Keep it simple stupid

 

JUMPED	THE		THE
OVER	LAZY		QUICK
	DOG	BROWN
		FOX

 

Having full control over the layout of every element and decide where things belong and should go allows the creation of simple and easy to understand layouts.  Above is an example of an old layout used by an electronic scoreboard in the UK, using the words to display the most important bits of information.

Thankfully their current layout is much easier to read and looks a bit like this:

THE	LAZY	DOG
JUMPED	OVER
THE	QUICK
BROWN
FOX

 

Don’t make it jumbled

Put information in lines, from left to right and put the key information across the top will help the learnability of a scoreboard.  It should allow someone who has never seen it before to decipher exactly what is going on and allow them perform simple tasks like answering the question of “What is the score”.

Use lines and blocks

Using lines to create sections for similar types of information can help users cluster together linked statistics and show how the layouts fit together and if certain numbers are to be grouped together, they should line up with each other in the same section.  Another useful tool to keep designs simple and easy to learn is to include words, common abbreviations and symbols to explain what numbers are being shown where.  Words are especially useful when the numbers, or sequence of numbers are often said in a logical manner – eg 123 for 5 off 42 overs.

Using all the space available vs Being too busy

There’s a fine line to walk between including all the data you want to display and making the layout too busy.  Keeping designs simple mean that blank space needs to be included, over-busy designs end up being confusing and hard to read.  However, the need to keep the design well-spaced and clear needs to be weighed up against including lots of information.  The decision between what goes in and what doesn’t is not easy.