How do you evaluate the usability and usefulness of system monitoring dashboards and reports?

System monitoring is the process of collecting, analyzing, and displaying data about the performance, availability, and health of your IT systems and applications. System monitoring dashboards and reports are the tools that help you visualize and communicate this data to various stakeholders, such as system administrators, developers, managers, and customers. But how do you evaluate the usability and usefulness of these dashboards and reports? In this article, we will discuss some criteria and best practices for designing and assessing effective system monitoring dashboards and reports.

1 Define your goals and audience

Before you create or evaluate a system monitoring dashboard or report, you need to define your goals and audience. What are the key questions that you want to answer with the data? What are the metrics and indicators that matter most for your goals? Who are the intended users and consumers of the dashboard or report? What are their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? How will they access and interact with the dashboard or report? By answering these questions, you can tailor your dashboard or report to the specific needs and preferences of your audience and align it with your objectives.

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2 Choose the right data and visualization

Once you have defined your goals and audience, you need to choose the right data and visualization for your system monitoring dashboard or report. The data should be relevant, accurate, timely, and consistent. You should avoid displaying too much or too little data, or data that is outdated, unreliable, or contradictory. The visualization should be clear, concise, and intuitive. You should use appropriate charts, graphs, tables, maps, or gauges to display the data in a way that is easy to understand and compare. You should also use colors, labels, legends, filters, and tooltips to enhance the readability and interactivity of the visualization.

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Asif Shafi

Senior Automation Engineer at General Dynamics Mission Systems
Ensure non production systems, such as dev, QA, test etc are not included in these visualizations. Since dev systems are usually under resourced, they might skew the optics.
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3 Follow design principles and standards

When evaluating the usability and usefulness of system monitoring dashboards and reports, it is important to follow design principles and standards. These guidelines and best practices help create a consistent, coherent, and attractive layout and appearance. Balance, contrast, repetition, proximity, alignment, and simplicity are all key principles to consider when designing your dashboards and reports. Balance involves using white space, alignment, and symmetry for a harmonious layout. Contrast involves using different sizes, shapes, colors, and fonts for emphasis and hierarchy. Repetition involves using similar elements like icons or logos for unity. Proximity involves spacing, grouping, and borders to create relationships. Alignment involves grids, rules, and guides for order. Lastly, simplicity involves minimalism, clarity, and focus for an elegant design.

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Fraser McCallum
Think about what information is critical to the audience for this monitoring and positioned that to be unmissable. It's no good if your dashboard looks pretty and is easy to read if the information most required has been pushed off the front page.
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4 Test and iterate

The final step of evaluating the usability and usefulness of system monitoring dashboards and reports is testing and iterating. This involves gathering feedback, measuring results, and making improvements based on the data and user experience. You can use various methods and tools to do this, such as user testing, surveys, analytics, and A/B testing. Testing and iterating your dashboards and reports allows you to identify any issues or gaps, optimize your performance and conversion, and enhance your user satisfaction and loyalty.

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5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How do you evaluate the usability and usefulness of system monitoring dashboards and reports?

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1 Define your goals and audience

2 Choose the right data and visualization

3 Follow design principles and standards

4 Test and iterate

5 Here’s what else to consider

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