23 posts from: Juice Analytics Weblog: The Art and Science of Data
Dashboard Design Matters: A Solid Foundation
(Indexed 2010-05-18):
If your organization is like most today, you rely on dashboards to report critical information to internal and external audiences. Given the importance placed on dashboards, it's important that the design be focused, thoughtful and easy to use -- and that it communicate effectively to your key audiences. Included in this blog, you will find the first white paper in a three-part series entitled, "A Guide to Creating Dashboards People Love to Use". We invite you to download, read and share the b...(truncated)...
Designing Great Dashboards - The eBook
(Indexed 2009-10-14):
We've decided to compile many of the design tips we've harvested from our client projects over the years. These learnings are collected into a 3 part paper entitled A Guide to Creating Dashboards People Love to Use.
Twitter Analytics for "Twitter"
(Indexed 2009-03-30):
Despite all the activity, I haven’t yet seen a Twitter analytics solution that offers the kind of valuable analytics that a company could use to understand the Twitter conversation relevant to their business. The applications above are either focused on the measurement of individual Twitter users or offer a high-level tracking of words and phases in the general conversation. They treat tweets as transactions — How many? How valuable? Who’s listening? Who’s responding? To ...(truncated)...
Billions and Billions of Reports (a la Carl Sagan)
(Indexed 2009-02-19):
I recently came across a white paper on the "five styles of BI" and thought that would be an interesting read. As it turns out, more interesting than I expected. In this paper, the vendor (in order to protect the innocent, we'll just call them MacroTactics) made a statement regarding the performance capacity of this particular vendor's solution: 72,000 reports per hour.
5 Phases of Data Analytics Maturation: Part 2
(Indexed 2008-12-28):
The 2nd part in a 2 part series. Last time we talked about how organizations use [Tribal Elders and Static Reports](http://www.juiceanalytics.com/writing/5-phases-data...(truncated)... to find answers to questions that they already know. Today we'll talk about the other three phases of Data Analytics Maturation.
5 Phases of Data Analytics Maturation: Part 1
(Indexed 2008-12-12):
We'll be exploring the different stages of maturity that information workers go through as they try to become more effective and efficient at consuming and acting on information. By our reckoning, we figure there are 5 Phases in the maturation cycle.
A Dashboard Alerts Checklist
(Indexed 2008-05-20):
There is a tendency with reporting, and dashboards in particular, to cram as much information on the page as possible. One alternative is to shift the focus from the full data to changes in the most critical data points. By pulling out the important exceptions, you can make it easier for your audience to digest what matters and take action.
The Ultimate Business Driving Machine
(Indexed 2008-03-25):
What do you do when you'd rather be out driving your BMW rather than sitting in your corner office? Make a business dashboard that looks like your car dashboard, of course. You'll want to have lots of tachometers, temperature gauges and traffic lights. It's the ultimate business-driving machine.
Franken-measures...or How to Construct a Useful Composite Measure
(Indexed 2008-03-18):
Sometimes a simple metric isnt enough. It cant fully describe a behavior or performance of a system. Thats when you need a Franken-measure: a made-up metric monster that creates a comprehensive composite to capture complex concepts.
