Xcelsius Gurus. Dashboard Design Essentials. Presented by: David Lai Date: September 15, 2010

Transcription

1 Xcelsius Gurus Dashboard Design Essentials Presented by: David Lai Date: September 15, 2010

2 Who are We? Xcelsius Gurus Network #1 source for Xcelsius community related information David Lai SAP Business Objects Consultant Xcelsius Enthusiast Author of web blog and coauthor of Co-authoring an Xcelsius Cookbook for Packt Publishing which will be released mid 2011.

3 Agenda Overview of what a dashboard is and why we use dashboards Dashboard Design and Best Practices Xcelsius Best Practices Xcelsius Data Connectivity Xcelsius Tips and Tricks Xcelsius Resources Question and Answer period Slide 3

4 What is a Dashboard? Visual display Of The most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives Which Fits entirely on a single computer screen So it can be monitored at a glance Stephen Few: Information Dashboard Design Slide 4

5 Why are Dashboards important? Replacement for hunt-and-peck data-gathering techniques Provides users with a totally customized experience on accessing data Helps users visually identify trends, patterns, anomalies Slide 5

6 Dashboard Design Gather business requirements and analyze Whiteboard on paper! Mockup your whiteboard on Xcelsius Iterative development is great for feedback!

7 Dashboard Best Practices Must be able to see all information in one screen without scrolling. Must supply context (Need to compare to something for the metric to be worthwhile) Start navigation from the top left, as we are accustomed to doing so when reading a book. Should promote consistency and standards within the company to lower future learning curve. Use quadrants, align components uniformly, make components of similar size, use colors that are easy on the eyes. Don t put too much detail (ie: 10 decimal places) Slide 7

8 Dashboard Best Practices - 2 Use charts that are easy to read! Example of Pie Chart vs Bar Chart when comparing 8 groups Slide 8

9 Example 1 Slide 9

10 Xcelsius Best Practices - 1 Re-use components if possible to reduce footprint. Choose the right color scheme and theme Use the Canvas Container to group components if possible Slide 10

11 Xcelsius Best Practices - 2 In Excel, use different colors to represent different types of logic Slide 11

12 Xcelsius Best Practices - 3 Organize your worksheets in Excel Avoid using formulas such as VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, SUMIF, COUNTIF on large datasets Use the alignment and sizing toolbar in Xcelsius Slide 12

13 Data Connectivity Xcelsius can connect to 12 different types of data sources. Slide 13

14 Xcelsius 12 Connectivity Options BO Enterprise Query as a Web Service Live Office SAP Netweaver BW Connection Crystal Report Data Consumer Flash Variables FS Commands Non-BO Enterprise Web Service Connection XML Data Portal Data LCDS Connection (Adobe) External Interface Connections Excel XML Maps Slide 14

15 Live Office and Design Time Slide 15

16 Live Office and Runtime Slide 16

17 When to use Live Office Complex formatting Crosstabs with a dynamic amount of columns or formulas in the cells that require complex formulas that can be done in the WEBI report. With QaaWS we can use ETL but that would require extra data maintenance and universes/universe objects which some organizations are not okay with. Can t have separate QaaWS objects for each sales office since there is a dynamic number of sales offices Slide 26

18 When to use Live Office Scheduling We can make use of WEBI report scheduling on queries that take long to run. The dataset needs to be small enough (less than 500 rows) so that we can just grab the entire set without having to query. Crystal Reports Crystal Reports can be utilized when there is no Universe Slide 27

19 When to use Query as a Web Service Performance Query as a Web Service does not have to build a WEBI report and queries directly Good for large data sets that need to be broken down with prompt parameters Data Logic / Maintainability Keeps Data Logic in the data layer so that database handles all the number crunching through the ETL Slide 28

20 Thoughts on Live Office and QaaWS Whether developers are comfortable with WEBI or ETL? Doing one of the other may cost more in the long run Is it strict where Data Logic should reside? Is the organization comfortable with managing both to get the best out of both worlds? Slide 29

21 Xcelsius Tips and Tricks Mouse Over Help Common that users may want some assistance on a certain component or chart Slide 30

22 Mouse over Help - 2 Slide 31

23 Mouse over Help - 3 Slide 32

24 Mouse over help - 4 Slide 33

25 Xcelsius Tips and Tricks Adding depth to your charts Add depth to your chart to give it that WOW factor Slide 34

26 Adding depth to Charts - 2 Slide 35

27 Adding depth to Charts - 3 Slide 36

28 Adding depth to Charts - 4 Slide 37

29 Adding depth to Charts - 5 Slide 38

30 Tips and Tricks Using the Canvas Container to group components Slide 39

31 Xcelsius Resources Troubleshooting BusinessObjectsBoard - SAP Community Network Forums - Tips/Tricks and Best Practices Xcelsius 2008 Dashboard Best Practices Loren Abdulezer Information Dashboard Design Stephen Few Everything Xcelsius MyXcelsius Ryan Goodman s Xcelsius blog David Lai s blog Slide 40

32 Disclaimer This presentation outlines our general product direction and should not be relied on in making a purchase decision. This presentation is not subject to your license agreement or any other agreement with SAP. SAP has no obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this presentation or to develop or release any functionality mentioned in this presentation. This presentation and SAP's strategy and possible future developments are subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. This document is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document, except if such damages were caused by SAP intentionally or grossly negligent. SAP 2010 / Page 2