Programmer Musings

Review of Information Dashboard Design

Information Dashboard Design
Stephen Few
O'Reilly, 2006

This book covers a growing trend in user interfaces, the dashboard. The purpose of a dashboard is to display important information clearly and concisely. The author makes a point of stating that a dashboard must convey information you need to act on. This generates a shift in viewpoint from displaying data to helping focus attention where it is needed.

A large portion of this book involves examples (both good and bad) of dashboards. The author analyzes each example to explain what works and what does not. Along the way, he explains principles of visual design that can help you produce an effective dashboard. We learn that pie charts are usually not very effective, that flashy interfaces don't usually convey information well, and that extra pixels can ruin a good dashboard. He also reinforces the importance of the placement of data on the display as well as grouping and displaying data for use rather than for glitz.

The examples in the book cover a wide range of styles from mostly text to mostly graphical. Colorful displays are contrasted with subdued presentations. Cool gauges, traffic lights, maps, 3D pie charts, and numerous graphs are all compared and examined. Some of the examples are visually stunning. After Few finishes analyzing their flaws, you may be stunned in a different way.

One of my weak areas in software development is UI design. Some of the advice in this book may be obvious to someone with more visual arts background, for me it was really an eye-opener. As I got farther along in the book I found that even I was able to spot some of the flaws in the examples. I don't know that I learned enough to make a really good dashboard on my own, but I believe I now have a better grasp of what not to do.

If you find yourself in the position of needing to design or develop a dashboard or would just like to know something about this form of display, I would highly recommend this book.