Archive for July, 2007

Oracle/PeopleSoft Enterprise Service Dashboard — A disservice to people who desperately need better

Monday, July 30th, 2007

Thanks to a press release from Oracle last week, I found the two dashboard screen shots that appear below in a Product Sheet that describes the features of Oracle’s new PeopleSoft Enterprise Service Dashboard software. These examples feature a dashboard that is designed for monitoring call center activity—or at least this is their intent. I’m […]

Enhanced Gantt Charts with Excel

Friday, July 27th, 2007

This morning a business intelligence consultant from Finland, Janne Pyykkö, posted an example of a Gantt Chart that he created with Excel that uses a heatmap approach to display quantitative values along the timelines, such as the number of hours worked. This brings the Gantt Chart to life with additional information, which allows you to […]

Examples of poor graph design, along with redesigns that work

Tuesday, July 24th, 2007

Those of you who are familiar with this website already know that it includes an Examples section, which shows several ineffectively designed graphical displays, along with critiques to explain why they don’t work, and proposed redesigns to show how they could be improved. Many people find these examples helpful, both for raising awareness about the […]

Microsoft vs. Oracle business intelligence – Does Dundas make a difference?

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007

Today I ran across a story published in Australian IT, a web-based news site, entitled “SQL Service put Oracle on Notice,” by Barbara Gengler (July 10, 2007). In it, Gengler pitted the growing business intelligence (BI) capabilities of Microsoft against Oracle, citing the acquisition of Dundas’ data visualization product for SQL Server Reporting Services as […]

Visual Statistics — A worthwhile new book, but one that is definitely for statisticians

Monday, July 2nd, 2007

I returned late last week from nearly three weeks of work in Europe, which ended with a two-day workshop that I taught for the Swiss Statistical Society. Nestled in a majestic valley in the Swiss Alps, we spent our days talking about how these talented statistical analysts could enhance their work by learning to communicate […]