Datum Design: Rethinking Data Visualisation for Business

Business data dashboards have gone through renaissance in the last five years with enhanced interactivity and easier tools to create them. However, most dashboard designed today are either at the 'pretty KPI decoration' end or at the 'detailed data explorers' end of the spectrum. They both fail to provide the level of insight communication, that we all see from purposeful designed visualisations in data journalism. This talks aims to understand the missing ingredients in current business dashboard design and aims to start a discussion on how we could rethink data visualisation for them. In the talk, I will explore a few guiding principles that could help us do this.

1. Amplify Cognition
2. Think Datum First
3. Show Single & All
4. Visualise Uncertainty
5. Towards Compositions
6. First Class Annotation
7. Layer Interactions

Transcript

1. Datum Design Rethinking Data Visualisation for Business Amit Kapoor amitkaps.com
2. In the last few months... — Helping a startup — Reviewing multiple dashboard products — Understanding the tools landscape
3. “We have a functional BI product, and we will put a dashboard on it”
4. “Business Dashboards are a solved problem”
5. This made me very uncomfortable — Is it all so simple? — Why do I rarely see good dashboard design? — Explain the glaring gap between data journalism and business?
6. “Information Seeking Mantra: Overview first, then zoom and filter, and details on demand” — Ben Shneiderman
7. “Business Information Seeking Dashboard Mantra: Overview Aggregate first, then zoom chart and filter link, and details table on demand” — Ben Shneiderman Every BI Designer Tool
8. BI Dashboard Design Approach — Load a data table
9. BI Dashboard Design Approach — Load a data table — Create aggregate measures
10. BI Dashboard Design Approach — Load a data table — Create aggregate measures — Make 1D or 2D charts
11. BI Dashboard Design Approach — Load a data table — Create aggregate measures — Make 1D or 2D charts — Put them in a block layout
12. BI Dashboard Design Approach — Load a data table — Create aggregate measures — Make 1D or 2D charts — Put them in a block layout — Link them with a few filters
13. BI Dashboard Design Approach — Load a data table — Create aggregate measures — Make 1D or 2D charts — Put them in a block layout — Link them with a few filters — Add a table list for details
14. Now this is too easy! — Task Layer: Unlock data using a Dashboard
15. Now this is too easy! — Task Layer: Unlock data using a Dashboard — Data Layer: Columnar data storage
16. Now this is too easy! — Task Layer: Unlock data using a Dashboard — Data Layer: Columnar data storage — Visual Layer: Reusable charts in blocks
17. Now this is too easy! — Task Layer: Unlock data using a Dashboard — Data Layer: Columnar data storage — Visual Layer: Reusable charts in blocks — Annotation Layer: Just the basics
18. Now this is too easy! — Task Layer: Unlock data using a Dashboard — Data Layer: Columnar data storage — Visual Layer: Reusable charts in blocks — Annotation Layer: Just the basics — Interaction Layer: Brushing and Linking
19. Creating simple used to be hard! Making a set of killer charts
20. "There is a difference between simple and easy. Do not confuse the two. The simpler the thing is to understand, often the more difficult it is to do."
21. “Age of Technology driven Interactive Charto-mania”
22. Technology driving Design UpSide - Increased visual analytics - Better simple charts - Improved aesthetic - Modular and Scalable design
23. Technology driving Design DownSide - Over-indexed on Singular Design Pattern - Shape of data is lost - Insight and Narrative is missing - Impersonal and Dry
24. “We need to rethink data visualisation for business”
25. Datum Design A set of principles to apply when building data visualisation
26. Datum Design 1. Amplify Cognition 2. Think Datum First 3. Show Single & All 4. Visualise Uncertainty 5. Towards Compositions 6. First Class Annotation 7. Layer Interactions
27. 1. Amplify Cognition
28. 1. Amplify Cognition
29. 1. Amplify Cognition
30. 1. Amplify Cognition1 1 Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction - Bret Victor
31. 2. Think Datum First
32. 2. Think Datum First2 2 The Architecture of a Data Visualisation - Giorgio Luipi
33. 3. Show Single & All
34. 3. Show Single & All
35. 3. Show Single & All3 3 Responsive Data Visualisation - Nick Rabinowitz
36. 4. Visualise Uncertainty
37. 4. Visualise Uncertainty
38. 4. Visualise Uncertainty4 4 Visualising uncertainty about the future - David Spiegelhalter, Mike Pearson, Ian Short
39. 5. Towards Composition
40. 5. Towards Composition
41. 5. Towards Composition5 5 Sandbox - John Le
42. 6.First Class Annotation
43. 6.First Class Annotation6 6 Making Annotations First-Class Citizens in Data Visualization - Elijah Meeks
44. 7. Layer Interaction
45. 7. Layer Interaction
46. 7. Layer Interaction7 7 Vega - Airport Connection
47. Upside Datum Design 1. Build a mental model 2. Understand the single story 3. Have a micro and macro picture 4. Know that data and model are uncertain 5. See the picture as a whole 6. Have a narrative to see 7. Move between layers of abstraction
48. Principles of Datum Design 1. Amplify Cognition 2. Think Datum First 3. Show Single & All 4. Visualise Uncertainty 5. Towards Compositions 6. First Class Annotation 7. Layer Interactions
49. One human life, closely observed, is everyone’s life. In the particular is the universal. — Roger Ebert
50. Datum Design Rethinking Data Visualisation for Business Amit Kapoor amitkaps.com @amitkaps