How to understand information
Designing a status dashboard for managers
An internal team of managers needed to create a dashboard that would help them to understand how customers were being managed and keep track of sales tasks and status of their direct reports.
How might we… understand which information is important and how to organize it so that it makes sense to our users (in this case the managers)?
1. Gathering information
We spent time independently writing down all of the information each manager could think of that they would like to collect, review and understand about their team.
2. Sharing information
Each manager was invited to share all of the notes they had written and place them up on the wall. Explaining why they wanted this information while they did so.
Sharing help to develop an understanding within the group and inspired new ideas in others.
3. Sorting
We sorted the information into groupings that made sense. I encouraged the managers to think about what content would make logical sense to be together. Through much discussion, the information was sorted into 5 key groupings.
4. Ideation
The managers were divided into two small team to focus in on a specific area or screen and tasked with coming up with a dashboard to showcase the information.
Each team presented what they had created to the larger group.
5. Prototype
This work was then given to a design team to build on the information gathered by the managers to create a working prototype.