Design vs Art Blog

Infographics are a way to represent information. They should be easy and quick to understand as they usually allow the reader to compare date and see details that, before, were hidden.

I live in the Bavarian capital, Munich, one of the biggest cities in Germany. Here, every year the Oktoberfest, a huge beer-drinking party, takes place. Looking for information I’ve found the consumption of beer and roast chicken since the year 1980. I’ve also found the number of visitors and put all that data together.

As one plays with the graph, it is possible to see that as the number of visitors was going down, the liters of beers has been growing, with a huge jump in the last decade. This means that the people are drinking more alcohol (I’m not judging this behavior, just showing the numbers).

I thought it was interesting to notice how a graphic could open our eyes and wanted to share it with you:

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Information Dashboards could be defined as the interface for information systems, for example, displaying quality control measurments and the result of procesess. Here I am talking about the dashboards displayed on computer monitors, but keep in mind that dashboards could also be mechanical. 

Here there are two examples from two different companies (this article is totally independent, images are just examples).

The examples give an idea of how critical information could be displayed in an information dashboard. As charts, clocks and colors are typically used all together it is very important to be very careful with the dashboard design. If not, it is highly possible that the dashboard will not help finding the important information in the right moment: imagine that the dashboard is telling the user that something is not working and he just don’t notice it.

Tips for a Information Dashboard Design

1- Do not make excessive use of colors. Filling the screen with a lot of flashy colors is not going to make the user to pay attention but to avoid looking at it. Try to use pastel colors instead of hot red, for example. Keep in mind that many people are blind color, so try not to use color as the only way of driving people’s attention.

2- Put all the important information in one page. Try not to hide information behind menus, if you need to do so try to make the navigation fast. Splitting the information in different pages makes the dashboard less useful.

3- Do not display too much information, users can always look for farther details in another place. The aim of the control dashboard is usually to detect deviations and problems fast, not to provide reports.

4- Try to avoid unnecessary graphics. Have a look at the first example I gave (image 1), and notice all the excessive graphics. 

5- Choose the right media. Be extremely careful if you decide to use videos, animated images or sounds. They could be very annoying.  

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