| Visual merchandising, primarily and most notably a retail | | | | would at least want an aesthetically pleasant |
| term, is the art of optimizing the presentation of a | | | | appearance and less of "clutter", right? |
| product or service in order to stimulate sales. | | | | Then why choose to clutter-your-dashboard? |
| A retailer is looking to create a welcoming and | | | | IMHO, A dashboard is an application, very similar to any |
| comfortable environment for customers by stimulating | | | | website or the ERP or CRM package that you |
| consumer senses through a variety of mechanisms at | | | | probably using on a day to day basis. Why would you |
| its disposal. The benefits are increased foot-fall, | | | | choose to not make it beautiful, at least for selling the |
| positive word-of-mouth promotion, and a returning | | | | concept to your upper management? |
| customer base which all contribute towards improved | | | | So Where do Gauges really help? |
| sales and profitability over an extended term. | | | | Gauges definitely help sell the concept of dashboards |
| This same principle can be applied to dashboards and | | | | to upper management and they definitely help |
| reporting to assure the success of a business | | | | Dashboard vendors sell their products. So the bottom |
| intelligence (BI) implementation. Dashboards and reports | | | | line is, even though you may have best visual |
| are the shop-window and the sales floor into the BI | | | | representation alternatives, Gauges are here to stay. |
| solution as a whole. | | | | There is no point fighting it. |
| If you were running a retail store or a coffee shop, you | | | | |