Images or Flags to use in a list comparing 2 metrics ?

[sanchoniathon]

Hi to all,

I have a list comparing 2 metrics and if the first one is greater than the other i need to display a small image like a happy emoticon or a unhappy emoticon image if it's smaller.

QUESTION: Is there some one that knows of any other sharper images available on the web that are usually used in this type report or any personal experience on the type of emitocons or images it uses to display ?

Thanks !

[navissar]

Having a visual representation for values and their relations is an increasing demand, fueled by the market's switch towards business discovery and data discovery. It's also a great opportunity to showcase Cognos' abilities. Using variables, HTML items and other tools, you could achieve beautiful things (Example: I recently created a dashboard measuring sales teams in near real time for a customer. The dashboard includes a picture long road, and for each sales team a car is displayed on the road, where the sales team that's ranked first in sales is the nearest car and the one ranked last is the farthest. This is totally dynamic so cars change their locations throughout the day).
The question that you asked is one of the questions I present a customer with when asked to pull something of this sort off. There are basically three options:
1. The customer has a graphic designer or a graphics team or has/is willing to retain a graphic professional from the outside. This is generally true for companies in the web industry, for instance. In such a case, I ask the customer to have their graphic professionals create images to their specifications.
2. The customer doesn't have access to a professional but is willing to pay for images. There are literally hundreds of thousands of images and icons you can easily find on the Internet, and often the people who created them sell them for a small amount. Then, it's just a question of browse, find something you like, and pay up.
3. The customer isn't willing to pay for images. In this case, you'll need to find free images on line. You can find these, but it is VERY important that you make absolutely sure that the license they are given under is free to use for commercial use (Many times images will be free for the private users, but the creator would ask for payment from a company). I usually start with the string "images <whatever I'm looking for> free" on Google and take it from there.

[sanchoniathon]

(Example: I recently created a dashboard measuring sales teams in near real time for a customer. The dashboard includes a picture long road, and for each sales team a car is displayed on the road, where the sales team that's ranked first in sales is the nearest car and the one ranked last is the farthest. This is totally dynamic so cars change their locations throughout the day).
===> Wow that seems awsome in deed. In my case, for the moment, i will stick for the for a simple green flag or a red error icon for example (or simple UP and DOWN arrows) as for the comparison is made between 2 metrics of a specifi list.
:-[


Excellent suggestion Nimrod as for i will continue surfing the web on that.

:)

[Lynn]

Color blindness might be worth considering when choosing icons to denote performance.

Thumbs up/down or arrow up/down images are another option to consider.

http://www.colour-blindness.com/general/prevalence/

[navissar]

Lynn,
Since this medium is somewhat limited, please imagine that I'm starting a slow-clap for your last comment.
Maybe one day I'll tell the story of the customer who wanted their system to have light purple text over violet background, and the employee who was sure his screen was empty.

[Lynn]

... light purple text over violet background ...

I can only assume your client was a 10-year-old girl  ;D

[sanchoniathon]

:D

[qvixote]

Hey, Nimrod!

I have a question for you about the road and cars chart you described. What type of chart did you used to achieve that result?

[navissar]

No chart. 5 images of vehicles, one background image of road.
in a hidden list I kept the sales team ordered by sales descending (So best selling team is first).
I created 5 CSS classes, each class defined a location on the road and a size (Because obviously cars farther should be smaller).
I inserted the images to the block where the road was background, and gave each image an ID that is identical to the name of the sales team (Using HTML).
Using JS, I assign a class to each image, so the image with the ID of the sales team in the first place would be "1st place" and it will be located nearest the user on the road, and so on.
Every time the report is refreshed for data, the JS runs again.

There's a way to make this dynamic (For n sales team) but i didn't need to this time and couldn't be bothered with it.

[qvixote]

Oh, I see! A fantastic idea. Thanks for sharing it!