Design vs Art Blog

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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Sketches are important to test and to show new ideas. As Bill Buxton says on his book, Sketching User Interfaces, it is more important to be able to sketch fast as doing it in a flawless and expensive way. 

I was looking for video examples to get some inspiration for some sketches I’m doing for a new product and found something to share with you. To reinforce Buxton’s point of view, I wanted to present you 2 videos showing super productions and 2 videos showing cheaper ones.

The point here is: during the design process super productions are great but cheap sketches could be very good as well.

 The Apple Knowledge Navigator (1987)

 Seamless Media Design - NTT

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