Dashboards | IT's time to talk #1

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Financial services, manufacturing, renewables,

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fossil fuels, all industries in the world

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require data and need to analyze data in order

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to come up with higher efficiency of services and

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products that are delivered or to be shipped.

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Today, I'm talking with two great experts coming from

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Merixstudio.

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This is Hanna Klich and Oskar Czubacki,

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and we will be talking about how to design

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beautiful, clear analysis dashboards

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for different groups of users.

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This is Merixstudio series. It's time to talk.

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Hello, Hanna. Hello, Oskar.

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First of all,

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if you would be so kind and tell a few words about

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yourself, that would be nice.

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Okay. So I can start. My name is Hanna.

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I am a Senior UX Designer,

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and I have experience working across different fields,

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financial, something about solar industry,

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and recently also medical.

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So, all of these, as Mike has said,

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have something to do with dashboards,

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and I hope I can share some good insights for you.

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Yep. And, yeah, I'm Oskar.

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I'm also working in at Merixstudio, for three years, now.

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And I'm product designer, specialized in UX design and

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UI design as well.

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So, yeah, I'm kind of full stack

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designer in projects,

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guiding all this in process from the very beginning to the end.

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So yeah.

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Guys, it's a great, great pleasure to have you here.

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I must admit to our audience,

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I had the chance to work with both of you, and,

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we shipped a lot of good things together.

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So I'm really, really glad to have you here today. Okay.

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First question.

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So what are the biggest challenges of designing clear dashboards?

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Yeah. They need to serve different groups of users.

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Some of those groups of users are not, let's say,

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proficient or tech savvy.

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They may represent different levels of education,

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different nationalities, backgrounds.

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What are the biggest challenges,

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especially in such industries, like, for example,

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facility management or renewables?

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So I can start, for example, in this in this topic.

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So, yeah, in in the fields of renewable energy and,

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facility management, there are a lot of, challenges,

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especially in effectively managing, analyzing,

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and presenting data,

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especially data sourced from, various sources and

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various, channels, like, for example, sensors,

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hardware device devices, manual inputs, and more and more.

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And, these datasets, can be quite

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complex and contain different types of, information,

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make it making it, really challenging

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to present them in clean, logical,

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and and useful manner.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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As Oskar has said, it's always a balance between

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complexity and clarity.

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So we really need to be careful about what information is

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important to which users.

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You have to be sure of your audience.

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They may have different level of tech savviness.

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They may be interested in different data points,

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and so you have to decide on the hierarchy of information

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and also how that data addresses their various needs.

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Alright then.

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And what are the key elements that need to be placed

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in dashboard in every dashboard or most of the projects?

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What are the key elements that, according to you,

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should be on a analytical dashboard?

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Graphs. Graphs. Graphs. And and even more graphs.

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But you have to be careful with these.

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You have to serve the right purpose,

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so don't use them for the looks.

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Just have them to communicate the right kind of information.

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I think for renewable energy systems,

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you'll have things like monitoring the capacity of that

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system, maybe some real time information and historical

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data about consumption or yield of the

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energy so you can monitor whether you're approaching a

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certain target or you're below a threshold.

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And that's always good to good to see.

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Oscar, maybe something for facility management,

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something comes to your mind.

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Yeah. I totally agree.

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I mean, I also thought about the thing

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about real time data or data updated regularly

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because, of course, in in the renewable and facility management,

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the latest information is always should be always available.

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But to be honest,

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I can just simply say that what are the key elements of the of

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the dashboards, it really depends.

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And it, of course, depends on what client and

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user need in in in, like, moments.

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So,

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yeah, I think, like I mean I mean,

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the dashboards should be kind of, like,

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quick view of what's happening in the system right now.

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Okay. One small follow-up question on this.

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Imagine that we have a product or service which

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is dedicated to, let's say, different groups of users.

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Yes?

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Like, there are, for example,

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two or three different types of employees logging into one

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system, and, actually,

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each one of them requires a little bit more data.

