Sean Burton

Try searching online for an image of a dashboard and I guarantee that most of the images will have a gauge on them, and indeed most Excel plugins have gauge options. But does a gauge visualisation really warrant this level of attention? So, “To gauge or not to gauge?”. Not in my opinion unless there is a very, very good reason!

There is nothing wrong with gauges, but they take up a lot of space given the amount of data they impart. Generally, they are rather cumbersome and against the principles of pixel density or non data ink. I would argue that a gauge should only be used once on any visualisation and ONLY if it is the critical metric! Think of a car dashboard, and you may think of a series of dials, but the main visualisation is for speed – a rather critical metric when driving. So if a metric is important it should be front and centre, but I would also argue that there is a better visualisation – Bullet Charts

The chart on the left shows the same information as the first gauge, but takes up much less horizontal space – space which could be used for additional insight! The grab on the right shows how bullet charts could be used in a horizontal orientation to show performance of a range of metrics against target values. Here we are showing the performance of a metric (shown as a blue bar) against a target, with a: red(ish) backgound for 0-75% of target; grey backgound for 76-100% of target; and a green background for above 100% of target.

As you can hopefully see, having a set of charts laid out in this ways makes it very easy to see the overall picture of the data and as such the performance of the business.

There are, of course, examples of gauges that cram in additional data, but they key question should always be – “Does this add value?”

What are your thoughts? Do you use gauges? Are bullet charts ‘sexy’ enough?

There has been a lot in the news recently about privacy. I previously wrote about problems Apple were facing regarding the perception of user tracking. Wednesday’s headline in ‘The Independent’ newspaper relates use of social media to circumvent super-injunctions and a Scottish paper has just published a full front page picture of an individual claiming to have taken out a super-injunction.

Privacy is a hot topic. Do the ‘public’ have a right to know?

The issue of privacy has been a concern for a long time, with companies often focusing on the use of customer data to maximise their profits rather than their customer’s experience. This short sighted view will lead to a back lash from customers, unless they feel in control. Nobody likes to receive spam emails containing completely irrelevant content, but at the same time, people feel uncomfortable about being tracked.

The upcoming EU cookie legislation takes effect on the 25th May, requiring companies to request users permission before setting any cookies not deemed to be “strictly necessary” for site functions. Whilst it is unlikely that we’ll see any real impact from this legislation in the short-term, it does show an interesting trend to great user empowerment. Our own research shows that most sectors are poorly equipped to deal with this legislation and they will have to act soon, to avoid being the first pulled over the hot coals.

A recent article over at Mashable highlights the efforts of ‘Buyosphere‘ to help customers regain control of their data. The company essentially allows users to choose which brands can have access to their data, allowing for a win-win relationship. Again, this shows the continuing trend of customer empowerment.

The next few months should be extremely interesting, as the issue of privacy is at the forefront of the news. Ultimately, it is the end consumer that should be the winner in the privacy argument. Companies are now focusing their efforts on engendering trust and convincing their customers to share their information with them. But in a world where even the giants of the technology, such as Sony, can lose customer data it is vital that people know what they are agreeing to.

With power comes responsibility!

For more on Foviance’s Data Privacy Audit

I’m an analytical and technology geek, and so of course I think so. But, perhaps a better question is should a chart be sexy?

For me, the central purpose of a chart is to convey insight. It must be meaningful, else what’s the point? There is the classic criticism of 3D Pie charts that were the mainstay of almost all Excel charts for a long time. Nearly everybody that I know used the 3D feature of Excel when charting data. The reason? It looks cool (in a post 1990 sort of a way!) The slight downside is that it is very difficult to see the actual proportions of each segment when presented in 3D due to the skew caused by simulated perspective.

2D Pie charts are better are conveying precision, and from a purest standpoint, a much better visualisation. However, in my experience it is also important to ensure that there is an emotional engagement for the visualisation. The aesthetic is important too, as it allows you to capture the attention of the viewer. There is no point in having an insightful chart if no one wants to look at it!

Over the years of creating dashboards at Foviance, this balance between form and function has been an interesting journey. We rightly have constant debates on the subject, both internally and with our clients. There are often conflicting views based on the business requirements, the people involved and their backgrounds. For some, Stephen Few (function) is king and for others Edward Tufte (form). The concepts from Stephen Few, such as pixel density, are extremely important and act as a great rule of thumb. However, it is also vital that the end user can relate to data on an aesthetic and emotional level, and here the concepts from Edward Tufte can be great guide.

Many dashboards and visualisations try to be the perfect solution, but the reality is that the ‘one-size fits all’ approach is fundamentally flawed. Everyone is different and everyone processes information differently. It is vital that this be taken into consideration when designing a visualisation to ensure that the meaning can be conveyed as efficiently as possible. For example, we have recently built a dashboard which is intended to be used by both executive users as well as analysts. It has therefore been necessary to build not just a flat dashboard, but a dashboard application that will over just the top-line metrics for the executive users (along with a commentary), but that also allows analysts to drill-down into each of the metrics for additional context and insight.

