A glass table is something someone will look at often and it will allow for quick action. ITSI is not Excel (and I love Excel).
REPORTS | GLASS TABLES | |
TYPE OF DATA | As much as you can | Most important data |
REAL-TIME | No | Yes |
PRESENTATION | Detailed | Consolidated |
FORMAT | Static | Dynamic |
ALLOWS QUICK ACTION | No | Yes |
EASE OF USE | Complex | Simple and easy |
We all do this. We start using a new tool (PowerPoint, Photoshop or Gimp, Excel, Google docs etc…) and want to use all these fancy features without asking ourselves “What am I really doing here?"). So step away from your keyboard and mouse, grab a pen and paper, pick your brain and start defining your objectives.
Keep it relevant (less is more), avoid overdesigning and use iconography (content isn’t limited to text and charts). The good news is that some iconography can really be understood by everybody the same way (think “road signs”).
Fonts add another dimension… for example:
Pretty clear right? ☺
Here are some guidelines:
With regards to colors:
Yes, not all charts have been created equal! They don’t have the same Data-to-ink ratio.
Here are some examples:
A few tips:
There is a natural hierarchy when you’re reading… You start reading from left to right and from top to bottom. But also, depending on the media or the level of attention some people “scan documents” from top left to bottom right.
So, make sure that your most important KPIs are located in the top left corner… but wait…. remember principle #2 (again)? Know your audience!
Left to right is true…for Occidental cultures, but some languages use right to left scripts (Arabic, Hebrew, Kurdish…) and some are even more complex/flexible like ideographic languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean…) as they can be written left to right or vertically top to bottom. Sometimes even both directions can be combined on one page.
This is one of the most subtle yet essential dashboard guidelines, as this principle comes down to balance. See the “proximity” example below. Just by grouping KPIs and playing with white space (– also referred to as negative space – the blank area between elements featured on a dashboard design), your audience will automatically understand which KPIs are part of the same group.
Do not underestimate the power of a glass table! Imagine you want to monitor the health of a service (an app, a business process…you name it) in ITSI. You start displaying all the KPIs in the service analyzer, but one piece is missing… Someone (no names please ☺) in another team refuses to give you access to their dataset (unfortunately, working in silos is still common). Create a background image (we will see how to do it later) that displays all the components, import it on ITSI as a background, add the KPIs you have and show it to your manager, CIO, C-suite, etc. They will quickly understand the value that you’re providing but they will also quickly spot that a piece of information (KPI) is missing… now you have an ally to make sure that this “someone” will give you access to his/her dataset… but don’t tell anyone this trick (we learned it from a customer!).
Sometimes clean is not enough and a more dramatic approach is needed. By pulling out the important exceptions you can make it easier for your audience to digest what matters and take action. We are talking about incident management here after all. So use colors, contrast, scary icons ☺ and shapes to shift the focus from the full data to changes in the most critical KPIs
Ok, so you may be grateful for the previous principles, but you wonder: How can I apply them to Splunk ITSI?
Easy! If you followed the principles, you now should have a prototype on paper. All you need now is to talk to your marketing team and ask for the color guidelines, company icons, etc.
But you could also do this:
According to Splunk CTO Tim Tully, we are entering the indulgent user experience era, which means that enterprise software (in our case, glass tables) doesn’t have to be a boring experience. “Elegant design pulls you forward”, he says. “It gives you an edge to tackle whatever action is in front of you. Using a well-designed product feels more like a motivation than a chore.”
So keep an eye on design trends to make sure your glass tables look modern and appealing.
If you really enjoyed this post and want to see it in more detail, we recorded a session about design during the 2019 Splunk .conf event, available on-demand here:
Thanks for reading!
Stéphane
P.s. Don't forget to check out Part 1: Glass Table Design: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and The Champion!
The Splunk platform removes the barriers between data and action, empowering observability, IT and security teams to ensure their organizations are secure, resilient and innovative.
Founded in 2003, Splunk is a global company — with over 7,500 employees, Splunkers have received over 1,020 patents to date and availability in 21 regions around the world — and offers an open, extensible data platform that supports shared data across any environment so that all teams in an organization can get end-to-end visibility, with context, for every interaction and business process. Build a strong data foundation with Splunk.