2023/Week 12 - Design KPIs

back2vizbasics·January 22, 2025

Description

For Week 12 of 2023, we would like you to design KPIs.

Summary


Here are some things to consider for this week. We are working on designing KPIs, Key Performance Indicators or BANs, Big Angry Numbers. Call them what you want or replace the ‘A’ with whatever you like. These numbers represent the big numbers that everyone wants to know. They are typically placed at the top or on the left hand side of our dashboards because they communicate their importance in those positions.

Make sure they’re legible, use the proper prefix or suffix, and have a label. Consider taking it a step further. In the KPI area, maybe you can show the measure over time or a small breakout. Perhaps you want to show how that measure compares to a prior month or a certain period. These are all things that we can do to enhance our KPIs. You do not need to build the whole dashboard for this data. We really want you to focus on designing the BANs/KPIs alone and what they communicate to the audience.

Vince Baumel and Will Perkins led a great session at Tableau Conference on this topic. Will said “BAN design can often go under appreciated and overlooked. BANs alone aren't good enough. You need to design them in a way that helps provide the additional context the end users need and to disaggregate the aggregate.”

Data Source Fields:

  • campaign_id: unique ID
  • platform: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter
  • campaign_name: random letters/words
  • start_date: date the campaign launched
  • end_date: date the campaign ended
  • impressions: number of times the campaign was displayed on a screen
  • clicks: number of times a user interacts with the campaign
  • conversions: number of times a user took a desired upon action from the campaign
  • cost: cost to run the campaign
  • revenue: revenue made from the campaign
  • consersion_rate: conversions / clicks
  • ROI: revenue / cost

For those newer to Tableau, try to consider using color effectively and purposefully in your KPIs. Play with formatting, detail, and colors to see how it affects your design. Make sure your KPIs have an appropriate description, title, or labels. Keep things simple and try not to over-complicate them. For those more experienced users, get creative. Maybe play around with floating vs tiled containers and custom images for the show/hide buttons, or dip your toe into dynamic zone visibility. However, don't compromise quality if trying something new.

Take your time over the next week to create BANs. Share your visualization on Tableau Public, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn. Use the hashtag #B2VB and tag us (@ReadySetData and @ItsElisaDavis on Twitter) - yes, even if you’re not sure you “officially” did the prompt. If you’re open to feedback, say so when you post. Finally, fill out the submission form on the Back 2 Viz Basic's website.

Check out Will Perkins Dashboard from TC for ideas: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/will.perkins/viz/TCPresentationBANExamples/NOTSOBASICBANs

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Author
back2vizbasics
Shared withEveryone
CreatedJune 16, 2023
Size273 KB
LicenseN/A
Dictionary2 tables
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2023/Week 12 - Design KPIs

back2vizbasics·January 22, 2025

Description

For Week 12 of 2023, we would like you to design KPIs.

Summary


Here are some things to consider for this week. We are working on designing KPIs, Key Performance Indicators or BANs, Big Angry Numbers. Call them what you want or replace the ‘A’ with whatever you like. These numbers represent the big numbers that everyone wants to know. They are typically placed at the top or on the left hand side of our dashboards because they communicate their importance in those positions.

Make sure they’re legible, use the proper prefix or suffix, and have a label. Consider taking it a step further. In the KPI area, maybe you can show the measure over time or a small breakout. Perhaps you want to show how that measure compares to a prior month or a certain period. These are all things that we can do to enhance our KPIs. You do not need to build the whole dashboard for this data. We really want you to focus on designing the BANs/KPIs alone and what they communicate to the audience.

Vince Baumel and Will Perkins led a great session at Tableau Conference on this topic. Will said “BAN design can often go under appreciated and overlooked. BANs alone aren't good enough. You need to design them in a way that helps provide the additional context the end users need and to disaggregate the aggregate.”

Data Source Fields:

  • campaign_id: unique ID
  • platform: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter
  • campaign_name: random letters/words
  • start_date: date the campaign launched
  • end_date: date the campaign ended
  • impressions: number of times the campaign was displayed on a screen
  • clicks: number of times a user interacts with the campaign
  • conversions: number of times a user took a desired upon action from the campaign
  • cost: cost to run the campaign
  • revenue: revenue made from the campaign
  • consersion_rate: conversions / clicks
  • ROI: revenue / cost

For those newer to Tableau, try to consider using color effectively and purposefully in your KPIs. Play with formatting, detail, and colors to see how it affects your design. Make sure your KPIs have an appropriate description, title, or labels. Keep things simple and try not to over-complicate them. For those more experienced users, get creative. Maybe play around with floating vs tiled containers and custom images for the show/hide buttons, or dip your toe into dynamic zone visibility. However, don't compromise quality if trying something new.

Take your time over the next week to create BANs. Share your visualization on Tableau Public, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn. Use the hashtag #B2VB and tag us (@ReadySetData and @ItsElisaDavis on Twitter) - yes, even if you’re not sure you “officially” did the prompt. If you’re open to feedback, say so when you post. Finally, fill out the submission form on the Back 2 Viz Basic's website.

Check out Will Perkins Dashboard from TC for ideas: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/will.perkins/viz/TCPresentationBANExamples/NOTSOBASICBANs

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