可視化 (VISUALIZATIONS)

It’s easier than ever to dive into dashboarding, but are you doing it right?

深入儀表板比以往任何時候都容易，但是您這樣做正確嗎？

Tableau, Power BI, and many other business intelligence tools allow you to visualize data without touching Excel or writing a single line of code.

通過Tableau，Power BI和許多其他商業智能工具，您可以可視化數據，而無需接觸Excel或編寫一行代碼。

While it’s great that more and more people can work with data, we should also remember that presenting it properly is as important as ever. Well-designed dashboards convey relevant information and allow users to make data-driven decisions. But how can you create a well-designed dashboard?

盡管越來越多的人可以使用數據非常棒，但我們也應該記住，正確呈現數據與以往一樣重要。 精心設計的儀表板可傳達相關信息，并允許用戶做出以數據為依據的決策。 但是如何創建設計良好的儀表板？

Let’s go through three overarching questions to bear in mind as you design, create, and deliver a dashboard.

在設計，創建和交付儀表板時，讓我們經歷三個基本問題。

時間可用性(優先級) (Time Availability (Priority Level))

Asking this question can help you get started:

提出以下問題可以幫助您入門：

How much time does the user have to look at this dashboard?

用戶必須看多少時間該儀表板？

It’s simple, but important nonetheless.

這很簡單，但仍然很重要。

So why should we care specifically about the time constraint?

那么，為什么我們要特別關注時間限制呢？

Understanding how much time someone has is important, because it can help you understand how people are going to use a dashboard. Even if someone has all the relevant knowledge to understand, filter, and modify a dashboard to answer a business question, it won’t matter if they don’t have the time to do so.

了解某人的時間很重要，因為它可以幫助您了解人們如何使用儀表板。 即使某人掌握了所有相關知識，可以理解，過濾和修改儀表板來回答業務問題，但是他們沒有時間這樣做也無關緊要。

This doesn’t mean that you should sacrifice quality when creating a dashboard for someone with limited time. However, it could mean that you could, for example, customize the dashboard’s date filters in advance, so that the user can get the answer they need right away. Tailor your dashboard to the time someone has to go through it, and you’ll be well on your way to helping your organization make well-informed decisions.

這并不意味著在為時間有限的人創建儀表板時，您應該犧牲質量。 但是，這可能意味著您可以例如預先自定義儀表板的日期過濾器，以便用戶立即獲得所需的答案。 為儀表板量身定制某個人必須經過的時間，這樣您就可以很好地幫助組織做出明智的決策。

In most cases, you should build your dashboard to be as specific or general as what your user explicitly wants. However, there may be times when you understand the data more so than the user. Because of this, you may believe that to truly make a data-driven decision, you have to include more data, even if the user doesn’t have the time to go through it. This may be when a conversation between you and the user is necessary, so that you can emphasize that they need to prioritize this problem a bit more.

在大多數情況下，應將儀表板構建為與用戶明確想要的特定或通用。 但是，有時候您比用戶更了解數據。 因此，您可能會相信，即使用戶沒有時間進行真正的數據驅動決策，也必須包含更多數據。 這可能是您和用戶之間有必要進行對話的時候，以便您可以強調他們需要優先考慮此問題。

目的 (Purpose)

It would be too easy to say that you can generalize how much time someone has based on their position in the organization. For instance, a busy CEO may want to understand why a specific region is underperforming and what the potential solutions are. In this case, she could benefit from a detailed presentation-styled dashboard (like an interactive story on Tableau) to explore the situation, a more common high-level executive style report.

很難說您可以根據某人在組織中的職位來概括他們有多少時間。 例如，忙碌的CEO可能想了解為什么某個特定區域的表現不佳以及潛在的解決方案是什么。 在這種情況下，她可以受益于詳細的呈示樣式的儀表板(例如Tableau上的交互式故事)來探索情況，這是更常見的高級執行者風格報告。

This brings us to our second question:

這帶給我們第二個問題：

What will the dashboard be used for?

儀表板將用于什么用途？

Another way of putting this question is “what decisions will this dashboard help an end-user make?” When you’re looking to help the finance team review quarterly expenses or give an executive an overview of the new product’s digital marketing campaign performance, you’ll want to create a dashboard that gives clear-cut answers. This means that you should include only the visualizations and KPIs that make it easy for the end-user to find the answer. If possible, you should also pre-set filters to show only the relevant data needed for each time they need to use the dashboard.

