Discussion 1 (DTDW22)

[Liz Lewis]

Is the WHO local maternity dashboard really a dashboard (based on what you’ve read in the textbook and Stephen Few’s article)? Why or why not?

[Chana Weiner (Rosenbaum)]

I do not think that the WHO local maternity dashboard is really a dashboard. According to Stephen Few’s article, the definition of a dashboard is that it “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.” This visual of the maternity data is not presented in a simple visual and does not provide a high level summary. This chart requires the viewer to look at all of the data points individually by month, which takes time, rather than a rating of each performance measure against one another.

[Emma Warren]

I agree with Chana that The WHO local maternity dashboard is not really a dashboard. According to Chapter 1, it is missing several key elements that make a dashboard a dashboard. It does not provide “at a glance” information, it is not very visual/graphical in nature, and it does not provide pre-defined conclusions. I would consider this “dashboard” as more of a report: it has data but does not sufficiently interpret the data to make an “at a glance” point.

[Annie Pro]

I agree with both Chana and Emma, the WHO maternity dashboard is not a dashboard as it does not give high level summary of the information given at a glance.

[Tyler Sherman]

Similar to other comments, I also agree that it is not concise, intentional, and accessible for managers simply looking to pull key concepts. This looks like a nice set up for a data source that can be regularly added to by the creator of the dashboard or other contributors, but is only good for those who are really taking a deep dive into the data as opposed to the “quick glance.”

[Julia D’Ambrosio]

As stated above, I do not think that the maternity dashboard is a true dashboard. While it displays the data in a visual way, this visual does not have a predetermined conclusion. Therefore, the data seems to be too general rather than specific to supporting the trend that the author would like the audience to know. Due to it’s lack of graphs, no predetermined conclusion, and the overload of data, I do not think this visual is a data dashboard.

[Yawei Song]

Agree with everyone’s comments. WHO’s maternity dashboard is more like a dataset instead of a dashboard. It doesn’t provide a quick visualization of data. For viewers like myself, it still requires time to read line by line to understand the data.

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