Archive for May, 2011
Arrange Data Logically – Survival Tip #7
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Can users find Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) right away? Is there a planned sequence to the flow of information? Are like elements designed consistently and grouped together? Studies prove that we approach information in a familiar pattern, moving left to right and top to bottom. For dashboard designers, that means the upper left corner should [...]
The Power of One – Survival Tip #6
Does critical information fit easily on one screen? Can users view the entire picture without scrolling? What information can be relocated to a drill-down category? When we do the math on successful dashboards, it all adds up to one: one dashboard that fits on one screen with just one focus on each tab. Work with [...]
Data Modeling for Healthcare Business Intelligence
Data modeling has always been near and deat to my heart. Perhaps its because early in my career I learned a very valuable, and difficult lesson about how data models can make or break you. As with anything, there is a good and bad way to do things, and then a whole bunch of variables [...]
Maximize Space – Survival Tip #5
With the fifth survival tip, we are now halfway through the series. I hope it’s been educational. I truly believe these tactics will help you in your dashboard design approach. They are common sense techniques and when they are used together, can create a powerful and effective business tool. The fifth survival tip involves you [...]
Simple Solutions
I have finally figured out one of the most annoying bugs in my scheduling project after seemingly endless fixes and adjustments. When I would update the databases with consultant’s weekly hours, there were constantly two projects that wouldn’t be recognized, and therefore wouldn’t update properly. I tried countless fixes to get the program to recognize [...]
Empower Decisions – Survival Tip #4
The first few survival tips I covered were geared more towards the aesthetics and layout of the dashboard. You must remember that the data is the most important part of a dashboard. It needed to be actionable, relevant and empower users. Ask yourself: Can users of all levels find information quickly and intuitively? Are menu [...]
Tech Tip: Disappearing Metrics From a MicroStrategy Dashboard
The Problem: Customer reported that a dashboard I built several months back was suddenly missing metrics. The dashboard in question is a very large MicroStrategy report with quite a few metrics identified by the business team. I have not made any modifications to the reports/dashboard in months so I was curious why the metrics would [...]
BI Platform Administration: Whose Job Is It?
Our recent platform administration survey showed there’s no single “right” way to tackle BI platform administration and day-to-day operations—but there are smart guidelines to keep everything running smoothly. Our respondents utilize one or more of the following resources, with the majority of organizations relying on in-house staff: In-house development team In-house MicroStrategy administrator Independent contractor [...]
Stick to the Brand – Survival Tip #3
Companies big and small spend a lot of money and take a lot of time investing in their visually identity. The blue in their logo isn’t just some random blue. It’s a very specific hue that reflects their identity as a company. Think of it this way: the hard work has already been done for [...]
Analyzing Data
Lately, I have still been doing a lot of daily updating of spreadsheets and the like. I have also taken on a fun project analyzing the company’s historical utilization of resources, and making projections of what our utilization will look like for the rest of the year. It is interesting to see the data I [...]