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How to handle with such case?

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So you really need to understand the different types of audiences,

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and I think the best way to do it is through research.

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Would you agree, Oskar?

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Yeah. Exactly.

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I mean, the the user research,

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you is the first thing that you should start to,

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let's say, that to to target, your audience,

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one hundred percent.

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I mean, another

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maybe good idea would be implementing, for example,

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role based access control.

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So then you can ensure that users specific group of

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users see only relevant data.

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And thanks to that, we can offer

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flexible in interactive components, you know,

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to allow users to manipulate and explore data in ways

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that best suit their, requirements or needs.

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Yeah.

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I I like the word manipulate because then customization

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comes to my mind as well.

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You can allow certain level of customization,

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so maybe moving the elements on the dashboard to their liking

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or to their actual needs.

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You could also venture into building a dashboard builder.

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So if this is a really, you know,

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data heavy thing and and very, very specific role,

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then maybe you would want the specialist really to address

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their own needs and and put the right elements in place.

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They may be the ones who know what's most important in

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context, so that that's a route to take and consider too.

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Okay.

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What are the most common mistakes or even errors

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while while designing dashboards?

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Yeah.

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What can go wrong, and how to prevent ourselves

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from going in in the wrong way?

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I can I can start with this field because mistakes

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are the thing I I I love during creating the dashboards?

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So so, yeah, the first thing and, I mean,

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the well known mistake in designing dashboards is

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data overload and information.

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And the more complex and the more data heavy the

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system is, the more difficult and the more important the

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information architecture becomes.

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And, prioritizing the requirements and specific needs

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of, of end users, is crucial, if you want,

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your dashboard to be useful and, and, let's say,

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pleasing to the eye.

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And I already mentioned the graphs,

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so really understand what they communicate because

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graphs different graphs serve a different purpose.

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It's that's just the looks,

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that a pie chart looks better on the screen.

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You really have to understand what your data communicates and

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then choose the right type of graph to represent it,

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so that it it really addresses, you know,

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the the audience in the in the right way.

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So don't go for the looks.

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Don't overdo it because it looks better in color.

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Just choose the right way to communicate with the right graph.

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Okay then.

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And what are the good practices of

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designing dashboards?

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Yeah?

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What kind of activities can be done by a designer or by a

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development team in order to come up with an

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experience that will be useful for various types of users?

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Yeah. We we already said learn your about your audience.

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So whether you do it through,

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interviews or maybe through observation studies,

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if you have ways to see yes.

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That's user research.

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If you have ways access and see how these users

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do it in person or or currently do their tasks,

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that will give you an example of how they operate in context.

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Sometimes these dashboards are used, you know,

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in a in a remote environment.

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So let's let's think of, I don't know,

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specialists or electricians or installers,

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going to a a remote place and then, you know,

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using it in in different science sunlight or with

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a low Internet connection.

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So you won't get to know these things until you actually

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speak to the users.

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So consider really their needs, and in the right context.

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So I would say that's that's the first thing to approach.

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And then maybe to define what the dashboard is supposed to

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do, just don't put everything into it.

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Define the goal.

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Is it to guide the user?

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Is it to help them react to certain events?

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You have to have an understanding of of that

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importance and, you know,

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the level of hierarchy of information.

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Yeah. That that's that's, that's true. I agree.

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What I what can I add to to it is that the

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one tip that, let's say,

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bigger designer some time ago

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give me this kind of advice to, let's say,

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design or create the dashboard at the end of the whole

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design process?

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I mean, so it's a it's also a well known

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mistake, especially for beginner designers,

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to start designing from the dashboard and then the rest of

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the parts of the system, let's say.

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But if we are talking about the dashboards as a dashboards as

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a, let's say, quick overview of

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all other elements in the system,

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then it's a really good approach to

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create all of the system as a first step at,

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and, then go to the creating the dashboard.

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Alright then. Hanna touched very important topic.

