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Ease of Use Matters

What good is your data if the tools you use to understand it aren’t easy to use? Within your data are clues about ways you can improve business processes, uncover hidden costs, and make overall better decisions for your business. There are a lot of tools on the market for data analysis and what holds true across the spectrum is the way your data results are delivered to you matters. Intuitive and easy-to-manage dashboards and interfaces make a world of difference when it comes to getting the most knowledge from your data. It’s important to know what you need to look for in an interface to know you’ll be able to use it to get to your data-driven goal?

1 – You are comfortable with the look and feel

 
If the dashboard interface is confusing you should run. “Intuitive” is thrown around a lot when it comes to describing dashboards and interfaces, and that’s a relative term depending on what background you have. Clearly, what is intuitive to a software developer won’t be for a marketing manager. You’ll know quickly if the tools presented to you feel like something you can use and something you want to use. Look for solutions that show you exactly what you’ll be working with every day. If the interface is not something they show you from the beginning, you can take that to mean your user experience is not a top priority.

2 -You are able to run the show

 
How much are you able to manipulate and manage the interface to give you what you want? You should be able to tweak your interface to meet your needs. The people within your organization have different data driven goals, the analytics tool you use should work across departments, meeting everyone’s needs. Look for an interface that you can take control of and make your own.

 3- It lets you go as deep as you need to go

 
As you get further and further into uncovering business insights, your interface needs to give you the ability to follow leads and dig deep. For every level of information you have, your interface needs to let you drill down as far as your data will let you go. If you’re a restaurant owner, you’re going to want to look at more than just customer satisfaction reviews. You might start with a general curiosity like consumer sentiment in regards to wait time. You may notice in the past six months there has been an increase in wait time and it’s impacting your business. Where do you go from there? Does your interface let you ask more questions? Your interface needs to get you from what to why and allow you to drill down as far as you can go.

 4- It delivers results you can share easily

 
What does the data output look like? You will know what you’re looking at because you’ve been doing the data analysis, but will your team? Will the department you’re presenting to know what they’re looking at? Make sure the results your analytics tool gives you are useful to everyone, not just you. Look for an effective use of charts and graphs, not just bar graphs and pie charts, but really helpful visual displays that illustrate your data.

 5 – It allows you to compare the past with right now

 
Make sure your interface offers you the ability to pull and interact with multiple data feeds at once, both past and present. A well-designed interface is highly valuable for displaying data history over time and analyzing patterns. You will want to know if the same problem that is occurring now happened before, and if it did happen, did it happen with the same customer, at the same time of year, does it have something to do with an annual shipment, it is a packaging issue? You will find yourself going down various rabbit holes, and you’ll need an analysis tool that will pull and deliver the answers you need in a way that is best suited for you.

You will know what’s right for you.

 
You’ll undoubtedly have more requirements for your specific data needs that go beyond these five suggestions. At the end of the day, what you choose will have everything to do with your experience level, your overall business goals and your budget. For your sake, look for a service provider who has taken the effort to design their solution around your user experience because how you interact with your data matters.