Data Visualization

Dashboard Gauges Are Still a Terrible Idea!

"Your product doesn't even cover gauges," a customer fumed when she asked for a refund. That's right, because gauges are still a terrible idea.

I recently received a note from a reader who was upset with my e-book, Dashboard Reporting With Excel.

In part, she wrote, “I thought maybe your product might be useful, so for $39.00 I thought I would give it a try. However, after reviewing it, it’s clear that your product doesn’t even cover Gauges. In fact, you don’t even endorse using them.” So she asked for a refund, which I issued immediately, of course.

My resistance to gauges should have come as no surprise to her; my article, Down With Gauges!, has received high Web traffic for years.

In part, I responded that there are at least two good alternatives to gauges.

First, bullet charts, shown here, provide the same information in a space that’s much more compact and easier to read.

Second, as I illustrate in Down With Gauges, area charts with a line plot show trends in data that a gauge would display as individual snapshots. Those trends provide significant information that neither gauges nor bullet charts can.

To illustrate, this example from Down With Gauges shows that performance has been in or near the red zone for a year. But in December, the turnaround looks like it might actually be working.

I also told her about a private discussion several of us Excel MPVs had a while back. We concluded that using gauges is a horrible idea and that even if Excel included gauge-type shapes, it would be unethical to help companies create them. I told her that I could think of only one reason ever to use a gauge: Your boss insists on them.

That’s right. If your boss insists you clutter up your reports or digital displays with those expensive-but-crappy gauges, you have no choice.

But if you DO have a choice, if you want to keep expenses low and make it as easy as possible for your readers to visualize the performance of your company, avoid gauges.