In Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog series we looked at the business value of following a visualization standard like IBCS and we then looked at the first set of rules and how you can use SAP Analytics Cloud to implement these recommendation as part of your next dashboarding / data visualization project.
This time we will look at Top 3 and Top 4 from the IBCS Top 10.
To me especially this one is always an interesting experience when I explain this to customers during sessions at workshops and conference, because on the one hand this is such an obvious rule but on the other hand a lot of people are not following it in a consistent fashion.
In simple words: Any time based information should be shown in a horizontal chart and any non-time based information should be shown as vertical chart.
So how can SAP Analytics Cloud help here ? That is the simple part, because SAP Analytics Cloud makes this decision already for you and I think the easiest way to explain it, is to simply show it.
The Top 4 from IBCS is around the time periods, with the recommendations that time periods not only should be differentiated with the labels, but more important the time periods should be visually differentiated in the chart.
In simple terms, the wider the category is shown in the chart, the longer the period. So a value for a calendar year should be wider than a value for the quarter or month.
Here is a simple example:
In the image above you can see that the column for the year is wider than the one for the quarter and the quarter is wider than the month.
Please note that the above is a "constructed chart" as currently SAP Analytics Cloud does not provide the option to configure a different bar / column width in the chart.
I hope you enjoyed this. Next time we will take a look Top 5 (charts) and Top 6 (labels).
This time we will look at Top 3 and Top 4 from the IBCS Top 10.
Top 3 - Time and Structure
To me especially this one is always an interesting experience when I explain this to customers during sessions at workshops and conference, because on the one hand this is such an obvious rule but on the other hand a lot of people are not following it in a consistent fashion.
In simple words: Any time based information should be shown in a horizontal chart and any non-time based information should be shown as vertical chart.
So how can SAP Analytics Cloud help here ? That is the simple part, because SAP Analytics Cloud makes this decision already for you and I think the easiest way to explain it, is to simply show it.
Top 4 - Time Periods
The Top 4 from IBCS is around the time periods, with the recommendations that time periods not only should be differentiated with the labels, but more important the time periods should be visually differentiated in the chart.
In simple terms, the wider the category is shown in the chart, the longer the period. So a value for a calendar year should be wider than a value for the quarter or month.
Here is a simple example:
In the image above you can see that the column for the year is wider than the one for the quarter and the quarter is wider than the month.
Please note that the above is a "constructed chart" as currently SAP Analytics Cloud does not provide the option to configure a different bar / column width in the chart.
I hope you enjoyed this. Next time we will take a look Top 5 (charts) and Top 6 (labels).
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