提出此問題的另一種方式是“ 此儀表板將幫助最終用戶做出哪些決定？” 當您希望幫助財務團隊審查季度費用或向執行人員提供新產品的數字營銷活動績效的概述時，您將需要創建一個儀表板以提供明確的答案。 這意味著您應該只包含可視化和KPI，以便最終用戶輕松找到答案。 如果可能，您還應該預先設置過濾器，以僅顯示每次使用儀表板時所需的相關數據。

In contrast, if you’ve created a market research report and need to help your manager make a decision about which new region to expand to, you’ll want to take a more exploratory design for your dashboard. Think as if you’re creating a dashboard that’s a condensed and interactive representation of all your Googling. You should allow the end-user to filter and see results for different scenarios in the dashboard, and have the different graphs and tables update dynamically with every filter.

相反，如果您已經創建了一份市場研究報告，并且需要幫助您的經理來決定將擴展到哪個新區域，那么您將需要對儀表板進行更具探索性的設計。 想想好像您正在創建一個儀表板，該儀表板是所有Googling的簡明和交互式表示。 您應該允許最終用戶進行過濾，并在儀表板上查看不同方案的結果，并讓每個過濾器動態更新不同的圖形和表格。

初始接待 (Initial Reception)

The next step is to make sure people actually use the dashboard you create. A final question to ask is this:

下一步是確保人們實際使用您創建的儀表板。 最后要問的問題是：

What can I do to make sure this dashboard makes a good first impression?

如何確保該儀表板給人留下良好的第一印象 ？

Especially when you’re creating a dashboard to solve a problem that has already has a solution, you need to make sure your new solution is received well. It might not matter if you include new visualizations or a more complete set of data if the end-users perceive that the dashboard is difficult to use.

尤其是在創建儀表板以解決已經有解決方案的問題時，需要確保新解決方案得到良好的接受。 如果最終用戶認為儀表板難以使用，則包含新的可視化效果還是包含更完整的數據集可能并不重要。

This means that you need to consider how you interact with the end-users prior to delivering the finished dashboard. While you’ll definitely have some form of communication to understand what they want, it may be worth showing your first draft of a dashboard to get some immediate feedback about what’s working and what’s not. You could keep doing this until delivering a final product, as long as you make sure that you’re not unnecessarily bombarding the end-users with questions.

這意味著在交付完成的儀表板之前，您需要考慮如何與最終用戶進行交互。 雖然您肯定會通過某種形式的溝通來了解他們的需求，但也許值得展示您的儀表板初稿，以獲取有關工作原理和無效指標的即時反饋。 只要確保您不會不必要地向最終用戶提出問題，您就可以繼續這樣做，直到交付最終產品為止。

Finally, when it comes to delivering the dashboard, it may be ok to just send an email with the link to the final version. However, depending on how much you spoke to the end-users beforehand, it might also be worth taking the time to give an overview-type presentation on the dashboard’s functionality and scope. Even a one-page write-up of the data sources you used and some basics on how to filter and interact with the dashboard might be helpful, depending on who your end-user is.

最后，在交付儀表板時，可以只發送帶有最終版本鏈接的電子郵件。 但是，根據您事先與最終用戶交談的程度，可能還需要花一些時間在儀表板的功能和范圍上進行概述式的介紹。 取決于最終用戶是誰，甚至對您使用的數據源進行一頁書面介紹，以及有關如何過濾和與儀表板交互的一些基礎知識也可能會有所幫助。

Remember that when you’re creating a new solution for people that already have something to work with, it’s not enough for your dashboard to deliver the same value as the old solution. If it does, what would be the point in the end-user switching over? Because of this, after you design and create a dynamic and easy-to-understand dashboard, make sure you communicate exactly why it’s better than the current method being used.

請記住，當您為已經有工作經驗的人們創建新的解決方案時， 儀表板無法提供與舊解決方案相同的價值 。 如果可以，最終用戶切換的意義何在？ 因此，在設計和創建動態且易于理解的儀表板之后，請確保準確說明為什么它比當前使用的方法更好。

And that’s it!

就是這樣！

Again, here are the three things to remember:

同樣，這是要記住的三件事：

1. How much time does the user have to look at this dashboard?

   用戶必須看多少時間該儀表板？

2. What will the dashboard be used for?

   儀表板將用于什么？

3. What can I do to make sure this dashboard makes a good first impression?

   我該怎么做才能確保該儀表板給人留下良好的第一印象 ？

Be sure to keep these questions in mind, because nothing is worse than spending a week creating what you think is the perfect dashboard, only to have it ignored after you’ve delivered it. Remember that all these questions are geared towards understanding the motives and attitudes of the end-user, because that is the most important person you need to account for when designing a dashboard.

請務必牢記這些問題，因為沒有什么比花一個星期的時間來創建自己認為完美的儀表板更糟糕的了，只是在交付后才忽略它。 請記住，所有這些問題都旨在了解最終用戶的動機和態度，因為在設計儀表板時，這是您需要考慮的最重要的人。

Happy dashboarding!

快樂的儀表板！