At Emetrics, I presented on the topic of report design. For all two of you who read this blog, weren’t there, and are interested, I thought I’d put up the super-abbreviated version.

These are the basic principles that I apply to every report I ever author.

1

Design for Understanding
Reports, among many other important things are shortcuts. The viewer wants the report to ‘cut to the chase’ so that they don’t have to wade neck-deep through the data. So, I’m always looking to present data, KPIs, analyses, etc. in the most easily digestible way.

2

Design for Impact
Designing for understanding is just a means to an end. Our end goal is to get the report users to take action (the brass ring being the correct action). When designing a report, I am constantly looking for ways to make it impactful - ways to get the users to sit up and take notice of the information and insight it is delivering.

3

Design for Efficiency
The most beautifully crafted and fireworks-generating report will ultimately be doomed to failure if you can’t reproduce it quickly and easily. Because our business is iterative (design, test, measure…repeat) it is likely that the majority of the reports and analyses you produce must be updated on a regular basis. Therefore, if you can’t quickly update the data in the report and get it out, you’ll miss deadlines. If the report is a particularly good one and effectively drives change, then it’s actually hurting your business not to get it done on time.

By the way, these 3 rules tend to be interdependent - meaning that making gains on one often leads to losses in one or both of the others. So, it’s a fine balancing act to adequately meet all 3 rules. However, when it happens, you end up with an effective report design.

It might go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, when you find something that works - a layout, a component, a color, etc - abuse it. Most of us have more work than we can possibly accomplish so we need shortcuts too.