4A. Scope report design requirements

Question 1

What is a good starting point when designing reports?

Answer 1

Defining clear goals.

Question 2

What are the four areas to cover when determining reporting requirements?

Answer 2

• Audiences
• Report type
• User interface requirements
• User experience requirements

Question 3

What are the three broad, common report consumer audiences, and describe their tasks.

Answer 3

• Executive. An executive is a person who is charged with making plans and decisions that often involve a medium or long-term focus. Executives are responsible for making the business run smoothly. For example, the C-level executives at the Contoso Skateboard Store would be an executive audience.
• Analyst. An analyst is a person who provides guidance to the organization. Analysts can be responsible for a range of tasks, often with goals of determining the effectiveness of business strategies, developing or improving processes, or implementing change. A business analyst (or data analyst) in the sales division of the Contoso Skateboard Store is an example of an analyst audience.
• Information worker. An information worker is someone who uses data to help make decisions or take actions. Often, these decisions and actions are operational in that they are done on a daily basis. The inventory manager at the Contoso Skateboard Store, who needs up-to-date information about stock levels, is an example of an information worker audience.

Question 4

What are the four report types, and how do they usually map onto consumer types?

Answer 4

• Dashboard (Executive)
• Analytical (Analyst)
• Operational (Information worker)
• Educational (General)

Question 5

Describe Dashboards at a high level, and the types of questions they are good at answering.

Answer 5

The primary goal of a dashboard is to interpret the story as quickly as possible. User interactions are limited by insights that are highly curated toward the audience. Report visuals are focused, self-explanatory, and clearly labeled. A dashboard directly communicates the meaning behind the data to minimize misinterpretation or confusion.

A good example of a dashboard is an executive dashboard, which often presents high-level metrics that are displayed on a single page. Dashboards help answer questions such as “How are we doing?” or “Are we there yet?”

Question 6

Describe Analytical reports at a high level, and the types of questions they are good at answering.

Answer 6

An analytical report is the most common type of report that can serve various report consumer use cases while providing a structured space for analysis.

The primary goal of an analytical report is to help report consumers discover answers to a broad array of questions by interacting with the report and its visuals. Analytical reports often have many slicers to filter report data, and they often contain complex visuals that expose in-depth detail of the data.

Report pages are often expressly designed for interactivity with a focus on UX features. Multiple pathways are often provided for the report consumer to follow, which allows them to explore a topic of interest, share their findings, or return to where they started. Report consumers can remove layers and add context and detail by incorporating interactive features. Common interactive features include drill down, drill through, and tooltips.

A good example of an analytical report is one that extends beyond the “How are we doing?” type of question to answer the “Why did that happen?” or “What might happen next?” type of questions.

Question 7

Describe Operational reports at a high level, and the types of questions they are good at answering.

Answer 7

Operational reports are designed to give the report consumer the ability to monitor current or real-time data, make decisions, and act on those decisions. Operational reports can include buttons that allow the report consumer to navigate within the report and also beyond the report to perform actions in external systems. Frequently, operational reports serve as a hub for action that is used by report consumers as part of their daily activity and workload.

This type of report should minimize the number of analytical features to ensure that focus remains on the operation that it’s designed to serve. A streamlined user experience is the primary aim for this report type because excessive clicking or illogical flow can lead to high dissatisfaction.

A good example of an operational report is one that allows monitoring of a manufacturing production line. When an unexpected event arises, such as equipment malfunction, a button could allow workers to start a maintenance request.

Question 8

Describe Educational reports at a high level.

Answer 8

Educational reports assume that the report consumer is unfamiliar with the data or context. So the reports must provide clear narrative detail and guidance to help with understanding. This type of report is often used in journalism and by governments to disseminate information to large audiences that have varying levels of understanding of the subject.

A good example of an educational report is one that describes the rollout of COVID-19 vaccination progress and that can be filtered by the home geographic region of the report consumer.

Question 9

What aspects should be considered when defining user interface requirements?

Answer 9

• Form factor
• Input method
• Style and theme
• Accessibility

Question 10

What is form factor in the context of report design?

Answer 10

In the context of report design, form factor describes the size of the hardware that is used to open reports, and to page orientation (portrait or landscape).

Question 11

What is input method in the context of report design?

Answer 11

While a computer has a keyboard and pointing device (mouse), mobile devices rely on common gestures, such as tap, double-tap, drag, pinch, spread, or press. Report consumers who are using mobile devices can also use on-screen keyboards, voice control, or barcode and QR code readers. Augmented or mixed reality devices rely heavily on hand gestures or body movement.

Knowing how your report consumers are likely interacting with reports should influence your report designs. Consider the number of visuals that display together on the page, the complexity of visuals, spacing between visuals, and the use of interactive design elements such as tooltips, slicers, buttons, or filters.

When a report is embedded in an application, input can be received programmatically from the application. For example, when the application user opens a page to view history for a specific customer, a filter automatically passes to an embedded report to filter and display sales history for that customer.

Question 12

What is style and theme in the context of report design?

Answer 12

Strive to design reports with a consistent and distinctive appearance that is determined by a deliberate theme.

The report theme should express your organizational branding or aim to complement it. At a minimum, the theme should include the following elements:
- A brand mark or logo symbol.
- A palette of colors that align to, or complement, organizational branding. The colors should also be sufficiently different so that, when applied to visuals, they provide appropriate contrast when appearing side by side.
- Text settings, including font selection, sizes, and color.

Question 13

How can you make style and theme of a report dynamic?

Answer 13

To manage style and theme changes effectively and efficiently, design reports that use images and themes that are stored in a central repository. This approach improves change management: Changes that are applied to the repository can automatically cascade through to reports.

Question 14

What aspects of accessibility should you consider when designing reports?

Answer 14

To support people with low or no vision, consider using:
- clear and large-sized fonts,
- well-spaced and large visuals,
- sufficiently contrasting colors,
- and intuitive report navigation that can be understood by keyboard and screen readers.

Also ensure report navigation takes into account varying physical ability:
- When possible, ensure that you offer alternative paths for consumers to follow to achieve the interactive design outcomes. For example, adding alt text to visuals for screen reader support, and setting tab order for keyboard navigation.

Question 15

What are some possible UX requirements beyond those covered by form factor, input method, and interface?

Answer 15

• Support for interactions, such as:

    Drill up, drill down, or drill through to details.
  
    Navigation within the report or to other reports.
  
    Filters or slicers that can be applied to report visuals, specific pages, or all pages.
  
    Data export as specific data formats, such as Microsoft Excel or a comma-separated value (CSV) file.

• Support for ad hoc questions to retrieve a response in the form of a data visualization.
• Configuring of data alerts to notify people when specific data values change or exceed predefined thresholds.
• Links to open webpages.
• Actions to open applications, write back data entry values, or trigger workflows.
• What-if analysis that allows the report consumer to modify “what-if” values to understand the consequences of different scenarios. For example, what-if analysis could allow consumers to predict sales revenue based on different consumer demand estimates.
• Page layouts that can extend over multiple pages and are suitable for printing as multi-page documents.
• Printing the report to a physical printer or as a PDF document.
• Subscribing to the report so that it can be automatically delivered as a document on a scheduled basis.
• Adding commentary, feedback, or engaging in a conversation about the report.