5. Test and refine your design

Even expert dashboard designers don’t get everything right on the first try. Put yourself in your users’ shoes, design the first version the best you can and then test it with a sample of your users. Show them real data and observe how they use the dashboard. Is the message clear? Can they make sense of the data? Does something feel too complicated? Is something missing? Incorporate constructive comments and then test again. Having dashboarding tools that allow you to make quick changes is crucial.

Even after you launch your dashboard to a wider audience, make sure it is easy for users to contact you and continue collecting feedback. Be ready for receiving many comments about how the dashboard should look. People often like different colors and want bells and whistles. They might not appreciate the effectiveness of your simple design initially, but trust us, they will appreciate the simplicity after looking at the dashboard every day.

Tips for testing and refining:

• Put your design to the test – show real data to real users and listen to what they say.
• Incorporate feedback and test again.
• Be ready for people asking for graphical design changes, but make sure you don’t violate any of the principles of compelling dashboard design. Again, keep it simple.



Download the GoodData Snap for free in SnapLogic’s SnapStore here. We have posted more information on how to get started with GoodData components in SnapLogic on our developer site.

4. Keep It Simple!

As touched upon earlier, a simple, direct message has the biggest impact on potential viewers. By definition, it’s easy to understand and not prone to varying interpretations. Yet more often than not, a dashboard is the fruit of countless hours of complex analysis, on many different levels. Thus the story that needs to be told is complicated and multi-faceted. How, then, is it possible to keep things simple?

Let’s have a look and see what we can learn from this classic example. The National Debt Clock’s message is staggeringly simple:

However, this simple dashboard could have looked very differently. If the author didn’t identify what the really key metrics are, we would be looking at something like this:

It’s not that the intricacies don’t matter, and don’t have a place, but they should be treated as their own story, where the findings can be consumed in digestible chunks.

Let’s look at the following example:

This dashboard was built to present an analysis of a company’s current sales pipeline. The goal is to report on past performance, and draw insight for improving future results. You’ll notice that this dashboard contains only four reports, all relating to “Sales History,” as seen by the highlighted tab.

By breaking the story up into several tabs (or chapters), the author was able to present a clear flow of ideas in understandable chunks. Dashboard viewers can jump from tab to tab and learn the story bit by bit.

Tips for keeping it simple:

• Break your complex thesis into bite-sized chunks.
• Provide summaries, and move the details to their own section.
• Don’t overwhelm users with too much information at once; but allow them to dig at their own pace.
• Put yourself in your users’ shoes, and ask yourself if your presentation is understandable and on target.

SnapLogic, the visionary cloud integration company, today announced the addition of the GoodData Snap to their SnapStore. The free GoodData Snap makes it easy to bring data from relational databases, internal applications and other systems into GoodData for fast and comprehensive dashboarding, visualization, reporting and data analysis. In addition, GoodData can connect with any other data connector listed in the SnapStore, including common SaaS, Social and Enterprise applications.

GoodData provides a comprehensive Business Intelligence service, which delivers everything businesses need to quickly create dashboards, perform operational reporting, and conduct deep ad hoc data analysis. These powerful features sit atop a robust business intelligence and data-warehousing platform.

“We promise our customers data-to-dashboard in a week instead of complex business intelligence implementations,” said Sam Boonin, Vice President of Marketing for GoodData. “Working with SnapLogic makes data integration into GoodData as easy as a snap.”

Key features of the GoodData Snap:

• Seamless Data Integration: Integrate GoodData with your CRM, ERP and other systems to raise business intelligence to the next level
• Visual Modeling: Map your DataFlows with drag and drop visual tools without writing a single line of code
• Automated GoodData Provisioning: Create GoodData data marts directly within SnapLogic, or add data to existing projects

“Great partners like GoodData with disruptive technology and innovative solutions are key to our success strategy for the SnapStore.” said Sanjay Raghu, Director of Strategic Alliances & SnapStore at SnapLogic. “We are excited about the launch of the GoodData Snap and the tremendous integration value it delivers to GoodData customers.”

