Questions

What is backwards planning?

 

• (A) A statistical technique which tells us how strongly the pair of variables are linearly related and change together.
• (B) A way to evaluate a decision based on things you didn’t know before making the decision.
• (C) A presentation design technique where you envision your audience as potential stakeholders and “pitch” them a story.
• (D) A method of designing educational curriculum by setting goals for the learner before choosing the instructional methods and forms of assessment.

What role does the hero play in your storytelling with data?

 

• (A) They make your data story relatable to your audience.
• (B) They elicit emotions and connect with the audience through relatable experiences.
• (C) They leave your audience with a call-to-action.
• (D) They help you prove to your audience why your company is better than your competitors.

What are blink tests used for?

 

• (A) To measure what information a visitor takes away from a page having looked at it for just 5–7 seconds
• (B) To arrange and organize elements on your dashboard so that visitors naturally gravitate toward the most important elements first
• (C) In the realm of psychology, they’re used to test how much working memory capacity you’re using when viewing a web page.
• (D) To measure what information a visitor takes away from a page having looked at it for just 3–5 seconds

True or false? When designing dashboards, you should design them using a visual hierarchy.

 

• (A) True

 

• (B) False

 

Explanation: The correct answer is True. When designing dashboards, it’s crucial to implement a visual hierarchy to effectively communicate information and guide users’ attention. Visual hierarchy refers to the arrangement, sizing, and emphasis of elements within a design to convey the relative importance of information and create a clear path for users to follow. By structuring dashboard elements such as titles, headings, graphs, and key metrics in a hierarchical manner, designers can help users quickly identify the most critical insights and navigate the dashboard with ease. This involves using techniques such as varying font sizes, colors, spacing, and contrast to differentiate between different levels of information and draw attention to essential data points or trends. A well-designed visual hierarchy ensures that users can quickly grasp the most important information at a glance, facilitating better decision-making and improving the overall user experience. Therefore, when designing dashboards, it’s essential to employ a visual hierarchy to enhance usability, clarity, and effectiveness, making the statement “True” correct.

When would you build a dashboard with the F-shaped reading pattern in mind?

 

• (A) If you are planning to build a dashboard that contains a lot of reports.
• (B) If you are planning to build a dashboard that contains only a few reports.
• (C) You should always build dashboards with the F-shaped reading pattern in mind.
• (D) You should never build dashboards with the F-shaped reading pattern in mind.

How is dashboard building like gold panning?

 

• (A) Trick question. Dashboard building is not like gold panning.
• (B) Gold panning requires a geologist or prospector with a certain skill set, and dashboards should only be designed by data analysts with formal training.
• (C) Building a dashboard means giving your audience a block of information. They’ll need to do the work to extract the useful pieces from it.
• (D) You don’t want to give your audience a dense block of information. Instead, you need to massage your data to ensure your extracting the real gold — actionable insight!