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Like, some dashboards are meant to make

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smart investments, but some others are actually used in

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order to prevent some sort of emergency like risk or danger.

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Right?

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If we would have, for example,

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some situation related to power supply

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or, for example, fossil fuel supply.

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Some sometimes shortage of supply may may may cause an emergency.

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Also, what I would like to add despite the fact that I'm an

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interviewer today is that it is extremely important, I think,

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to put designers into the context.

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Yeah?

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In recent years, we have been working with a logistics company from South

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Africa.

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We've been working with facility management company and

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manufacturing company from Germany.

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We have been doing lots of fintech work for

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for United Kingdom.

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We have been doing also screening tenant app for the

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United States.

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So it is extremely important to put the designers into the

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context to introduce them a little bit into the industry

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or vertical because this helps a lot in further

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process.

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Okay then.

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What are the best strategies to adapt

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dashboards to different types of users, yes,

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to take into consideration their needs and also what

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we already mentioned, their savviness or their level of knowledge.

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Yes.

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So that level of customization can come into place.

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If you have, let's say,

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beginners using the system, you may introduce tutorials

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and help them walk through the most important features.

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Just remember to do it in context, not as a like,

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an overlay displaying all the necessary information just at the start.

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So if they complete a certain task or they start a new

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task, let's say, you give them contextual hints so that they are not lost.

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This can be something that limits the amount of training

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you provide when, you know,

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they have to learn the new interface.

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So being helpful, being verbose with, let's say,

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labels and the messaging in the system, that helps as well.

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Yeah. And, again, we can remind about the user research.

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And maybe, especially in this case, also, it would be useful, for example,

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for testing with prototypes.

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So before we go to the development phase,

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we can, for example, create a a interactive prototype and test

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with a different group of users.

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How do they use them?

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This this dashboard, what are their needs,

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that's that's really helpful.

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Okay. Thank you very much.

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What are the specific metrics

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that we should take into consideration while

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designing dashboards for different groups?

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Like, I don't know.

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Is it revenue of the company, number of employees?

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This can be different things. Yeah?

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What kind of quantible values we should take into consideration?

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I I think both, like,

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the renewable energy and fast food management benefit from cost tracking.

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That would be for all businesses really.

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So you have an understanding of where the money is going,

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how the initiatives that you have in your business,

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how they are performing.

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So I would say that's pretty much a standard way.

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And it it really depends.

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I think we already said that it really depends on the industry,

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so you wouldn't have, like,

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a one set of metrics that fits all.

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For renewables, it's, again, as I said, the targets,

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the consumption levels, some thresholds that may require,

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you know, emergency action, let's say,

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because the installation is, you know,

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at their at its limit.

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So that would probably be for the energy industry.

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And then for facility management,

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things like maybe staff occupancy or maybe downtimes

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so that you see the timeline,

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how the company is performing, or the equipment,

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how it's performing.

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If you have what's the, I don't know,

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mean time between failures, you know,

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if if there are things that you need to fix,

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anything that goes with alerting you to to those

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necessary situations, so alerts and notifications,

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and maybe tracking how many of these you have over a month.

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It will give you an understanding whether your

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business is performing okay, or does it need some adjustment.

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Yeah.

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And I also

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because there's some kind of insight from the from the

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project that we have realized some time,

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where the client was really focused on

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on transferring the existing already existing calculate of

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the system from the

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Excel to the, let's say,

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web web application.

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And the thing that is was really important to to for the

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client was the performance and, let's say,

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the speed of the reaction of the system and how the

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whole process how the whole process could be

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quicker and more smooth with the new web app

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application.

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Yeah.

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Okay then.

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What kind of what set of tools are you usually using

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in your daily based work?

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Figma Figma in tons of seconds.

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Figma Figma and mural as a whiteboard.

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And, yeah, that's Yeah.

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That's that's what I've said.

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So the mural is there for scoping sessions

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and understanding the requirements.

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We do a lot of back and forth when designing

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between our design team and then the the client,

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the end client so that we understand the requirements,

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and that happens usually on the mural.

