Smooth bottoms and dashboard design

Most people don’t look at the bottom of their laptop. If they do then they will see one of two things:

If it’s a Apple Mac the bottom with be smooth and (with the latest ones) completely featureless apart from four rounded rubber feet.

If it’s a PC it will have little hatches, a Microsoft “Authentic” sticker, air vents, stiffening ridges, little rubber feet, a couple of barcodes and a big sticker telling you lots about what is inside.

Why the difference? Well, it makes a lot more sense to build your laptop the way most PC manufacturers do, IF your primary concern is ease of manufacture and cost. Apple’s approach is hugely problematic for the manufacturer, requiring some cunning engineering, a whole lot more manufacturing expense and cost to the consumer.

The thing is, customers seem to like the oh-so-hard to make super minimalism of the Mac.

Why am I going on about this is a blog about dashboards? The moral is simple, just because it makes sense for your production team to report in a certain way does not mean that’s what the report/dashboard customer wants. Maybe it’s time to be completely unreasonable about how you want your dashboards and reports to look?

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