Filling the Gap Between reporting and Reporting
(Indexed 2008-02-11):
There is little r reporting and there is big R Reporting, and the difference is vast
Too Literal with Numbers
(Indexed 2006-12-12):
Data analysts always face the same white-knuckle fear when they present: Will someone derail my presentation by questioning the source of a data point, the quality of the data, statistical significance, or why two numbers don't align?These types of inquires may appear innocent and within the field of play. I find them counter-productive. They implicitly undermine the analyst's credibility and worse, deny the rest of the audience the opportunity to hear the full analysis narrative.I've
MicroCharts, A Different Take on Excel Charting
(Indexed 2006-12-10):
Like an overcooked steak, reporting can be dry, bland, and not particularly easy to digest. A typical example delivers the goods in a simple table and shows trends as a percentage change from the previous month or year.[Image]"Sparklines" to the rescue! Edward Tufte describes sparklines as:
Baby Dashboard
(Indexed 2006-11-22):
The folks at Trixie Tracker very nearly read my mind. They created an online service that helps you keep track of the daily patterns of your infant. Users enter information about nap times, feedings, and diaper activity--then have access to a variety of informative charts and graphs. "Learn more about your baby's needs and behavior...get more sleep," they promise. Here's an example of their "sleep telemetry" graphic:
Bringing Art to Data Visualization
(Indexed 2006-11-22):
For every Edward Tufte and Stephen Few telling us how data should be presented, it is a pleasure to find someone like Jonathan Harris who shows us the possibilities of data presentation. Jonathan brings a level of creativity and imagination to data visualization unlike anyone else I've ever seen. Hi
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
(Indexed 2006-08-18):
I was working with a client recently who had sketched out a fairly standard marketing dashboard. The company has multiple marketing channels (online, direct mail, phone, etc.) and wanted a simple report that would track leads, conversion rates, and cost per acquisition by channel. These were seemly valid and important things to know...but surprisingly slippery information the more we discussed it.In their business, many potential customers are likely to have multiple interactions across market
More on Excel in-cell graphing
(Indexed 2006-08-11):
We received an enthusiastic response to our post on in-cell bar graphs in Excel. The community quickly explored every edge case. I want to highlight some of the great ideas raised.Henk was first out of the gate with a great suggestion that two columns could be used to show positive and negative values. What he's thinking of looks like this:
Lightweight data exploration in Excel
(Indexed 2006-08-01):
We often are given a chunk of data in Excel that we need to explore. Of course, the first tool you should pull out of your toolbox in cases like this is the trusty PivotTable (it slices, it dices!). But at times we have to dig a little deeper into the toolbox and pull out the in-cell bar chart. Here's what it looks like.[Image]This picture shows some Major League Baseball data. I'm graphing the numb
Learning analytics from the best
(Indexed 2006-07-19):
There may have been no one better at thinking rigorously and communicating his insights elegantly than Richard Feynman, the Nobel prize winning physicist.Daniel Hillis describes how Richard Feynman helped build the first massively parallel computer, The Connection Machine. Feynman was a physicist and thought the project a bit looney. Nonetheless, he enthusiatical
Where do you stand? Part 1 of An Incrementalist's Guide to Better BI
(Indexed 2006-06-29):
A while back, we got all over Thomas Davenport for his checklist of ways to tell if your organization is an "Analytics Competitor." To me, he had posed the wrong question. It asks too much and reveals too little.I don't need to know, for example, if I can chip like Phil Mickelson and finish off a tournament like Tiger Woods. I just
Tangible interfaces
(Indexed 2006-06-26):
If I could influence the future of business intelligence tools (wait, maybe I can), I would put a premium on "tangible" data manipulation. I'd design interfaces that let users touch, play with, and sculpt data as an object. Many data crunching applications, particularly those focused on statistics (e.g. SAS), tend to separate the user from the act of data manipulation. The user defines a set of scripts or formulas, points to a data set, and let's the application take over. For a programmer, th
An incrementalist's guide to better business intelligence
(Indexed 2006-06-23):
Business intelligence expert Claudia Imhoff of Intelligent Solutions describes the end-game for business intelligence in something she calls the "Corporate Information Factory" (plus an "e" for Extended). CIFE is a comprehensive ecosystems of people, processes, systems and applications to deliver all the promise of business intelligence for an organization.
Reestablishing Customer Intimacy
(Indexed 2006-06-15):
Zach and I grew up in Lincoln, Vermont, a town of 900 people tucked away in the Green Mountains. At the center of this no-stoplight village is a general store. Vaneesa, the proprietor for more than three decades, greets her friends and neighbors at the counter everyday. She has grown to know each of their habits and needs and can tailor her
Dear Microsoft Excel team
(Indexed 2006-06-05):
Dear Microsoft Excel team,In the last all hands meeting, you probably heard that I've been temporarily assigned as program manager of Microsoft Excel 2007. Granted this is an extraordinary action, but these are extraordinary times, my friends.In the spirit of openness, I will tell you we will be making some specific changes to the product. We must work quickly as my time here is limited. I'm not even an Microsoft employee and I'm sure HR will have some say in the matter once they figure out