Information Dashboard Design
by Stephen Few · first published 2006
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Pragmatic guide to dashboard and data display design, with good vs bad examples (such as why gauges fail) and a mix of what and why; suits anyone building internal reporting or BI dashboards.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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See instead Tufte, Edward: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (and the followup books) Few, Stephen: Information Dashboard Design
on “Design checklist for perfect charts” ↗Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug Information Dashboard Design - Stephen Few
on “Ask HN: Good books or articles on UI design?” ↗…want to read or learn about? I have no skill for frontend design, but I've recently begun to learn how to display data in an intelligent manner. If anyone is interested, these books have helped me: Information Dashboard Design: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596100162 Visualizing Data: http://www.amazon.com/Visualizing-Data-Explaining-Processing... Beautiful Data: http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Data-Stories-Elegant-Solutio...
on “It’s OK to make an extra $2k per month if you’re a programmer. Here’s how.” ↗…Charts. I'd recommend the OP (and anyone else who has an interest in communication) to read: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Info... Information Dashboard Design http://www.amazon.co.uk/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effecti... Now You See http://www.amazon.co.uk/Now-You-See-Stephen-Few/dp/097060198...
on “My First Recommendation to New Scientific Coders: Learn Visualization” ↗…you effective and attractive positioning of content on a page or on a screen. The principles are all the same. From layout you can get into visual design through things like dashboards (Stephen Few's _Information Dashboard Design_) or other "practical" subjects without ever getting into becoming an actual artist. If you want to get more into visual design, I've given out a few copies of David Kadavy's _Design for Hackers_, and…
on “Ask HN: How did you learn design? What resources exist to help one learn?” ↗I will suggest checking out following resources: Books * Nathan Yau, Data Points Visualization that means something * Stephen Few, Information Dashboard Design The effective communication of data * OReilly, Visualizing Data Software * Tableau and example visualizations * D3.js and example visualizations
on “Ask HN: Best Data Visualisation Resources?” ↗I recommend two resources on creating dashboards, both from very experienced practitioners: 1) http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-dashboards-strategic-... 2) Information Dashboard Design by Stephen Few - http://www.amazon.ca/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effective-...
on “The laws of shitty dashboards” ↗I would recommend starting with Stephen Few's books: Show Me the Numbers and Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-Glance Monitoring to get an idea of visualization from a business needs perspective. These are easy reads. Few is heavily influenced (and cites) Edward Tufte - Tufte is probably…
on “Ask HN: Data visualization consultant” ↗Good additions. For report design I found the book "Information Dashboard Design" by Stephen Few valuable. It talks about actionable data and has many examples.
on “Ask HN: Good tech talks on how analytics systems are implemented?” ↗Can't go wrong with Tufte, but I'm also partial to Stephen Few for a more pragmatic approach ("Show Me the Numbers", "Information Dashboard Design").
on “Ask HN: What is the best book on data visualization in 2021?” ↗it's specific to certain types of displays, but Information Dashboard Design is pretty solid. not great for getting customers in, but excellent for internal reporting and tracking. these things make ceo's happy. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596100167?ie=UTF8&tag=...)
on “Ask HC: Which books on user interface design do you wish your CEO/Cofounders would read?” ↗Have a look at "Information Dashboard Design" by Stephen Few, I also found "The Non-designer's Design Book" by Robin Williams very good but it's more concerned with general design principle then the specific stuff you're interested in.
on “Techniques To Improve Your User Interface Designs ” ↗I would also recommend checking out Stephen Few's books (Information Dashboard Design and/or Show Me the Numbers) for quick and useful guidelines on visually communicating data. Few is a big advocate of Tufte's work and books, and he has a nice set of good vs bad practices in Information…
on “Draw Charts with Google Visualization API” ↗Have a look at http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/ There is some great critique of various BI visualisations. I highly recommend the book Information Dashboard Design by the author Stephen Few
on “The worst graph in a decade?” ↗They arn't. Stephen Few wrote a really good book a few (ha!) years back called 'Information Dashboard Design' (0596100167) which addressed the issue of circular dials and gauges. Here is a good essay on the subject by Stephen Few (http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/08-21-07.pdf). Basically, it boils down…
on “Perfectum Dashboard” ↗