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6. Appropriate time window. Getting time right on an operational dashboard
is critical. If the measures and trends represent too long a time period, users
may not react to changes quickly enough. However, small time windows
encourage frantic reactions to changes that may not represent real trends.
Ideally, the dashboard should offer the ability to configure this time range
and “freeze” a moment in time.
7. Prominent but balanced alerts. Naturally, alerting users to problems is
a central mission for real-time dashboards. The challenge (as always with
alerts) is to balance between “the sky is falling” hysteria and “don't worry,
be happy” apathy. One item to emphasize is the need to show a sense
of relative importance. Not all problems have the same impact on the
business, and finding a way to communicate this relative importance is
valuable.
8. Point to specific action. If real-time dashboards are about identifying
and responding to issues, the tool should point users to what they can do
about a problem. This can be as simple as displaying the phone number
of the right person to call.
Real-time dashboards can be ignorable, create mayhem, or drive great behavior
in an organization. Thinking carefully about the design and functionality will
make a huge difference.
NOTES
1. Brett Simmons, November 2008. See http://inessential.com/2008/11/
2. Avinash Kaushik, March 2007. See http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
five-rules-for-high-impact-web-analytics-dashboards/
3. Stephen Few, February 2006. See http://www.perceptualedge.com/
articles/Whitepapers/Common_Pitfalls.pdf
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