Report Design Best Practices - Modern...

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Report Design Best Practices

Peter EvansJanuary, 2014

Information Management

A Little History

• William Henry Playfair – (1790 – 1857)– Inventor of the Statistical Graph

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Many roads lead to data insights

EXAMPLE: How many customers & products do I have?

EXAMPLE: How many sales reps sell Product X vs. Product Y?

EXAMPLE: How many of Product X have I sold in US vs. UK in the last quarter?

EXAMPLE:

How will monsoons impact my sales in Indonesia and parts availability from my suppliers next quarter?

EXAMPLE: Why is Product X more popular with teenagers vs. middle age men?

Simple data recording and

tracking

Logical storage

Agility and interactivity for

Predictions based on trends

Customer behavioral insights

Visual Design Pointers

• A Picture is worth a thousand words as the saying goes – how do we as report designers deliver this to our customers:

– We do not notice the most powerful designs. – Understanding the ability to turn something incredibly complex into something simple is the real power of a

good report designer.– Design does not happen by accident. It is the product of careful and deliberate planning.

• We as humans are a visual race – most of our experiences especially now in the digital age are of a visual nature therefore as a report designer you must understand what this mean for your reports and how they are delivered.

• Less is more.• Where is your report being used – hard copy, dashboard, mobile?

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Just because we have color we don’t need to use it

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Views from Toad Decision Point

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Bold is good – but not for all

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What Format – How to Filter

• Know your audience– Understand who is going to view your reports– Prototype the report with a number of users– Decide how much information the user requires

› C Level executives need overviews – Sales managers need regional figures› LOB Analyst’s require to be able to manipulate and change data views› Casual viewers require no ability to filter or change the data

• Where is your data being delivered from – is it single source or does it require you to provide a view of the data distinct to the report requirements

• Excel conditional formatting is still data in a grid but with colors

Filter your data for each report build your own views

Views from Toad Data Point

Tell a Story with your report

Company Styles – What, where and when

• Be aware of company branding – what is allowed and what is not• Does your design have a customer facing part – this will need branding approval possibly• Are your reports printable – ensure that they carry your company name and a date when printed• Ensure that data from other sources that are attributable are referenced in the report footers

Examples of Company Styles

Views from Full Circle, truPulse and Neways

Sharing your beautiful work

• Web Portals• Share Point• BI Vendor exclusive portals• Cloud

• Security• Branding• Copyright

Examples of Portals

Views from Tableau, Birst and Information Builders

Pros and Cons – Portals/Cloud/SharePoint

• Portals require you to buy the software and you are then tied to this delivery system• Portals are easy to access from all types of devices including mobile

• Cloud for some industries still has security concerns• No on premise infrastructure cuts down in costs and maintenance

• Sharepoint is easy to get started with and is tuned to other office applications from Microsoft• For anything than a basic implementation – users must be trained to gain the full benefits.

Security/Branding/Copyright

• For public reports ensure that the data can be viewed by the public• Brand all data that is proprietary and ensure copyright and trade marks are visible

• Ensure that your report data always starts at the most secure level when distributing it to other users• Try not to distribute data via email – use file shares to secure access

• Data that leaves the company via email should be password protected at all times

• Data used in your reports from other sources should be referenced correctly

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Further Information, Reading and Help

• Toad Bi Weekly webcast on Data Integration:– http://www.quest.com/webcast/easily-access-prepare-analyze-and-share-data-from-any-

source824442.aspx• Toad World:

– http://www.toadworld.com/• Perceptual Edge – Stephen Few

– http://www.perceptualedge.com/• Peter Evans

– Evansbi@twitter.com– Peter.evans@software.dell.com–

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