An “Ugly BI App” is more than a bad color palette and poor composition. It is a negative visceral reaction that business users have to Business Intelligence. Many organizations have realized that even well-designed solutions fail to gain acceptance and adoption. The top 3 reasons why Ugly BI Apps get rejected:
1. The solution is too complex for business users
Defects in user experience workflows, graphic design, and slow application performance can be culprits for complexity that business users hate.
2. The solution does not provide the information or data required by business users
Typically due to lengthy design cycles or lapses in communication, information required by users change so the dashboard delivers dated metrics and analytics that don’t support current business conditions.
3. The information is incorrect
Nothing kills confidence faster than incorrect information. Incorrect calculations, bad data or other inaccuracies that are unique to each organization can kill any momentum in gaining trust and adoption of your BI app.
Regardless if you are building reports, interactive dashboards, or rolling out self-service visualization apps, you can minimize your risk for ugly apps with these two rules of engagement:
Business Intelligence professionals are not designers, but neither are BI end users.
The process for designing apps and dashboards requires technique and experience. Nothing can replace experience, but with tons of resources readily available online, your ability to avoid pitfalls and create beautiful apps are higher than ever.
The last generation of failed BI implementations revealed that communication is a huge barrier for success due to the wide range of skills required to successfully create Business Intelligence. Simply putting IT and business stakeholders in one room will not solve these problems.Collaboration and communication are more valuable skills than certifications and technology tools.
Using simple guidelines for collaboration, and asking the right questions will set a foundation to get the most out of your technology investments. Well-designed dashboards can still fail when the information does not align to the needs of business users.
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Create Beautiful BI Apps
While a well designed Business Intelligence apps will not ultimately dictate its success, a positive visceral reaction thanks to “ease of use” will absolutely help set you up for success. If you don’t have a visual thinker on your BI implementation team, you may need to find one or bring in hired guns to get you on the right track.
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