To see GoodData and SnapLogic live in action, join us for a webinar next Thursday (8/12/10) at 10am PST. Register here:

About SnapLogic
SnapLogic is a visionary Cloud integration company that is transforming the integration market with its innovative, open, and extensible DataFlow architecture and straightforward subscription model. The company’s DataFlow platform connects to almost any SaaS, Cloud, Web, or enterprise application or data source via Snap connectors and data pipelines, providing information as a utility to business users and applications. SnapLogic’s online marketplace, SnapStore, allows developers, SIs, and ISVs to develop and monetize custom Snaps, extending the platform’s connectivity and functionality. SnapLogic was founded in 2006 by data integration pioneers and is funded by leading venture investors, including Andreessen Horowitz. For more information, please visit www.snaplogic.com or call (650) 525-3540.

About GoodData
GoodData is the first company to offer a complete business intelligence platform-as-a-service (BI PaaS), providing our customers and partners operational dashboards, advanced reporting and data warehousing at a fraction of the cost and complexity of other approaches. GoodData is headquartered in San Francisco and located in the cloud at www.gooddata.com.

3. Make Sure Your Visuals Clearly Tell Your Story

The dashboard tools out there today make creating flashy eye candy a snap, and it’s easy to become enamored with the technology. Whether it’s dashboards, applications, or websites, bling for its own sake rarely has staying power. Rather, use the considerable tools at your disposal to hammer your message home. Simplicity drives the most powerful messages. Yet achieving simplicity is often quite difficult. Don’t let the technology distract you.

Choosing the Proper Visual

In the following example, there are two charts created from an identical set of data:

Each report shows the sales performance of the top five sales reps. Clearly, the report on the left “stands out” because of its bright colors and unusual shape. However, the drawback of this chart is that it is difficult to derive the true meaning of the chart. The gaping hole in the center provides no added value, and the relative size of the slices are not differentiated enough to be noteworthy.

In the chart on the right, we see a simple bar chart. While this may lack the pizzazz of the former chart, the information contained in this report is much more easily digested than the donut. Relative performance is seen instantly, and viewers grasp the intended meaning of the chart with no ambiguity. In this case, less is most certainly more.

Examine Your Layout with a Critical Eye

In this next example, two charts are placed side by side, suggesting a relationship between the two:

Both of these charts show business performance in blue, against a company target overlaid in green. After a quick glance, it’s easy to assume that performance in the chart on the left is slightly higher than the report on the right, based solely on the position of the KPI target line and the number of points above it.

Closer inspection, however, shows an entirely different picture. In the chart on the left, the y-axis begins with 0% and climbs to 32%, while in the second picture, the scale is from 10% to 90%. The target line in the left picture stands at 20% while it is 60% on right. Clearly, the magnitude presented in the second chart is significantly higher, but this meaning is weakened simply due to the layout.

Tables, Charts and Text

People consume information in a variety of different ways. Often, a clear picture can say a thousand words. But are these words the same as the ones you hope to inspire with your picture? Will every viewer have the appropriate context to draw the intended conclusions from your visuals? Often, a little bit of text annotation in a dashboard can go a long way to grounding the viewer in the appropriate frame of reference.

In this sample, the author uses clear chart titles as well as a brief description of each dashboard element. The text is non-intrusive; well-versed viewers can ignore the text without detracting from the dashboard experience. However, others who may be viewing this information for the first time can quickly read the description and gain an appropriate context for interpreting the pictures.

Summary of tips for dashboard layout and design:

• Use technology to enhance your message, not for its own sake.
• If related elements are closely positioned, make sure one item does not detract from the intended meaning of the other (i.e., conflicting scales).
• Use appropriate combinations of tables, charts and text to reinforce your message.

As part of our launch of the first Business Intelligence Platform as as Service, GoodData has integrated with SnapLogic to provide a data integration tool that enables users to start analyzing their business data in minutes.

On Thursday, August 12th at 10 PM PDT Sam Boonin, Vice President of Marketing at GoodData and Oliver Plattner, Solutions Engineer at SnapLogic, will present a live demo of SnapLogic’s connector, or “Snap” that gives GoodData users instant access to every system supported by SnapLogic, integrating data from SaaS applications, social media, and internal databases and applications.

Join Sam and Oliver as they discuss typical usage models and demonstrate:

• - Creating a data pipeline using the SnapLogic UI
• - Loading data into a GoodData project and publishing it to a dashboard
• - Adding new data sources to an existing project

Title: GoodData + SnapLogic = Data to a Dashboard in a Week
Date: Thursday, August 12, 2010
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST

GoodData today announced that it has closed Series A funding, adding $6.5 million in new capital, in addition to the $5 million raised in seed funding in 2009. This funding round was led by a new investor Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, and included participation from existing investors General Catalyst Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Windcrest Partners.

