The Challenge

Prior to seeking external assistance for data visualisation and reporting, the organisation encountered several challenges. The Information Lab team was tasked with enhancing the visual appeal of dashboards and ensuring they could be seamlessly exported as PDFs. The client had previously made attempts to resolve these issues but lacked expertise in Tableau and data visualisation. Furthermore, the absence of a dedicated data analyst team necessitated external support from The Information Lab to fulfill their requirements. The organisation needed guidance on identifying and cleaning the necessary data quickly as well.

Additionally, they sought to incorporate a map to display their global locations and a timeline to highlight the places that currently needed aid. The dashboards were intended to enable the organisation to effortlessly track the number of locations worldwide, the number of recipients, how long each location needed aid, and the number of meals served. This capability would significantly help in monitoring growth over time, identifying the top locations, sharing relief impacts with external stakeholders, communicating metrics through each location, and understanding key suppliers and recipient types.

Our Solution

To address these challenges, The Information Lab Team implemented a proactive and adaptive strategy. The team primarily utilised Tableau, while also incorporating Tableau Prep into their workflow. Initial discussions with the client provided a comprehensive document detailing the organisation's needs, along with previous dashboards as references for the new designs.

With a tight deadline of three days, the team divided tasks amongst members, focusing on data preparation, visualisation, and planning for the map and master summary pages. Efforts were made to declutter key performance indicators (KPIs) and use icons for clarity. Necessary charts were developed and integrated into the dashboards, and data cleaning was conducted using Tableau Prep. Upon finalizing the dashboard templates, the team prepared a slide deck to present and explain the changes to the client.

The Impact

The implementation of the new dashboard templates has significantly streamlined the client's manual workload, resulting in a reduction of approximately five days of manual effort. This enhancement has enabled the client to save around 25 hours each week. Furthermore, these templates empower the client to meet previously unattainable requirements by presenting data in a clear and efficient manner that surpasses the capabilities of Excel.

By leveraging Tableau, the team has provided advanced mapping tools and customisation options, culminating in an aesthetically pleasing and functional dashboard. Additionally, the dashboards feature a user-friendly button that facilitates easy downloading and exporting of PDFs.

This initiative exemplifies the team's ability to transform stakeholders' initial concepts into tangible solutions within a remarkably short timeframe. As a result, the organisation has successfully implemented dashboard templates that not only enhance efficiency in creating new dashboards but also promote consistent usage across various levels of the organisation