i202 Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

Those of you who're interested in dashboards and how visualize complex information, might want to check out a source called Perceptual Edge. One of the partners of the company, Stephen Few, has done a lot of work studying the best ways to communicate complex business information in limited space. He was a guest lecturer in the InfoViz class last semester and provided a lot of good examples of well-designed dashboards. I believe he is also a lecturer at Haas, so he cares both about the business value of those dashboards and about their usability.

One of his books (Information Dashboard Design) is available via Safari Books when you're on campus (or using the campus library proxy). If you're interested, you can find it here: http://techbus.safaribooksonline.com/0596100167

Finally, here's a quick summary of related papers. And if you're interested in learning more, I'd recommend checking out the InfoViz class (if it's offered again)

http://www.perceptualedge.com/examples.php

http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/ie/dashboard_confusion.pdf

http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/pervasive_hurdles_to_dd.pdf