9 ms·

This is spot on. A KPI is not a number, but rather a number, a direction, and a target. Also, gauges are almost always a terrible visual indicator. Even car

• ams6110 10y ago
  Why are speedometers not good? Speed is analog, seems appropriate to display it in analog. And you can tell at a glance if speed is increasing or decreasing by the direction the dial/indicator is moving.
  • dagw 10y ago
    For what it's worth my current car has both an analog and digital speedometer, and I never look at the analog speedometer anymore. The digital is just so much quicker and easier to read.
    • epynonymous 10y ago
      same here, i'm venturing a guess that you drive a mini?
    • untangle 10y ago
      Look at the HUDs of modern fighters. (I'm familiar with the F/A-18). All digital (except angle of attack, if memory serves). Much easier to parse.
  • jaxn 10y ago
    Sometimes, going 50mph is slow, sometimes it will get you arrested. The position on the dial is completely irrelevant, and is thus noise. The gas gauge however has a permanent meaning. Empty is bad. The Tachometer is also useful if you are driving a manual since you want to keep from redlining and keep from stalling. On almost every business dashboard I have seen, gauges are more like speedometers. People love to put revenue in a gauge. More is better and they usually have a goal that they want to hit. But what happens if they max out the gauge? Do they stop sales? Or do they adjust the gauge to go higher (thus making it even more meaningless and difficult to read).