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. Visit his website at www.perceptualedge.com.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 53 Ratings

Good - 2009-10-19
Reviewer Rating:
I'm a computer scientist and I think any programmer who ever might do any design can benefit from this.
It is not only well written but also contains enough information to be worth reading.

The best book I have read for constructing visual dashboards - 2009-10-11
Reviewer Rating:
A client suggested I read this book to get a better understanding of the psychological impacts of metric dashboards. Typically these tools become filled with extraneous data and information which quickly becomes unwieldy and difficult to understand. To avoid these situations, the eight chapters of this book walk a reader through the basic elements of metric dashboard design using human perceptual factors as a key integrative concept. The associated diagrams and tables are mostly colorized to help demonstrate the many metric dashboards displayed in the book. A key goal of the book is to create metric dashboards which provide meaningful comparisons between measures to enable a reader to take meaningful action when underlying processes display aberrant patterns. I highly recommend this book a good reference for consultants and others responsible for designing metric dashboards.

Waiting for the Tools to Catch Up - 2009-08-18
Reviewer Rating:
Few's ideas are not all original, but do come from good pedigree. He outlines some traits of human perception that prove very useful when thinking about how to impart critical information in a limited space and in such a way that users will quickly take notice of what is important. His design concepts and examples, both of good and bad design, are very helpful.

I found the book to be a pretty quick read and useful to both dashboard designers and end users who participate in the design process. Without reading the entire book, end users could be directed to some of the examples and a couple of chapters that express the most important concepts.

Unfortunately, many tools still don't easily support many of the techniques and controls he advocates. I'm looking forward to when more vendors take him up on his challenges to implement his designs.

Fantastic Book! - 2009-08-13
Reviewer Rating:
Starting the dashboard specification for a new module in our current software service was a bit daunting, but this book gave me EXACTLY what I needed. I'm not only confident that we'll be able to produce something that works and that helps our customers, but am extremely excited about the potential of this new module on future sales and retention.

I practically ran out of hi-lighter ink by the time I was finished. :)

A great book, a great sale - 2009-10-19
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book from this source, and it came in very good condition and no hiccups in the process.

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