https://www.nngroup.com/articles/dashboards-preattentive/ – I highly recommend you read this
At-a-glance, single-screen view of the data that they monitor, and must quickly communicate important information to a user.
Q: What kind of dashboard is telemetry?
Operational dashboards must impart critical information quickly to users
Time-sensitive tasks
Typically present data that is continuously updating and changing
Analytical dashboards provide the user with at-a-glance information
used for analysis and decision making
not as time sensitive as operational dashboards.
Preattentive features: Things that “pop out,” without the user having to engage in a visual search to locate it.
Line length (longest line will be obvious), area, angle, 2D position, and color (lime green against grey – don’t need to look for it)
Position and length are great for communicating quantitative values and magnitude
Color should not be used to communicate information about quantitative values or magnitude
Linear graphs (scatter plots) – use to compare variables on x & y axis
Bar graphs – rely on bar length (esp in ascending/descending order) to communicate info quickly
Circular, area-based, and angle-based (dial) graphs are difficult to interpret quickly or accurately – should be avoided most of the time
Bottom is tree map. Can be useful at representing complex data in a compact overview IF there is leisure time to explore.
Angle-based graph: unless very disparate, hard to tell quantities
is light blue and yellow the same size? who knows
3D graphics bad. Distorts the shapes and alignment of the visual features that are showing the data
don’t sacrifice usability for aesthetics
also much more difficult for user to visually line up the top of the bar with the numerical value/grid line
Pie graph: a slice that’s closer to the viewer will appear larger than a slice at the back that’s actually the same size (things closer to you are larger)
Use Color, Shape, and Grouping to show categories
items that have similar shape or color are usually perceived as related
don’t use colour as primary grouping cue: colour blindness, computer screen in sun
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