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And sometimes we just use it to, you know,

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get our heads working and wrap around a problem.

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I remember that just recently we had a session with Oscar

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trying to figure out the very complex system and the

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level of permissions that you needed to access certain elements.

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So that's the what we do in Mural.

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But we're not averse to Excels as Oscar mentioned.

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So if you come to us with an Excel,

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we can make it a web app.

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They require to be translated in a proper way,

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and I I think we're pretty good at it.

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That's right. That's right.

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But first, we will design it in Figma,

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and then we can transfer from Excel to the

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real Yeah.

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Application.

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I think Excel is still better than exchanging twenty emails.

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You know? How this supposed to work?

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How that's supposed to work?

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Oh, this calculates this and that. Yeah.

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It's basically do a very definite mapping

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ideas, I would say.

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So, yeah,

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it's alright.

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Okay then. Thank you very much for this.

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Next question will be, what are the key milestones in

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the designing process?

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What are the most important elements that we need to take

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care of in order to make a success?

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Research.

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Never enough research.

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Oh, that that's the first step as we've mentioned.

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So learning about the audience, analyzing the requirements,

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prioritizing them according to the goals that you want to achieve.

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Sometimes you fall into the trap of thinking everything is

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as equally important, but you have to remember that

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there there are people who will challenge this assumption,

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and that's still fine.

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We can work out a good compromise,

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and that needs to align with those needs of of your end

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users, not only of your business,

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but also of those end users.

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So with that in mind,

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we we usually start during our first rounds of

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designs and iterate.

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Yeah.

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And during that process, I think the the first challenge

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is to transfer those business and user needs into

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wireframes or designs.

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So that's also the very beginning step.

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And then if we are talking about, let's say,

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the further steps of the process where that design meets

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development, then it's also important to,

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let's let's say, to take care on the collaboration between

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designers and developers.

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That's really important, and it could be sometimes quite

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difficult topic.

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But but, yeah,

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the the good collaboration between between designers and

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developer, it's the, let's say, key to success of each project,

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I can say.

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Okay.

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Because the part of the, let's say,

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user experience designer works also to support the

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development process.

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Yeah?

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Like, to translate the requirements,

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put developers into the context.

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Listen. People need this because they need to have that.

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And let's say, what are at least one or two hints when it

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comes to maintaining good cooperation between the

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designers and developers?

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I would say, ideally, you are involved in as a designer,

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you're involved in the process end to end.

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So it's not like you just push out the deliverables,

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the visuals, and then you're done.

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You you you basically stop cooperating. No.

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That's just the beginning, really.

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So

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whether it's communicating through Figma or making little

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small refinement meetings with the dev team,

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making sure that they are not lost in your documentation

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and the requirements are properly, you know,

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almost set in stone, though we work in agile,

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so we know how it is.

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But you have them in Jira.

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You have, like, I

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I wanna say, a source of truth so that everyone is on the same page,

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and everyone knows that this is really catering to the business

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requirement and then the the outcome that the client wants

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to achieve as well.

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Yeah.

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I want to also emphasize the the part about

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the deliverables from designers for developers.

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I mean, it's really the quality of the design file and what is

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inside it, it's really important.

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I mean, the the design has

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its own, let's say, dark side I

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mean, tech technical side.

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So it's really important to take care on creating

23:19 → 23:23

components, making clear and consistent style guides,

23:23 → 23:28

and and document all all your design decisions

23:28 → 23:31

in in the file so then

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the developers can easily take it, can can look at it,

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look at it, and they understand what is going on.

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So so yeah.

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How great impact on your work,

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makes the tech stack?

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Are you informed upfront that, listen,

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this is gonna be built using React,

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or how does it look like?

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Can, for example,

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the decision can be made during the process in the middle of

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the design process?

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How does it look like?

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Yeah.

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When we are starting working with developers,

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especially front end developers, for example,

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it's really important to be on the same page,

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on the same site.

