By Stephen Few
223 Pages
http://www.amazon.com/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effective-Communication/dp/0596100167

This book is really useful.  I picked this up one evening on a regular visit to Barnes and Noble, just because I had seen one of the really talented analysts I worked with reading it.  I started thumbing through it, and was amazed by the meat packed in between the covers.  The term "dashboard" has become a huge buzzword as of late, and seems to be what everybody from line workers to upper executives want ... even though most don't have a clue what it is or what this magical tool would even look like.

Stephen cuts to the heart of this confusion, and gives some practical advice for how to effectively use dashboards in your organization.  Since so many people have varying ideas of what a dashboard is or should be, Stephen starts by looking at what some sources say a dashboard is and combines some of those into what he thinks the best defiinition is:

Dashboard - Visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives which fits entirely on a single computer screen so it can be monitored at a glance.

He is very intentional in the exact wording of that definition, and goes into greater detail about why each word or phrase is important and how it ties into the primary goal of the dashboard.  He shows numerous examples of some dashboards currently available from companies like Oracle, Informatica, Cognos, etc. and points out the strengths and weaknesses of each.

The thing I liked the best about this book is the scientific approach to our visual perception.  Stephen presents some concepts that we seem to understand subconsciencely ... but brings them into the light, and explains how we can make better at-a-glance dashboards by making use of things like hue, intensity, 2-D location, orientation, line length, line width, size, shape, added marks, encloser, and the dreaded flicker.  He also explains why/how to tone down the "noise" (and often times the flashiness) of the dashboard so that it can better serve its purpose.

I consider this a must-read for any analyst or developer who designs dashboards for their organization, or tries to represent data visually in any form or fashion.  If you read it and apply the concepts it covers, I really think it could add some serious business value.