When my fiancé visited Switzerland to finish her MBA she brought me back a Swiss Army knife. This knife stays in my bag and I use it all the time to open amazon packages, quickly unscrew things or open bottles. While I love the versatility of such a tool, it doesn’t actually excel at any of these tasks. Assembling furniture is easier with a screwdriver and you’ll never see a bartender on a busy night opening bottles with a multitool.
The same can be said for building effective Business Intelligence (BI) charts. Many new report builders tend to jam a single chart full of information, especially when given a new BI tool to play with. “Look! This chart shows X, Y, Z and the colors show A, B, C!” And while that chart may show those all of these things, it doesn’t do them well.
A good chart will tell you a story and help guide business decisions. It will be clear and concise and the reader should be able to immediately gleam what the chart is showing you with a quick glance. The longer you look it should provide additional insights to the overall narrative but not provide unrelated or unnecessary information.
Tips for avoiding a Swiss Army Chart:
- Use the appropriate chart type for the data you are trying to show.
- Make your chart answer one business question at a time.
- Provide a thoughtful summary that includes the business question.
- Drill-downs should provide more specificity to the answer and help answer the overall question.
- Label the axes so the reader is immediately aware of what they are looking at.
Follow these tips to start building screwdrivers and bottle openers and keep the multi-tool in your bag!
Bryan Van Kampen 