GoodData provides an on-demand business intelligence service, delivering operational dashboards, advanced reporting and data warehousing at a fraction of the cost and complexity of other approaches. Through partnerships with SaaS providers and an active developer network, GoodData powers over 100,000 reports and 5,000 dashboards each month, all on a true multi-tenant cloud-based BI platform as a service (PaaS).

“GoodData has the right recipe to disrupt the multi-billion dollar BI market,” said Simon Clark, Partner at Fidelity Growth Partners Europe. “GoodData combines game-changing technology with an innovative go-to-market approach that’s too good to pass up.”

Key Company Highlights:

• November 2009: Introduced commercial SaaS applications for self-service dashboards and operational reporting across sales, marketing and customer support
• December 2009: Won 2009 Amazon Web Services startup challenge, beating over 1,000 companies building their business on the cloud using AWS
• June 2010: Opened up a complete BI Platform-as-a-service (PaaS), giving technical enablers open APIs and freely available developer tools to build their own BI apps
• July 2010: Launched GoodData for Zendesk, a powered by GoodData offering providing free dashboards and advanced analytics for all Zendesk Plus+ customers

“I founded GoodData to break the BI stranglehold,” said Roman Stanek, GoodData Founder and CEO. “This new funding allows us to continue building out our BI PaaS, and to leverage the unfair economics of the cloud to further disrupt the BI market.”

About GoodData
GoodData is the first company to offer a complete business intelligence platform-as-a-service (BI PaaS), providing our customers and partners operational dashboards, advanced reporting and data warehousing at a fraction of the cost and complexity of other approaches. GoodData is headquartered in San Francisco and located in the cloud at www.gooddata.com.

About Fidelity Growth Partners Europe
Fidelity Growth Partners Europe is a venture and growth capital investor which backs entrepreneurial companies in the IT and clean technology sectors across Europe. FGPE supports portfolio companies as they accelerate their growth with funding, team building,  partnerships and access to its global network.  Building on Fidelity’s 40 year heritage of venture investing, the firm has established a significant presence in Europe and invested in many of the leading European technology companies including Curam, Qumas, Newbay, Seatwave, Neverfail and Asset Control.  In January 2010, FGPE raised a new £100 million fund dedicated to backing European technology companies.

About General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building the technology-based companies that will lead innovation and transform industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partners leverages its principals’ extensive operational, business development and technological expertise to provide portfolio companies with a catalyst for success through business-building and partnership development assistance. General Catalyst is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit: http://www.generalcatalyst.com. ]]> http://www.gooddata.com/blog/gooddata-closes-6-5-million-series-a-financing/feed/ 0 http://www.gooddata.com/blog/free-analytics-oh-yes-it%e2%80%99s-free/ http://www.gooddata.com/blog/free-analytics-oh-yes-it%e2%80%99s-free/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:30:46 +0000 Sam Boonin http://www.gooddata.com/?p=7007 With today’s launch of GoodData for Zendesk, we are introducing a new way for SaaS providers (and their customers) to succeed with analytics. It’s called Powered by GoodData, and it’s free.

Free for the SaaS providers who no longer have to avert their eyes when their customers ask for better reporting. Free for the end customers who no longer have to struggle with Excel spreadmarts or doomed-for-failure IT projects just to report on their own data.

Why are we doing this?

1. Because business data should be in the hands of business people. We are sick of the BI industry talking about “BI for the masses” yet delivering BI for IT only.
2. Because we can. GoodData was built to leverage the unfair economics of the cloud and multi-tenancy. We can automate the setup of hundreds of GoodData projects when we know the data, the model, the reports and dashboards. And hosting is essentially free thanks to Amazon Web Services. No cloudwashing here.
3. Because we believe in return before investment. You could spend the next 6 months evaluating the BI vendors that claim fast, easy, affordable, flexible, on-demand, cloud-based, adaptive, predictive analytics on all your data or your customers data. We think the BI world is stuck in paralysis by analysis mode – 65% failure rates; 18 month project cycles, fascination with the new, new thing. Ugh. Stop your evaluation cycles and your requirements gathering and start looking at your data. Change how you buy BI.
4. Because we know success breeds success. SaaS vendors ask us how we make money on Powered by GoodData. We’ve all read the skepticism about freemium. For us it’s simple. As soon as people see their data in GoodData, they invariably want to analyze more data from more sources, which is where we make money. Or to put it another way: we make money only when your customers succeed with GoodData. We do believe in BI for masses.
5. Because we want to meet your customers. Our value proposition to you is simple, let us delight your customers with meaningful and actionable dashboards, and give them the power to slice and dice the data how they want. We can take analytics off of your product roadmap, let you deliver in in less than 60 days, without major engineering investment, and we can even show you a way to make money up-selling advanced analytics. All that we ask in return is the permission to market and sell to your customers.

