Assessing User-Designed Dashboards: A Case for Developing Data Visualization Competency
Health information dashboards, which are collections of relevant indicator visualizations for management, have become a common feature and strategy for improved information use in the health sector. They should provide any manager with quality information
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Abstract. Health information dashboards, which are collections of relevant indicator visualizations for management, have become a common feature and strategy for improved information use in the health sector. They should provide any manager with quality information in a format that points out the performance of health service provision, and thus necessitate good knowledge of visualization techniques to both develop and interpret. Since health management is a dispersed and decentralized activity, dashboards need to be relevant to varied users, and various administrative levels of the health services. This can be achieved by enabling all users to make their own dashboards, based on the indicators they need, and presented in a suitable manner to track the local priority activities. In this study we examine user-defined dashboards in Indonesia, which has implemented a flexible and open source platform for health management (DHIS2). While the technical flexibility of the platform has been taken advantage of by providing platform customization training, the study finds that the quality of the dashboards created face numerous challenges. These challenges point to poor visualization competence. We conclude by calling for such competence to be addressed by the training curricula, as well as by utilizing existing “best practice” dashboards from WHO now available for the same platform. Keywords: Dashboard design Open source platform Data visualization literacy Capacity building
1 Introduction Ever since the beginning of ICT4D research, the applied domain of health services has been an important topic. This is both due to the importance of health for development, and the wide variety of digitalization efforts seen in the sector. Despite progress and advances in the use of ICT for health development, many problems in diverse program areas remain unaddressed, thus leaving spaces for research and innovations [1, 2]. Design, governance, and sustainability are a recurring set of issues faced by health information systems (HIS) in developing countries [3]. The central focus of our paper concerns the adaptation work needed on a free and open source platform for health management. A platform is by default a half-product [4], where the real value lies in the ability to accommodate tailored solutions on the © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2019 Published by Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 P. Nielsen and H. C. Kimaro (Eds.): ICT4D 2019, IFIP AICT 551, pp. 448–459, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18400-1_37
Assessing User-Designed Dashboards
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more generic and stable core part of the system. Considerable work is typically needed to customize such half-products to any given organizational context. To use such platforms, Msiska and Nielsen [5] argue for the need for diverse capacities related to platform deployment, customization, and use. We do this by looking at the implementation of DHIS2 (District Health Information Software) in Indonesia. This software platform is rooted in a philosophy o
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