Of course, it is not always possible to build an all-singing/all-dancing dashboard. We have budget and time constraints, and so we are forced to compromise the form and function across the various users. Is this a bad thing? No, it forces us to be innovative in our thinking and to focus on ROI. But it should be in the back of everyone’s mind when displaying data: Who will be viewing this? Why are they viewing this? What do they need?

At Foviance, we have moved away from static score cards, to more dynamic dashboards allowing the user to interrogate the data, to become more engaged, and to get more insight. The next step will be to offer a far more personal experience whereby the same dashboard could be viewed in different ways by different users. A simple example, may be to present different colour combinations for different users, or to allow the user to display a data table rather than a pie-chart.

Data is important, but insight is vital.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting a few specific examples and it would be great to hear what you think.

So, are you a 2D or 3D person? Can a chart be sexy?

Apple has been in the media wars of late, with some significantly negative publicity relating to the tracking of users via their iPhone. Whilst the reality is rather different to that initially portrayed, it does highlight some interesting trends…

For those of you that watch South Park, a recent episode highlighted the public perception of end-user licensing and privacy statements. The character Kyle doesn’t bother to read the privacy agreement of an Apple iTunes update and has to suffer the consequences, which cannot be detailed here!

Apple has suffered a significant damage to its public reputation recently, due to the news that it has been tracking the location of it’s iPhone and iPad users.  Apple, along with Google, have been requested to participate in a US Senate panel on the issue of mobile tracking, with Apple adamantly stating that it does not track user’s locations, but uses the data collected to help speed up the use of location based services. As you can see from the map below (produced using the iPhone Tracker tool ), the wi-fi location and cell towers around your phone, can give an impression of your own location – you’d never guess that I use the east coast railway a lot!

<Click to enlarge>

Last year I wrote about the issues of advertising on mobile devices, a theme that I’ll be coming back to again shortly, along with the potential difficulties of mobile tracking. One of the issues related to the latency of the tracking and the corresponding issue of data accuracy. A recent article by ‘Localytics’ has highlighted this problem and it will be an ever more important issue as the use of mobile devices becomes more and more main stream. The common consensus (Wikimedia & Online Marketing Trends)  predicts that mobile devices will surpass desktops as the method of browsing the internet by 2014.

The Apple story is interesting as the issue of tracking on mobile devices, and indeed this specific issue relating to the user’s location, has been known about for well over a year. It only gained momentum in the popular press when the information was visualised!

This really shows the importance of visualising data. We all love a good story and need to be able to relate to the protagonists. Data is great, but insight is better!

Our own Neil Mason discusses the use of storytelling in his recent blog post. We are often confronted with the conflict of making data look ‘sexy’, think of glossy 3D pie charts, rather than meaningful. For me it is vital that a data visualisation tells a story. It should allow the user to experience a journey through the data to gain meaningful insight.

What is interesting, is that the depiction of data can often feel like an uphill struggle, everyone has an opinion on what a chart should look like. It is often only when you have played with a couple of different visualisations that the true meaning comes through. From a linguistic or memory perspective, this would be termed as ‘semantic’ meaning that a greater level had been achieved. As analysts, it is our job to help create this journey for our client.

This is not easy. It may take several iterations before the insights come through, but then again, it wouldn’t be a true story without a struggling hero now would it!

For more about Foviance’s Data Privacy Audit

The mobile advertising market is growing rapidly, presenting fresh challenges for any brands wishing to get their messages in front of this important new target audience.

According to recent figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade body for digital marketing, the total spend on mobile phone advertising in 2009 rocketed by 32 percent year-on-year to a new high of £37.6 million – and all that despite an overall contraction in the advertising sector in 2009. (more…)

The recent PR furore about the reception issues on Apple’s iPhone4 has got me thinking again about the impact of smart phones on digital analytics. As the world moves to mobile the digital analytics industry may be taking a significant step backwards in its ability to provide actionable insight. Tracking of mobile devices is still developing, so just when the Web Analytics industry thought it was getting to grips with clean data it now has a real challenge on its hands. Whichever way consumers react to Apple’s current problems, the smart phone is here to stay and advertisers who will spend £61 million on mobile in the UK this year, rightly want to know the impact of this spend across display and applications (apps). (more…)

One of the big challenges of providing usability, accessibility and analytics consultancy services to help businesses improve their customer experience, is to ensure that information is digestible and therefore more readily usable and practical.

There is a trend, particularly in the web analytical arena, for some consultancies to simply create more and more metrics for businesses, rather than working on their clarity. Unfortunately, there is also a tendency for many people to suffer from ‘data blindness’ when confronted with rafts of metrics churned out by multiple tools and technologies. Advertising campaign management, web analytics, CRM, and other intelligence tools should enable businesses to interact better with their customers, but for many actually understanding all that information – particularly across wide portfolio websites – proves very frustrating. (more…)

Is there a direct correlation between your customer experience and your revenue? Can we talk about the ROI of customer experience with any hard evidence that will back up our perceptions and justify business expenditure on customer experience work?

Rather than treating your customer research investment in isolation, identifying where your business has to pay for research, analysis and testing, it’s possible to view your investment from the opposite angle – if your business chooses not to work on customer experience, what problems will you experience, what dropouts will you see on your website, and what value is being lost as a result of you not conducting any research?
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