Comments on: When making analogies, think digital http://blog.bissantz.com/cup-porsche Bissantz ponders Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:34:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Urk Taylor http://blog.bissantz.com/cup-porsche#comment-4582 Urk Taylor Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:50:54 +0000 http://blog.bissantz.com/cup-porsche#comment-4582 In the example the author provides (the speedometer in the racing car), he fails to recognize that the most important piece of data a driver needs is not his speed, but his engine RPMs. And guess what ... look at the dashboard and notice that RPMs are represented in an analog fashion! Adam V. is right ... many usuabilty studies support this. In the example the author provides (the speedometer in the racing car), he fails to recognize that the most important piece of data a driver needs is not his speed, but his engine RPMs. And guess what … look at the dashboard and notice that RPMs are represented in an analog fashion!

Adam V. is right … many usuabilty studies support this.

]]> By: AdamV http://blog.bissantz.com/cup-porsche#comment-4561 AdamV Mon, 19 May 2008 11:13:45 +0000 http://blog.bissantz.com/cup-porsche#comment-4561 I disagree that digital is always better, analogue displays for reports have their place, and that is to do with comparisons between numbers. The human eye and brain can very easily assimilate several visual inputs and choose between them on a variety of criteria - the largest bar on a chart, the darkest colour, the smallest pie-slice and so on. Evolution has tuned us to select the biggest juiciest ripest-looking fruit, so our built-in pathways for doing this kind of evaluation is very well honed. The race car driver only needs to know his speed right now. If it was useful to compare to the speed at the same point on the last lap, or to his competitor's speed or an average or some other factor, an analogue display of some kind would probably be more useful. At a _very quick_ glance, which of these numbers is largest: 34, 59, 28, 71, 46 ? If you 'heard' the numbers as words and thought about their meaning (a fairly normal process called reading) this takes too long. A simple visual representation such as a bar chart would make the relationship between these figures clearer and the largest would jump out without even thinking about it. Dashboards (in the BI sense) should provide this kind of clear, unambiguous information with the least effort on the part of the reader. Actual detailed specific numbers are important, but in most business analysis the trends, comparisons and relationships between values is just as critical. I disagree that digital is always better, analogue displays for reports have their place, and that is to do with comparisons between numbers.
The human eye and brain can very easily assimilate several visual inputs and choose between them on a variety of criteria – the largest bar on a chart, the darkest colour, the smallest pie-slice and so on. Evolution has tuned us to select the biggest juiciest ripest-looking fruit, so our built-in pathways for doing this kind of evaluation is very well honed.
The race car driver only needs to know his speed right now. If it was useful to compare to the speed at the same point on the last lap, or to his competitor’s speed or an average or some other factor, an analogue display of some kind would probably be more useful.
At a _very quick_ glance, which of these numbers is largest:
34, 59, 28, 71, 46 ?
If you ‘heard’ the numbers as words and thought about their meaning (a fairly normal process called reading) this takes too long.
A simple visual representation such as a bar chart would make the relationship between these figures clearer and the largest would jump out without even thinking about it.
Dashboards (in the BI sense) should provide this kind of clear, unambiguous information with the least effort on the part of the reader. Actual detailed specific numbers are important, but in most business analysis the trends, comparisons and relationships between values is just as critical.

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