same time and that will allow you to move around the text to where you want to display it.