The Missing Ingredient That Kills So Many Dashboards

Many information dashboards die. They end up being used far less than expected or are simply abandoned by users, and the dashboards that do survive usually have low levels of user satisfaction.

In this engaging talk, globally recognized dashboard expert Nick Desbarats reveals one of the key reasons why this is happens so often: Most dashboards provide no indication of *valence*, i.e., how good or bad the user should feel about the metrics being shown. Without reliable valence indicators, dashboards look like walls of numbers and require background knowledge that most users lack in order to be interpreted successfully. The few dashboards that do have valence indicators use deeply problematic methods for generating those indicators, such as "% change since previous period", or "deviation from target".

At the end of his talk, Nick will discuss more effective, reliable ways to add valence indicators to dashboards, thereby dramatically increasing the chances that they'll deliver real value to, and traction among, users.