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So the decision about what,

24:19 → 24:20

for example,

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tech stack, like React or Angular or whatever,

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and we are using.

24:25 → 24:28

It's really important because this is the first step to

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decide what kind of design system, for example,

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or components library we will be using.

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So if we are using the same components

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library, or let's say similar, at least,

24:42 → 24:47

it's then much easier for also for

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designers, but for developers especially to

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develop and create and code all your design designs

24:56 → 24:57

and wireframes.

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I I think it saves everyone a level of frustration and

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disappointment because the designers do not get,

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frustrated that their design cannot be implemented,

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and then the developers are not frustrated

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because the days designers come with crazy ideas, to the table.

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So going and being on the same page definitely helps.

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Those component libraries, as Oskar has mentioned,

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they are already quite robust.

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It's good if we know in advance what's possible,

25:28 → 25:31

what kind of visual elements we can use,

25:31 → 25:34

or maybe what kind of interactions that they they

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come with already.

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So we we don't really waste the time on, let's say,

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rethinking something.

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Every every set of task,

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we we can just use certain good practices that are there already.

25:48 → 25:48

Yeah.

25:48 → 25:53

So first, it's the design UI design kit or component library.

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It's a kind of limitation for us to, you know,

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avoid kind sometimes kind of crazy ideas or whatever.

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But on the other hand,

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it's also perfect inspiration for us

26:07 → 26:11

because we can see the already already

26:11 → 26:14

created set of components and elements,

26:14 → 26:18

and then we can imagine easier how to, for example,

26:18 → 26:23

solve some kind of design problem with specific design elements.

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Okay then. And I need to ask this question.

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This one question comes quite spontaneously.

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It was initially in our notes, but I need to ask it.

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How to compromise

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dashboards on desktop versus mobile?

26:42 → 26:45

Tricky. That's a tough one. Yeah.

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Yeah. It this is a tricky one.

26:50 → 26:54

You again have to ask yourself what is the most important on

26:54 → 26:58

the mobile device, whether you need to see all the information.

26:58 → 27:02

In in what way is that experience different?

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So is it because the you need to quickly access the

27:06 → 27:09

dashboard, or is it because you're in the field

27:09 → 27:12

and then, you know, prioritize the info that's there?

27:12 → 27:15

Not everything will be visible at once.

27:15 → 27:18

You have to allow the users to drill down,

27:18 → 27:19

and that's still fine.

27:19 → 27:23

As long as they know that the information is not lost,

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it it is just, you know, clearly hidden,

27:25 → 27:28

but the it is accessible for them.

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I think you'll be still fine on a mobile device.

27:31 → 27:33

Okay. Okay, guys.

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This may be my one of two last questions.

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How does the cooperation with the client look like?

27:41 → 27:42

What are good practices?

27:42 → 27:46

How does the process of gathering requirements look like?

27:46 → 27:47

Yeah?

27:47 → 27:50

We talked a little bit about user research and so on,

27:50 → 27:51

but what are, let's say, good practices?

27:51 → 27:55

What questions should be asked first, for example?

27:57 → 28:01

We do a standard of what, why, when, and how.

28:01 → 28:05

So there's a set of questions that most designers will ask

28:05 → 28:09

you or even business analysis as well when we

28:09 → 28:12

run workshop sessions or scoping session depending on

28:12 → 28:16

the type of requirements that we try together.

28:16 → 28:20

So you you'll go through this process of us enlisting

28:20 → 28:23

that information, and it's not simply

28:24 → 28:27

you as a client answering us.

28:27 → 28:31

It is us also trying to map out

28:31 → 28:35

requirements, make do almost like a mind map or a

28:35 → 28:39

graph of how different aspects of the system come together.

28:39 → 28:40

And then from there,

28:40 → 28:44

prioritize the items that could be displayed on dashboard.

28:44 → 28:48

So these are usually a couple of sessions coupled

28:48 → 28:52

with lots of documentation reviews.