At the end of the day, Powered by GoodData is all about eliminating the friction between business users and business data. Today that friction can be easily measured in time, money, and frustration. We, as vendors, owe our customers these types of “ah-ha” experiences that remind them that the cloud is more than just moving the same failed approaches to another deployment model.

If you are a SaaS provider and host customer data, we’d like to talk.

Did I mention that it’s free?

San Francisco, CA — Zendesk, a web-based customer support software provider, announced an integration with GoodData, an on-demand reporting and analytics provider, that delivers powerful dashboards and advanced analytics to Zendesk customers.

GoodData for Zendesk enables companies to gain business insight into their customer support activity, improve key support metrics such as customer satisfaction, agent performance, and ticket resolution, and easily analyze the results.

“GoodData for Zendesk gives us a customized view into our Zendesk activity without having to struggle with complex reporting or analytics products,” said Rob Holmes of New Zealand Post. “With just a few mouse clicks, we can see details of our support activity by type or resolution time, and even see how our backlog changes over time.”

GoodData for Zendesk allows customers to:

• View dashboards and reports that are automatically updated daily with the latest Zendesk ticket data
• Access pre-built dashboards on support ticket creation and resolution, agent performance, and top trends
• “Slice and dice” data with all standard and custom ticket fields
• Collaborate and share custom projects, reports and results with colleagues and management via email, PDF, CSV, or embedded into websites

“At GoodData, we’re on a mission to take the BS out of BI, and delivering dashboards directly to Zendesk customers is a great start,” said Roman Stanek, GoodData Founder and CEO. “Now Zendesk customers can measure the health of their support channels without going through Excel or BI hell.”

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure, so all businesses want to be able to apply metrics to their customer support efforts, but until now business intelligence has been synonymous with painful, expensive software implementations,” said Mikkel Svane, CEO of Zendesk. “Fortunately, those days are over. Now our customers can add advanced analytics with one click. It couldn’t be easier.”

The GoodData business intelligence offering is available today for Zendesk Plus+ customers only at no additional charge.

For more information, visit www.zendesk.com/gooddata.

About GoodData
GoodData is the first company to offer a complete business intelligence platform-as-a-service (BI PaaS), providing our customers and partners operational dashboards, advanced reporting and data warehousing at a fraction of the cost and complexity of other approaches. GoodData is headquartered in San Francisco and located in the cloud at www.gooddata.com.

About Zendesk
Zendesk is a leading provider of web-based customer support software that is reinventing how companies engage with their customers. The company serves more than 5,000 businesses large and small, including Twitter, MSNBC, Lonely Planet and SAP. Zendesk products are easy to customize, integrate, and use so companies can quickly start offering better customer service. Founded in 2007, Zendesk is funded by Charles River Ventures and Benchmark Capital. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.

2. Measure Performance Against Clear Goals

In the previous examples, we saw sample dashboards dealing with sales performance. However, even in the “good” example, there is still something missing: By looking at the dashboard, a viewer has no way of knowing if the performance is good, bad, or middling. The data does not instill a sense of urgency or, alternatively, praise.

Look at how this small change can add a wealth of meaning to the dashboard:

With the company sales target added to the line graph on the left, viewers have a whole new understanding of the numbers. It is clear that the company has only been above target for two of the seven months charted. This insight drastically changes the way a consumer interprets and scrutinizes the rest of the dashboard.

The addition of clear targets or goals serves multiple functions. First, as we see, it provides a key to interpreting the rest of the data. All consumers of the data are on the same page in regards to whether performance is good or bad, and there is no ambiguity. Secondly, this evaluation against company targets provokes viewers to consider actions that could lead to better performance. The target is ingrained into the minds of the users, particularly if they had a hand in target creation in the first place. This is a key step in creating a metrics-driven business.

Tips for setting company targets:

• Make sure people are aware of the metrics that judge their performance.
• Set targets that are challenging but attainable.
• Get buy-in from colleagues before setting targets.
• Keep current results public so people always understand the current situation with respect to the targets.