Report UI design

[haroldholt]

Difficult to explain precisely what I am after but does anyone here have a link to some examples of visually presentable (i.e. stunning) reports ?

The background is that I am being tasked with creating some user-friendly/visually impressive reports - along the lines of 'you create it and we'll let you know what we think', sound familiar ?

I am not a visual graphic designer so all my reports look like they came out of an old '80s line printer

I have books on application UI design but report output design is of course another matter because its usually destined for a printer

I am not after a 'how-to-use' guide to SSRS, either basic or advanced, I'm not after code, I'm not after the reports that come with SSRS (or indeed anything published by a vendor) and no I can't supply more specific information - because I don't have any

I don't really care how vague the answer is because the question is completely and unabashedly open-ended

Final note - please don't just tell me to use a search engine! I've already done a fair amount of looking around, what I am really after is some hidden gem on the web or a book resource that I have missed - any other recommendations gratefully received

thanks

 

[Levora]

Hi,

I'm using the dundas chart, gauges and maps. They look great and easy to use, you'll make a great impression.

http://www.dundas.com

good luck

Andre

 

[haroldholt]

Thanks for the link, they certainly look very nice. Anyone got a link to an example of SSRS report that visually rocks their world ? or perhaps a book or a URL on report presentation guidelines ?

 

[xlbo]

graphical report presentation is user and business specific pretty much. I could cut n paste some stuff I have done that the folks here love but that doesn't mean that your users / business will like it...

Some tips for general graphic design:

Use "company colours"
Use a consistent font throughout
Don't crowd the page
Use different schemes for headers / data
Group data into related blocks

DON'T
use any colour gradients on charts
use lots of different colours throughout
use lots of "funky" chart types - they're just hard to read (Dundas make good charts but use the most appropriate type and use it sparingly)
use a coloured background with coloured text - may look good on screen but black and white prints will be ahrd to read


Rgds, Geoff

We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colours but they all live in the same box.

Please read FAQ222-2244 before you ask a question

 

[haroldholt]

Thanks for this, useful and much appreciated and hey, please, feel free to cut and paste anything you like

I have a company standard written a few months ago for report layouts - but it doesn't really cover things to a fine enough detail for my use. I have 'improved' on it to a certain extent but as I say, I'm not really a graphic designer so the reports I have produced still look pretty average.

What I intend doing in the near future is having a standard that covers as much as makes sense e.g. the standard footer that has all the stuff I want page x of y, person who ran the report, time it was last printed, report name, company logo, company slogan etc etc, web friendly colours for column headings, standard fonts and point sizes Verdana 8 to 10 or whatever and then create a set of NUnit/XMLUnit tests that will check and optionally correct any non-standard UI components in the RDL - I've done this before, just not for RS reports - then as one of the last things I do would be to run my NUnit tests against a set of reports and presto if they obey the standard then they get approved for transfer from development to testing.

cheers

 

[Jacque]

I'm a late comer to this thread but I agree with Geoff's do's and don'ts and would add a few of my own.

Do's:

Create a template report with your standard formatting, parameters and section properties, this will make new report development so much faster.

Use a standard font that is available on most printers.

Use standard margin settings.

Set up truncation and formatting display conventions.
(Example: if the report contains the name of more than one person, use the format "LastName, FirstName" otherwise use "FirstName LastName")

Use System default date, time or date time settings, this will assist with any future internationalize efforts.

Column headers should appear at the top of every page (with few exceptions).

Field labels should be followed by a colon (example

Use boxes and lines sparingly.

Include a text string when no records are returned.

Don'ts:

Don't include "Report" in the title, it's redundant.

Don't pluralize column headers.

Don't use page # of #, for reporting tools which use page on demand, it requires that all of the data is process before displaying page 1 which makes the report appear to run/process slowly.

 

[haroldholt]

Thanks for this - dos and don'ts are fine, without wishing to seem ungrateful I guess having worked with SSRS for the past 4 years or so I know pretty much all of these by now (my starting point being

http://www.ssw.com.au)

and I have a standard set of templates which I now use when I move from contract to contract that cover standard things such as putting up messages when there are no rows returned, displaying multi-valued parameters, code blocks for iif divide-by-zero issues, use of User!Language for internationalization and all the other work arounds and gotchas we have come to know and love ;-) I have however found that my reports are not what I would call visually appealing and THAT is where I need to focus my efforts in order to move to the next level.

have a good one
ujb

 

[Jacque]

Are your users internal customers or clients? That makes a difference in design sensibilities. I have found that my internal users are usually pickier than external clients. I have a book or two (at home) that I'd recommend, I'll give you the names tomorrow.