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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. Visit his website at www.perceptualedge.com.
From the Publisher
Dashboards have become popular in recent years as uniquely powerful tools for communicating important information at a glance. This book will teach you the visual design skills you need to create dashboards that communicate clearly, rapidly, and compellingly. 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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is something different from O'Reilly. Usually, you'd expect one of their books to plumb technical depths in order to supply the most detailed and complete reference tool for the application in question. As such, sometimes the books themselves can become quite difficult to read, and almost impenetrable for newcomers.
I'm glad to report that this book is not like that. Few writes with a casual tone, yet you are consciously aware that he is an expert in his field and he provides information at a steady rate, rather than overwhelming you with information. With intelligent use of figures and well planned chapters, this is a definitive reference tool for those who need to present data in graphical formats. So often when people produce graphs and charts, they end up like the nightmare Powerpoint presentation from Hell. Few gives practical advice on human perception as well as the relationship between information and visualisation that will truly help you to produce meaningful and appreciated dashboards, rather than the complex and downright ugly solutions that the author uses to show the worst examples.
If you are getting into Dashboard design, then this should be your primary purchase. If you produce graphical reports of any kind then this book is definitely worth a read.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm about half-way through as I write this review but I am already very impressed with this book. Few has an easy-to-read style that's not full of fluff or pompous nonsense, and he provides sensible advise for producing effective designs.
The book begins by defining the term "information dashboard": the definition is suitably broad that you may realise that solutions you've build before would fit in and would therefore have benefited from the design advice given in the book. To make his points about poor design, Few then uses a selection of examples found on the web. Many of these are eye catching and graphically pleasing - but the commentary makes you appreciate the problems each exhibits. In the middle of the book, Few describes accepted scientific theories about human vision, perception and cognition that we should take into account in our designs - and these generally support the arguments that the example dashboards used earlier in the book were poor designs in one way or another. Later in the book (and I have not read these chapters yet), Few provides practical advice that can be applied in dashboard design. I am expecting these to be almost self-evident by the time I get there thanks to the Background Few has provided me with. But I am still looking forward to reading them nonetheless.
This book is in no way biased towards any display technology, user interface technology or programming technology and is therefore applicable whether you are producing a single-user desktop application, a multi-user, multi-screen information wall (as you've seen in pictures of the stock exchange) or even if you are producing printed reports. The advice given is about the design thought process rather than any particular notation so is applicable regardless of the software design methodology you may use.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic and would say it's a "must-have" if you are practically involved in the specification, analysis, design and even implementation of Information Dashboards.
The book begins by defining the term "information dashboard": the definition is suitably broad that you may realise that solutions you've build before would fit in and would therefore have benefited from the design advice given in the book. To make his points about poor design, Few then uses a selection of examples found on the web. Many of these are eye catching and graphically pleasing - but the commentary makes you appreciate the problems each exhibits. In the middle of the book, Few describes accepted scientific theories about human vision, perception and cognition that we should take into account in our designs - and these generally support the arguments that the example dashboards used earlier in the book were poor designs in one way or another. Later in the book (and I have not read these chapters yet), Few provides practical advice that can be applied in dashboard design. I am expecting these to be almost self-evident by the time I get there thanks to the Background Few has provided me with. But I am still looking forward to reading them nonetheless.
This book is in no way biased towards any display technology, user interface technology or programming technology and is therefore applicable whether you are producing a single-user desktop application, a multi-user, multi-screen information wall (as you've seen in pictures of the stock exchange) or even if you are producing printed reports. The advice given is about the design thought process rather than any particular notation so is applicable regardless of the software design methodology you may use.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic and would say it's a "must-have" if you are practically involved in the specification, analysis, design and even implementation of Information Dashboards.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is an excellent book and will change the way you look at how data is presented. I have struggled in the past trying to understand reports presented to me because of their poor design. The author offers a good mix of theory and practical examples, giving examples of poorly designed reports, pointing out their deficiencies and suggesting a better way of doing it. Overall it is a quick to read book that provides valuable insight.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
This will improve your presentation totally
This book is a superb summary of the latest thinking in dashboard design.
You probably know a lot of it - that is the beauty of this book. Read more
You probably know a lot of it - that is the beauty of this book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Stuart Walker
Excellent Book
An Excellent and well written book.
Users say they want dashboards because they think they look good and makes them look important. Read more
Users say they want dashboards because they think they look good and makes them look important. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Brendan Matthews
Interesting read, recommend for dashboard builders
Beautifully presented and illustrated, the author guides you through common mistakes in information dashboard design before highlighting how these may have been improved upon by... Read more
Published 13 months ago by J. Webb
Pretty obvious stuff.
I wouldn't recommend this book even to people with unlimited amounts of money! Was looking for something on practicality/technicality of dashboard design - this was just a... Read more
Published 15 months ago by SupremeDalek
A must for anyone who are about to design a dashboard
This book gives easy-to-understand guidelines to dashboard design. What works and what does not. And why your design will or will not work. Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2009 by Jørn Sinkbæk Jacobsen
Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of...
Great book, i've enjoyed reading it.
Still lots of material presented in it is already on website of the writer (Stephen Few). I personally expected more from this book.
Still lots of material presented in it is already on website of the writer (Stephen Few). I personally expected more from this book.
Published on 30 Jan 2009 by i-anuar
Well Written, Well Presented
Stephen Few nods more than a little to Edward Tufte when it comes to approaches to visual and information design, and this book is both a highly informative and pleasant read for... Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2008 by J. J. Baker-bates
Great book - a must for designing dashboards
I agree with the two other reviews that I read prior to posting. This is a great book that is well written. Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2007 by Mr. Alexander Watt
Spins your whole understanding of dashboards and charting on its head
If you're currently using pie charts or graphs with lots of colours, you need this book.
If you've developed (or are developing) a digital dashboard that shares at least... Read more
If you've developed (or are developing) a digital dashboard that shares at least... Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2007 by Mr. E. Spooner
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