Three Dynamic Texts to Include in Every Dashboard
*While dashboard is a hotly debated topic, for the purposes of this story, I am referring to a dashboard as a collection of data visuals that a user can interact with. For example, a turnover dashboard that has a visual that shows headcount over time and a visual that shows employees by location with a drop down to select the Department of interest.*
There are probably many in the data visualization community who have a visceral response to the notion that we should be including more text in our visualizations.
The reasons I gravitated to data visualizations in the first place is because:
- They are visually appealing
- They don’t require the audience to read
- They don’t require me to write
Texts allow for none of those things. Well, maybe a text can be visually appealing if you have a really great font.
One of the first things you learn in data visualization is to get rid of words. Less text, less lines, less noise — less, less, less. So, why am I encouraging the use of more text? Because, to my chagrin, there are some things that are, and always will be, communicated more effectively with text. Them be fightin’ words, but I stand by it.
