The Design Process
Alias how do I end up creating a dashboard for 8 hours instead of one
Since my new job, I am not developing dashboards on a daily basis. I am not going to lie, I miss the creative process. One of my deepest fears that I will get to a point, when I am not aware of the new releases and and all the hot updates of Tableau.
That would be a nightmare.
In my free time, don't judge me, I do like to train my creative dataviz muscles. The best exercise for me is always Andy Kriebel's #MakeoverMondays challenges. Andy is the "Godfather" of all the Tableau data visualisation specialists, he keeps contributing to the community. Since Salesforce went into laying off staff, it's a pain point for me as I can't keep highlighting that without the community, me personally I wouldn't have come that far.
From the bottom of my heart I advice you guys to join the weekly exercises.
I was looking into food inflation articles in the Economist and I saw Andy launched the exercise for week 8 about how much is 20g protein intake costs. I saw myself having a light bulb moment and looking at the dataset I thought I can do this dataviz in a few hours.
After 6 hours glued to my Macbook.....
I went through all the struggles as Andy with the parameters and filters. He could have edited out that what he was initially thinking as a solution just didn't work out. This is actually reflecting on real life scenarios, when you can "overcook" the solutions. And that's all OK!
Never a failure, we just keep on learning.
What is an important take-away from this exercise as well that you can create beautiful datavizes but ask yourself. Does it makes sense or is it even logical? Can I use Occam's Razor principle to make it simpler and more understandable?
After a couple of hours I made my first version. I usually do my wire-framing and prototyping in Figma and then I transfer my design to Tableau.
I created this dataviz in 2-3 hours BUT I wan't happy with it. I knew I can make it nicer. Went on inspiration hunting mode on Pinterest and Dribbble. Of course as a golden retriever - lose attention if I get many stimulations - ended up on makeup websites and when dropping products to my basket I remembered I am not here for that stuff.
And I found the inspiration. Clean design with gradient background. Went with the dark side. Didn't like. My favourite colour is teal and green so I went on with the safe side. I swear to God I spent too much time picking up colours and made me remember Neil Richards presentation about the importance of colour picking and it made me even more nervous :).
Neil's book is available: https://lnkd.in/ehaFSC5z
I am sure I will reuse the darker "tropical" gradient background but after consideration I decided it's too sexy for what I would lie to communicate with the world. Found the dataset of the world food inflation rates and with the navigation button created 2 dashboards in 1.
Spent time on researching hyperinflation and what could be the optimal rate. As we feel when we go groceries shopping, we pay way more for the food than last year. It's rare for a developed country, specially in the EU to face hyperinflation, but something similar is happening in my birth country, in Hungary. Food is not getting cheaper, world hunger will keep on raising. I know the protein intake exercise shouldn't end up this sad. However, I wanted to shed a light on developing countries who are in deep recession and their citizens are not being able to afford minimum protein intake to keep a healthy daily nourishment.
Looking back at the process, I easily consumed more than 8 hours for this dataviz.
1. Various prototypes and designs in Figma.
2. Finding the best shapes and solutions, exploring the datasets.
3. Asking the correct questions. How do I answer them with my dashboard?
4. Parameters and filters
5. Navigations
6. Research on the topic.
7. all the design fluffy things like matching colours, dividers and fonts.
You can find the working dashboard here: