INSIGHT Framework: Gather Feedback

As mentioned in the Initial Concept post, there is no one best way to create a data visualization and there are almost infinite factors that can influence a dashboard concept.

Data visualization is a form of art, and with that, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’

Throughout the hundreds of data visualizations we have built, we have yet to build a dashboard that every single viewer thought was perfect.

And that’s okay! We understand that it is impossible to please everyone all the time.

Among a diverse audience, different people will have different ideas of what the business questions are, opinions on which KPIs should be used to answer those business questions, varying levels of knowledge on data visualization best practices, personal design preferences, etc., etc.

Gathering feedback should be an expected – and welcome – step in your data visualization process. Gathering feedback on your initial concept from the audience that will be using it provides at least three major benefits:

• Improved Efficiency – By taking time to gather feedback, you are able to get to the final product faster. When you dedicate a step to gathering feedback in an organized fashion, you are much less likely to receive sporadic, overly-detailed feedback after you bring the concept to life.
• Reduced Frustration – Knowing that incorporating audience feedback is part of the design process, makes it less frustrating when somebody requests that we move in a different direction.
  • In the last post we suggested you shouldn’t invest a lot of time on the initial concept. It is easier to hear criticism or varying opinions when you haven’t spent time actually building out a vision before gathering feedback.
• Ownership – When you proactively gather feedback from end users, they take ownership in your final dashboard. Things tend to go smoother when the audience has some stake in your work. There is not any science behind this, but subconsciously, people are less likely to criticize something if they had some say in its creation.

How you gather feedback is up to you and is largely dependent on your audience.

For example, if you are building a dashboard for a small audience of one to three, you may simply send them an image of your initial concept and ask them to respond with their thoughts. If the audience is slightly larger, you may opt to set up an hour-long brainstorming meeting to think through different approaches as a group.

When designing for a mass audience, consider sending the initial concept to two or three individuals in your personal network to get a sample of how the overall population may look at your visualization. The key with your “preview” audience is that you choose individuals with diverse backgrounds that better reflect a larger, and diverse, public audience.

Even if you are creating a visualization for yourself, we encourage you to at least sleep on your initial concept. By stepping away from the design process, you can determine if you are still happy with the approach or have some ideas for improvement.

In the next post, I will share how to incorporate the feedback that you’ve gathered and hone the dashboard.