diff --git a/docs/dashboards_body.md b/docs/dashboards_body.md index 6be890b..48848d3 100644 --- a/docs/dashboards_body.md +++ b/docs/dashboards_body.md @@ -1,35 +1,62 @@ # Some Thoughts On Dashboards -What's a *dashboard*? In the context of visualization, it's a summary. It's described -as something the boss reads regularly to get an overview of how things are going. -I've never written anything like that. +What's a *dashboard*? In the context of visualization, it's a summary. +You've heard Tableau displays described as dashboards when they show a lot of intercconnected views +of the same information. -Instead, let's use it to mean the summary you bring to your research group when new data -becomes available. -* It has a standard form. -* It describes some new experiment in the context of previous experiments. +You'll hear a short description by Prof. Barber describing a dashboard as something the boss looks +at as sort of an ongoing status report. + + +Here's a different model. When you work on a long term project, the people on your team need to +track overall progress. Let's talk about it in that context. + + + +## Imagine you work on a research project + +It will go on for months or years, and there a big team. Every week or two, there is a meeting +in which all the leaders get together for a status check. + +This is the rhythm of things in real projects. + +The 'dashboard' here is the visualization you prepare to update the team on the week's news. + + +You are the team's data scientist. The project is accumulating data, and each week's data +(hopefully) improves knowledge of the thing being studied. But some experiments don't work, +and in any given week you make only a little progress on the overall data analysis. + + + +## What do you show your team? + +* It has a standard form, to avoid explaining things again and again. +* It describes some new data in the context of previous data. * It tells the group what they need to know to decide on the next steps. -I've written *that* kind of dashboard several times. +I've written *this* kind of dashboard several times. + -An important rule of thumb: +## An important rule of thumb: * You are the only person who sees 90% of the vis you do. * Of the remaining 10%, 90% is for your group. * 1% of the time, the visualization will be shown to the world in a paper or at a conference. -The 'dashboard' is for the ~10% that is shown to your group. +The 'dashboard' is part of the ~10% that is shown to your group. -So what should that sort of dashboard or summary be like? - - - -Let's discuss in the context of a specific example- a fMRI brain imaging experiment. A new group -of subjects have been scanned and analyzed. What do we need to present, and what can be omitted? +## Example: A fMRI brain imaging experiment. +* Over the course of a year, maybe 100 subjects get scanned. +* Male and female, test and control. + * (Probably all are right handed!) + * For the project I was on, test and control were 'Concussed' and 'Recovered' +* A few scans each week. +* Some subjects drop out, some scans fail. ### Guiding questions @@ -38,16 +65,22 @@ happened with this most recent set of subjects. How do these subjects fit in to the larger group? -* Are they 'typical', or do they differ somehow? * What fraction of the total subjects do they represent? -This suggests a scatter plot, or just a summary table. +* Are they 'typical', or do they differ somehow? + + +![How many new subjects of what types?](images/dashboard_status_fig.png) How does the data look? * What fraction had to be discarded, and (briefly) why? * Were these experiments atypical in any way? + Sometimes the scanner doesn't work properly, sometimes the subjects fall asleep. -Probably bar charts here? +Bar charts or a table here? + + +![How did these experiments go?](images/dashboard_qual_tbl.png) * What do the in-group results look like? @@ -57,13 +90,21 @@ Probably bar charts here? For this fMRI experiment, this might be activation maps or charts of activation by brain area. +### The New Subjects +![These two subjects](images/dashboard_two_subj.png) + + +### In Context +![All the subjects](images/dashboard_all_subj.png) + + ### What Not To Show -Some data should not appear at the top level. People will want to *drill down* to see the details +Some data should not appear at the top level. People may want to *drill down* to see the details in some cases. -An fMRI example: curves of head motion tracking. Uncorrected head motion makes leads to bad data, +An fMRI example: curves of head motion tracking. Uncorrected head motion leads to bad data, so people want to see the curves- but not at the top level. @@ -72,7 +113,8 @@ Fancy controls and interface elements should probably not be used. * They are great to look at the first few times, but by the 10th or 20th meeting they are annoying. -If your group has a logo, show it but keep it small. +If your group has a logo, show it but keep it small. Everybody already knows what group +meeting they are in! diff --git a/docs/images/dashboard_all_subj.png b/docs/images/dashboard_all_subj.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb39150 Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/images/dashboard_all_subj.png differ diff --git a/docs/images/dashboard_qual_tbl.png b/docs/images/dashboard_qual_tbl.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0d1ba0 Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/images/dashboard_qual_tbl.png differ diff --git a/docs/images/dashboard_status_fig.png b/docs/images/dashboard_status_fig.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4fdebe5 Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/images/dashboard_status_fig.png differ diff --git a/docs/images/dashboard_two_subj.png b/docs/images/dashboard_two_subj.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..47b2e7b Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/images/dashboard_two_subj.png differ