The reason I keep posting about data visualization is not just because I think these things are pretty or interesting, but I think the things you learn about data visualization are directly applicable to reporting in web analytics. People are always decrying the “data puke”, and I’ve seen scorecards that range from Windows 95 looking spreadsheet to graphic designer Excel masterpiece. I am hoping to end up somewhere in the happy medium, where you marry design with data in a way that it helps show the reader what is important and what is actionable.

Definition: A scorecard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives, consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance. Unlike dashboards that display actual values of metrics, scorecards typically display the gap between actual and target values for a smaller number of key performance indicators.

I don’t think Excel was originally envisioned as an application where form matters as much as function, but I’m trying to learn how to manipulate spreadsheets to make them look more attractive. I haven’t found many resources yet on how to do this, but already I see parallels to web design/graphic design. A scorecard is a visual presentation similar to a page in a magazine or a book–maybe it would be useful to take a page from that field and create mock-ups/wireframes in Adobe InDesign or Illustrator before you just start throwing data in?

This would require taking the time to learn the program (which is not going to happen for most), but I do think its worth thinking about it from a designer or information architect’s point of view. For instance, how do people read things online? They scan web pages in a F-format generally, put the most important things along that F shape if you’re sending an online copy of the scorecard. Maybe its too much effort put into something that you just have to get done and not fixate on design, but the designer in me thinks that creating a well-designed scorecard and consciously thinking about how the audience will read it (user-centered design), might help the client understand and agree with you.

I think Shane Atchison might disagree slightly with me. Am I completely right/wrong? Let me know.

I guess I was feeling too web analytically inclined lately because I have been only reading about IA/UX stuff now.  There was an interesting research posting by ClickTale, that studied how users scroll and whether or not they are actually reading things below the fold.  There are 2 parts to the study, but part 2 is where they give substantial conclusions and advice.

Turns out people do scroll. Go figure. Its relative to the position in the page though, and people’s attention span drops dramatically after the top until they get to the footer, which they pay close attention to. Here are the main recommendations:

• The most valuable web page real-estate is located near the page top, between 0 and 800 pixels. Visitor Attention and Page Exposure peak at about the 540 pixel-line.
• If you have a long web page,  add “stop points” such as headers and images to prevent your visitors from quickly scrolling down the page. It will prevent their attention from waning towards the end of the page.
• The footer of your page is important! Users do pay quite a bit of attention to that area of your page.

This is interesting to me because the primary argument of a person sitting in on a redesign meeting at the Burke was that no one will ever look below the fold, so they asked me to make a different mock-up reflecting that.  While I think the most important/engaging content should remain above the fold, it turned a content-rich page into something that does not have much content because of the design restrictions imposed. You can see an earlier mock-up in the portfolio section, but I was undecided on whether this was a better alternative or not. I would post the new mock-up but I don’t know if that’s allowed yet.

Uber complicated graph from ClickTale

And if anyone is in the market for an amazing smelling candle, I bought the Aloha Orchid one from Anthropologie. Very nice. And all the millions of people who decided to make identical Excel macro tutorials need to stop.

Bonnie, who I studied with in Scotland, is visiting with her friend Yael until Tuesday! We went to Cafe Besalu, the Ballard Farmers’ Market, and then got lost trying to get to the Mac and Jack’s brewery for the tour. So we saw parts of Redmond that are not worth seeing really.  Then we came back, ate at the Good Fries Place, and walked around the Locks and salmon ladder for a bit. Finally rounded things off with watching an episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey and deciding that one lady strongly resembles Jafar.

Real Housewife of New Jersey

Jafar from Aladdin

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Today was my 2nd to last day at the Burke, and I got the final mock-up of new Ethnology landing pages done, as well as an analytics report on Mammals of Washington.  Ethnology curator & co. seemed to like the mock-ups, but they also seemed to forget that change is good. And the user is not like me. Etc. Hopefully it gets implemented in the near future but who knows. Tonight I finally visited Molly Moon’s ice cream in Wallingford, which I highly recommend now. Birthday cake flavored ice cream is the bomb.  Also The Grok is going to hopefully write a post about analytics for non-profits thanks to our Twitter messaging. Yay!