28:52 → 28:56

So we also appreciate if there is a a documented

28:56 → 28:59

kind of I'm not gonna say functional specification

28:59 → 29:01

because that's not what we do, really.

29:01 → 29:04

But if if you have, let's say,

29:04 → 29:07

those Excel sheets where you map certain behaviors,

29:07 → 29:11

certain outcomes of certain parameters, for example,

29:11 → 29:14

that helps us build a better dashboard, definitely.

29:15 → 29:16

Yeah.

29:16 → 29:20

And another, let's say, really important question to to the

29:20 → 29:25

client, before we start the project Would it be also,

29:25 → 29:26

first one,

29:27 → 29:31

does your idea, solve the problem,

29:31 → 29:33

the real problem?

29:33 → 29:38

And the second one, do you know your target

29:38 → 29:42

audience, and do you know your, users?

29:42 → 29:47

And and then, you can think about it if

29:47 → 29:51

this, if this solution, this idea could solve the problem, those users.

29:51 → 29:54

So that's, and that's important,

29:55 → 29:59

if we are talking about the the success of the project, for example.

29:59 → 30:01

And even if you're not sure the answers of these,

30:01 → 30:03

that's not the end of the world, I would say,

30:03 → 30:06

because we can either learn of the audience through user

30:06 → 30:09

research that we can run for you,

30:09 → 30:13

or we can do prototyping to figure out whether you are

30:13 → 30:17

solving the right problem with that solution that you have in mind.

30:17 → 30:19

Okay, ladies and gentlemen.

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This may be our last question today.

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What are the potential challenges related to

30:26 → 30:30

maintaining and usability of dashboards in a dynamic

30:30 → 30:32

business environment, such as, for example,

30:32 → 30:35

facility management or renewables?

30:37 → 30:41

So as the business grows and the data grows,

30:41 → 30:44

you may be tempted to put everything more and

30:44 → 30:48

and more on the screen on on the dashboard that's already

30:48 → 30:52

established and sticking new elements just randomly just

30:52 → 30:55

because the sensor is available and that data point is

30:55 → 30:58

available, it will not work for you.

30:58 → 31:01

I would say you would need to frequently revise

31:01 → 31:04

the hierarchy of those items,

31:04 → 31:07

revise whether you're still addressing the needs of that audience.

31:07 → 31:12

Probably also consider how how that new day data or

31:12 → 31:16

how how the growing dashboard influences their workflow and

31:16 → 31:19

whether they still understand it it it's delivering the same

31:19 → 31:20

value to them.

31:20 → 31:24

So, again, prototyping and testing with those users,

31:24 → 31:26

figuring out whether, you know,

31:26 → 31:29

that they they know where this change is coming from so you do

31:29 → 31:32

not have to retrain them on using that software.

31:33 → 31:36

That is something that that you should consider as well,

31:36 → 31:39

other than just sticking new elements, onto the layout.

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Yeah.

31:40 → 31:43

And, renewables and facility management,

31:43 → 31:48

it's a they are kind of trendy areas right now.

31:48 → 31:51

So it's also really point important to stay up to date

31:51 → 31:55

with recent updates and changes in the industry.

31:55 → 31:58

And and you need to be sure that your

31:58 → 32:03

dashboard or your system is is up to date.

32:03 → 32:06

Ladies and gentlemen, together with Hannah and Oscar,

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we would like to say thank you for watching this show.

32:09 → 32:13

Please feel free to contact us if you have ideas for another

32:13 → 32:16

episodes or you would have some questions to our experts.

32:16 → 32:19

We are happy to share our knowledge,

32:19 → 32:23

to consider your needs to discuss potential projects that

32:23 → 32:24

we could be doing together.

32:24 → 32:25

Thank you all.

32:25 → 32:27

Have a great day. See you soon.

32:27 → 32:31

This was Merixstudio Show. It's time to talk.

32:31 → 32:32

Thank you. Have a great day.

32:32 → 32:34

Thank you very much.